Furnace Repair in Livingston, MT
If your furnace quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Park County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Livingston asks a furnace to run every month of the year
Winter nights here average 13°F from December through February, and the furnace has to make up that difference the whole night through. That means long burner cycles, night after night, with the igniter and the burner assembly working harder to keep the house warm. When the igniter starts to wear out, the furnace won't light at all, and you notice right away because the house doesn't hold heat like it should.
Park County also sees its share of winter storms and damaging wind, and Montana households often lose power during them. A furnace that loses power mid-cycle has to restart cold, and if it was already struggling to light or stay lit, an outage is often what pushes it the rest of the way to a breakdown.
- 13°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 175 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 Park County home.
Estimates for a typical Park 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 Department of Labor and Industry tests and records the contractor, not the job. Once a contractor holds that license, it covers them for the work, not for each visit separately. Montana also sets a line at $2,500. Work under that does not need a licensed contractor at all, so where a furnace repair falls depends on what the job turns out to need.
A furnace repair is often a single part failing, and jobs that size can land under that $2,500 line. When that happens, the license requirement does not apply. Gas connections are the part that matters most on a furnace repair, since a bad one is what makes the job dangerous rather than just inconvenient. In Park County, 44.1% of homes heat with gas, so this is a common job here.
Source: Montana Legislature
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Start with the thermostat. Check that it's set to heat and the temperature is set above room temperature, and change the batteries if it uses them. If the thermostat looks fine, check the furnace switch, usually a light switch near the unit, and the breaker at your panel. Furnaces also won't start if the air filter is badly clogged or if a safety switch has tripped, and those need a contractor to sort out. With winter lows here averaging 13°F, a furnace that won't start is worth getting looked at the same day.
- 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 for longer than that, the igniter or flame sensor may be failing to light the burners at all, so the blower is pushing unheated air through the ducts. A dirty filter can also cause this by blocking airflow across the heat exchanger. A contractor can test the igniter and flame sensor directly to find which one is the problem.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- The thermocouple is usually the cause. It's the small sensor that sits in the pilot flame and tells the gas valve the flame is lit. When it wears out or sits out of position, it shuts the gas valve off even though the pilot was burning fine. A draft blowing across the pilot or a dirty pilot orifice can also put it out. Since gas is involved, this is a repair for a licensed contractor rather than something to keep relighting yourself.