Furnace Repair in Helena, MT
Furnaces here run from September through June. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Lewis and Clark County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Ten months of heat puts real hours on your furnace
In Helena, your furnace runs from September through June. That's ten months of the year it has to work, with winter nights averaging 15°F from December through February. On those nights the burner is cycling on and off for hours at a stretch, and every start puts wear on the igniter and the flame sensor. When one of those gives out, the furnace either won't light at all or shuts down partway through the cycle.
Lewis and Clark County has seen 77 winter storms and 151 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and outages come with them. Most furnaces need power to run the blower and ignition system even on gas heat, so when the power goes out, so does the furnace, until it comes back on.
- 10 months
- September through June, your furnace is on duty
- 15°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 57%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 77 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace would cut about $100 a year off heating for a typical Lewis and Clark County home.
Estimates for a typical Lewis and Clark 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.
The Department of Labor and Industry issues the license, and it covers the contractor's business, not the particular job at your house. It means the state tested them and keeps them on record before they can take on work like this. Montana does not require a licensed contractor for work under $2,500.
A furnace repair can land on either side of that line depending on what's wrong with the unit. Above $2,500, the license is what stands behind the person doing the work. Gas furnaces heat 56.6% of homes in Lewis and Clark County, and the gas connection is the part of this job where a mistake actually matters.
Source: Montana Legislature
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- The thermostat is the first thing to check. Make sure it's set to heat and the set temperature is above room temperature, and check that its batteries aren't dead. If the thermostat looks fine, check the furnace switch, usually mounted on or near the unit itself, and the breaker for the furnace circuit. Many furnaces also won't start if the air filter is badly clogged, since the system reads that as a safety issue. If none of that gets it going, a contractor can check the igniter, the flame sensor, and the control board.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most furnaces run the blower for a short time before the burners light, so a little cool air at startup is normal. If cold air keeps coming the whole time it runs, the burners likely aren't lighting at all, even though the fan is moving air through the ducts. A dirty flame sensor is a common cause of this. A clogged filter can also choke off airflow enough to trip a high limit switch and shut the burners down while the fan keeps running. Either way, this isn't something to leave alone through a Helena winter, since nights here average 15°F from December through February.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This usually comes down to the thermocouple, the small sensor that tells the gas valve a flame is actually present. When it wears out or sits out of position, the valve shuts the gas off soon after you light the pilot, since it can't confirm the flame is burning. A draft blowing across the pilot can cause the same problem, so check whether air is reaching it from a vent or a gap somewhere nearby. Standing pilot systems like this don't use electricity, so a power outage isn't the cause. If relighting it doesn't hold, the thermocouple likely needs replacing, and that's a job for a licensed contractor.