4 Tips on What to Do if Your Furnace Won't Turn On | Smile HVAC
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Furnaces | 5 Min

What to Do if Your Furnace Won’t Turn On

Written by Chris

Furnaces are useful for keeping your home warm during chilly, cold nights and especially during the winter season. A furnace can regulate extremely frigid temperatures. As well, a furnace makes sure that pure air is filtered and circulated all the time so that you do not have to live in a home with stale air.

What to do if your furnace won’t turn on?

It can be frustrating if it gets to the winter season and your furnace won’t even turn on. Since you now know the common issues and how to handle them, let’s look at four things you can do if your furnace won’t turn on.

1. Check your circuit breakers and thermostat

checking the circuits of the furnace to turn it back on

Various components of your furnace run on electricity and need power to run – even if you are using a propane or gas furnace. If your furnace fails to turn on, the circuit breaker could be turned off. You can look to your circuit breaker panel to see if all of the switches are set on. If the circuit breakers are not the issue, it could be the thermostat. There are some thermostats that would lose their programming and reset if they lost power, even briefly. For this, you can identify if the thermostat has power, make sure the thermostat is on, and also, ensure that the thermostat is on the “heating” mode.

2. Check the drain pan and air filter

water drip pan of furnace

Drain pans (also known as condensate pans) collect water that has been removed from the air by your furnace or air conditioner. Since furnaces produce condensation, they will probably have a condensation pump and float switch. When everything is working correctly, the water should be pumped or drained out. If the water is not drained out, the float switch will be triggered which could stop your furnace from turning on. To address this, you have to make sure your drain is clear and make sure the float switch is in the down position. Similarly, if your air filter is clogged, a safety feature could be ensuring your furnace does not turn on, so you can replace the air filter to fix this.

3. Check your pilot light and gas, propane, or oil supply.

checking pilot light of furnace

A lot of furnaces will not turn on if the pilot light is out. The pilot light can go out of propane or gas flow to the pilot light is disrupted. The pilot light will need to be relit. Lastly, a lack of fuel could be the culprit for your furnace not turning on. A way for you to check if that is the issue is by trying to use another gas appliance, like your stove. If you notice that your stove is not working, then you can get your propane tank filled.

4. Call an expert

Furnace repair near you - Smile HVAC

Dealing with furnace issues can be stressful so, it’s always better to call an expert – a professional HVAC technician – to help you fix any furnace issues. Your safety is important, and a professional HVAC technician can handle any furnace issue without compromising your health and safety. Call Smile HVAC for a furnace repair in Toronto and GTA region. Our support team will give you estimates before we come so you will know the approximate price upfront. Our technicians will check your equipment and fix it very fast.