When the heat goes out in Mountain View, CA, the clock starts running, and the diagnosis depends entirely on what kind of system is doing the failing. On a gas furnace, the single most frequent culprit is a flame sensor coated in oxide: the burners light, the sensor cannot prove the flame, and the board shuts the gas down three tries later and locks out. Close behind come cracked hot surface igniters, stuck pressure switches, clogged condensate traps on high-efficiency models, and blower motors that have quietly worn out. Heat pumps fail differently: a weak defrost cycle leaves the outdoor coil buried under frost, a failed reversing valve strands the system in cooling, and a dead outdoor unit leaves the electric backup strips carrying the whole house at several times the operating cost.
Our most requested repair is Furnace Repair. If something has stopped working, start there.
Warning Signs for Heating Repair
The sooner you notice these red flags, the easier and cheaper the fix. Keep an eye out for the following clues:
- No warm air at the registers even with the heat turned up
- Uneven heat, with certain rooms that never warm up
- Frequent on-off cycles that never bring rooms up to temperature
- Heating bills spiking while comfort keeps falling
- An outdoor heat pump coil that stays iced over
- Banging at startup caused by burners lighting late
- A rotten-egg, burning, or musty smell once the heat kicks on
- The furnace clicking and trying to light but shutting back down
Don't Wait for a Total Failure
What seems like a minor issue today can take out a compressor or heat exchanger tomorrow. Call (650) 220-0820 at the first sign of trouble.
