How To Tell What’s Wrong With Your Furnace

The furnace plays the essential role of ensuring your home remains warm and comfortable during cold winter months. Like every other piece of equipment created by man, the furnace will, at some point, start to show some signs of wear. As a homeowner, knowing these signs in advance is essential as it prevents your home from getting cold due to an unforeseen furnace breakdown. This is something you wouldn’t want to experience in the harsh winter as it’s not only uncomfortable but can also cause damage to your home by causing issues, such as burst pipes.

But, how can you tell something’s wrong with your furnace? If you’re searching for insights on this matter, here’s a guide on the early signs that all may not be well with your furnace:

1. Cold Spots In Your Home

The furnace’s primary purpose is to keep your home warm even as the temperatures outside are falling. Should your furnace struggle to do this throughout your house, this is a clear sign that you need to schedule a professional furnace repair. This issue might be caused by your furnace struggling to push warm air through the vent system. The main reason why this might happen is due to a problem with the blower fan’s motor, which might have malfunctioned.

Due to this, the furnace lacks the power needed to warm all the areas in your home. As a result, you’ll notice cold spots in certain areas of your home. In scenarios wherein your furnace can’t completely generate warm air, then the issue might be with the pilot light or heat exchanger. To resolve this issue, you’ll need to hire a qualified professional to restore the furnace.

2. The Furnace Keeps Switching On And Off

Another way to tell your furnace may be malfunctioning is if it often keeps turning on and off without attaining the temperature set on the thermostat. This is usually due to overheating, caused by the lack of enough airflow to the furnace due to clogged filters. As a result, furnaces that come with a built-in safety switch will automatically switch off each time the temperatures become incredibly high.

To rectify this issue, you need to install new air filters in place of the clogged filters. This will allow the smooth flow of air into the furnace, thereby preventing it from overheating. As a result, it will stop turning on and off. However, you should call an HVAC professional technician to inspect your furnace further if it continues switching on and off even after changing the air filter.

3. Discolored Pilot Light

The pilot light is the small flame that remains on at all times and acts as the gas burner’s ignition flame. When working correctly, the pilot light emits a blue

-0colored flam, which shows that it’s receiving adequate air for combusting the used fuel. But, when working as expected, the pilot light emits a yellow-colored flame. If you notice this, then the issue might be that there might be an issue with airflow in the combustion chamber.

The yellow pilot light could also sign that the furnace might be leaking carbon monoxide, which is a very toxic gas. This usually happens because of the incomplete combustion of the gas.

4. Furnace Is Producing Weird Noises

Although it’s normal for furnaces to produce some noise while running, you need to schedule a furnace repair when the noises reach an alarming level. This is vital as it’s a clear sign that something in the furnace should be inspected, repaired, or replaced. The main reason for this increased rumbling sound by your furnace may be that some mechanical parts inside are loose. If the noises sound like excessive scrapping or humming, loose connections might be in the blower motor.

When you start hearing such sounds, you should immediately get a professional technician to fix the issue.

5. Poor Air Quality

The furnace directly impacts your home’s air quality. It does an excellent job of doing this, thanks to the air filters integrated into them. But, if your furnace isn’t well-maintained, you’ll start to see a lot of dust floating in your home due to the increased passage of dirt, bacteria, plus other foreign particles. As a result, you and everyone in your home often start suffering from colds, coughs, and other respiratory infections. This greater number of foreign particles also means any loved one with allergies will start showing symptoms, such as headache, watery eyes, and itchiness.

For this issue to be restored, you should replace the air filter or schedule a unit and ductwork cleanup.

Takeaway

Do you suspect that your furnace isn’t working correctly? If so, mentioned above are the signs you need to watch out for as they indicate that you need to install a new furnace. This is the only way you can guarantee your home remains warm, especially during winter, and safeguard everyone’s wellbeing in your home.