Furnace Repair in Great Falls, MT
Furnaces here run from September through June. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Cascade County will get in touch.
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Ten months of heat puts real wear on a Great Falls furnace
Your furnace runs from September through June here, ten months a year. On winter nights averaging 16°F, it fires up again and again just to hold the house steady. That kind of cycling wears on the igniter and the flame sensor faster than a place with a short winter ever would.
Most homes in Cascade County heat with gas, and that furnace is doing the real work all winter. Great Falls has logged 32 winter storms and 134 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and wind like that knocks out power more than people expect. When the power drops, the furnace stops with it, and it needs that power to relight when things come back on.
- 10 months
- September through June, your furnace is on duty
- 16°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 72%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 32 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace would cut about $90 a year off heating for a typical Cascade County home.
Estimates for a typical Cascade County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Montana fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Repair makes sense when one part has failed and the heat exchanger is sound.
Replacement makes sense when the heat exchanger is cracked or the furnace keeps needing parts.
Montana requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
Montana's license is issued through the Department of Labor and Industry, and it covers the contractor, not the job in front of you. The state tested this person and keeps a record of them, apart from whatever repair is happening at your house today. There is one carve-out worth knowing. Work under $2,500 does not need a licensed contractor, so a smaller furnace repair can fall outside that requirement.
A furnace repair means someone working around a gas line, and a loose or bad connection there is the part that actually matters. Where the job falls under that $2,500 line, the state license is not what stands behind the work. With 72.4% of homes in Cascade County heating with gas, that connection is the part worth getting right.
Source: Montana Legislature
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Most of the time it's the thermostat, the power to the unit, or the igniter. Check that the thermostat is set to heat and above room temperature, and check the breaker. If those are fine, the igniter may have failed, which is a common part to wear out and stop glowing hot enough to light the burners. With winter lows here averaging 16°F, it's worth getting a furnace that won't start looked at right away rather than waiting.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Air blows cold for a few minutes when the furnace first starts, since the blower runs before the burners have warmed the air. If it stays cold, the burners aren't lighting even though the fan is running. That points to the igniter, the flame sensor, or the gas supply not reaching the burners. A dirty filter can also choke airflow enough that the air feels cool by the time it reaches the vents.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- A pilot light that keeps going out is usually the thermocouple, the small sensor that tells the gas valve the flame is lit. When it wears out or sits out of position, it reads no flame even when there is one, and the valve shuts the gas off. A draft blowing across the pilot or a partly clogged pilot orifice can cause the same thing. Since a standing pilot doesn't need power to run, this failure has nothing to do with outages, only the part itself.