When it comes to heating repairs, most homeowners are familiar with common issues like a malfunctioning thermostat, a clogged filter, or a faulty pilot light. We’ve all been there at one point or another, but heating systems can encounter less common issues that’ll catch you by surprise from time to time. Let’s take a look at some unlikely but still possible problems that’ll result in heater repair services.
A Cracked Heat Exchanger
While most homeowners won’t have to deal with this throughout their furnace’s life, it’s a possibility, especially if you inherited the furnace from a previous homeowner and haven’t had it inspected.
When a heat exchanger has cracks, it can release harmful gases like carbon monoxide into your home, which can be potentially fatal if left unchecked. The real kicker is that many times, you can’t even see the cracks with the naked eye.
Cracks can either be at an angle where you don’t notice them, or be so small that you’d need a magnifying glass and a keen eye to even spot them, but that doesn’t mean harmful gases can’t escape through them into your home’s air supply.
Thermocouple Issue
What’s a thermocouple, you might ask? It’s a critical component in a gas furnace and a safety device that monitors the temperature of your unit. This is important because–and hear us out–your furnace can overheat.
If it overheats, it can impact the area around the furnace and potentially cause a hazard to your health. Its job is to shut down the furnace if it approaches dangerous territory like this, but if it’s busted, it may just keep your furnace from powering up in the first place.
Differential Expansion
It’s called differential expansion because it’s true and because there’s no snappier name for it. This occurs in boilers when multiple components heat up at the same time but at varying rates. Instead of the whole system’s temperature rising steadily and at a pace all components can get behind, it causes stress to the system.
Since you’re not likely to really know when different parts of your boiler are behaving like this, we’ll tell you what it leads to–more frequent system breakdowns. Because this targets multiple areas in your boiler, it’s impossible to say which one will be the most impacted, but if it runs out the clock on your boiler’s available wear and tear, it isn’t good.
Flame Sensor Issues
A flame sensor helps detect whether there is or is not a flame, and if there isn’t, it restricts the flow of gas from your gas line so it doesn’t just bleed into the air of your home. At that point, it can pose an issue to your health or lead to an extreme risk of explosions. If your flame sensor isn’t able to detect a flame, it shuts down to protect you, but it also makes the furnace unusable until it’s been cleaned or replaced.
What’s the Deal With Your Heater? Let’s Find Out
It’s time to take a peek at your heater and see if the problem is one of the uncommon ones on this list, or if we’re looking at a much bigger fish to fry. Either way, we’re up to the challenge and ready to help–just give us a call to get started.
Contact Facemyer Air Conditioning and Heating today to schedule your heater repair as soon as possible.