Troubleshooting

These guides are for the moment something stops working. Each one starts with the checks that are safe to do yourself, in the order we would do them, and then explains the parts that usually fail and why they need a technician.

Safety comes first in every guide. If you smell gas, do not try to light anything or flip switches: leave the house and call your gas utility from outside.

If the simple checks do not fix it, the diagnostic visit is free: we find the cause and give you the price of the repair before any work starts. Repair ranges from our online calculator are in each guide, so you know what to expect before you call. We arrive at a time agreed in advance and are 30 to 60 minutes from any city we serve.

Which guide to read first

• Furnace running but not heating: four checks in ten minutes (the filter, the thermostat, the gas supply and the blower), what usually fails after that, and what to tell us when you call. It also covers what to check if you have a heat pump instead.
• Gas fireplace will not light but the pilot is on: the switch, remote and receiver batteries you can check yourself, and the three parts behind it that need a technician: a weak pilot, the thermopile or thermocouple, and the gas valve or its control module.

Details that save a trip: the brand and model from the label on the equipment (a phone photo of the label is perfect), what happens when you press the switch or change the thermostat, and when the system was last serviced, if you know.