Furnace Repair in Lewistown, MT
Furnaces here run from September through June. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Fergus County will get in touch.
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Ten months of heat a year wears a furnace down
Lewistown only gets a break from heat for two months. The rest of the year, September through June, your furnace is the thing standing between you and a 14 degree night. That kind of run time adds up on the igniter and the burner faster than it would somewhere milder.
The cold snaps are only part of it. Fergus County has logged 28 winter storms and 147 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and storms like that knock out power. When the power drops, so does your furnace, and it needs to come back on and relight on its own once it's restored. If it doesn't, you will know by how fast the house cools down.
- 10 months
- September through June, your furnace is on duty
- 14°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 28 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 Fergus County home.
Estimates for a typical Fergus 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 license comes from the Department of Labor and Industry, and it covers the contractor rather than any single job. That means the state has tested the person or business before they can take on your furnace repair, and keeps a record of them separate from whatever invoice you get when the work is done.
For a furnace repair, that license is what stands behind the work. Montana carves out an exception for jobs under $2,500, so a small repair may fall outside the licensing requirement, but anything at or above that has to go through a licensed contractor. Gas furnace work means checking the connection for leaks, since that is the part that turns a repair dangerous, and in Montana the license is what puts a tested contractor in charge of that check. Close to half the homes in Fergus County heat with gas, so this is not a rare repair here.
Source: Montana Legislature
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Check the thermostat first. If the display is blank or the setting doesn't match the room temperature, the furnace never gets the signal to start. Next check the power switch on or near the furnace, and the breaker at your panel. If those are fine, the igniter may have failed, or a safety switch may be holding the furnace off because of a clogged filter or a blocked vent. A contractor can test the igniter and the safety switches to find which one it is.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most often the blower is running before the burners have caught up, which is normal for a few minutes after startup. If cold air keeps coming, the igniter or flame sensor may be failing, so the burners never light and the blower just moves unheated air through the ducts. A dirty filter can also make this worse by cutting off airflow the furnace needs to run its heating cycle. With winter nights here averaging 14°F, a furnace stuck blowing cold air needs attention right away.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- The thermocouple is the usual cause. It's a small sensor that sits in the pilot flame and tells the gas valve the pilot is lit. When it wears out or sits slightly out of position, it reads the flame as out and shuts the gas valve even though the pilot is burning. A draft blowing across the pilot or a partly clogged pilot tube can also put it out. A contractor can test the thermocouple and clean or adjust the pilot assembly.