You may not believe it, but winter is approaching in Colorado. As warm as September was and October promises to be, January will still be cold, and you want to make sure you have a working furnace at that time.
At a minimum, that means having a technician come out and service your furnace to help it keep in good working order. However, it might also mean being ready to replace your furnace. But how do you know when it might be time to replace your furnace? Here are some of the most common signs that your furnace might need to be replaced, or at least repaired.
Furnace Noises
Your furnace should operate relatively quietly. No furnace is silent, but a modern furnace should be quiet. When the furnace comes on, you should be able to continue a conversation at a normal volume without difficulty, even if you’re standing right by the vent or the furnace.
If your furnace is loud, it could be a sign that it needs to be replaced. The sound might be a problem with the blower, which can be repaired. However, it might be the sound of cracks or structural integrity problems that might make it smarter to replace the furnace.
Strange Smells
Strange smells coming from your heating vents could be problems in the ducts, or they could be the result of problems with the furnace.
Your furnace should be burning your natural gas thoroughly enough that there should be no smell of gas or smoke coming from your furnace. Even more importantly, your furnace should be set up so that none of the original gas or its combustion products should enter your heating ducts. If your furnace isn’t efficiently burning gas, and if the products of incomplete combustion are getting into your ducts, there are good odds that you will need to replace your furnace.
High Energy Bills
Energy bills tend to go up at a steady rate because of various factors. However, if your heating bills shoot up suddenly, the odds are that the furnace isn’t burning fuel as efficiently as in the past. Sometimes this could be remedied by cleaning or tuning a furnace, but in other cases, it may need to be replaced.
Can’t Get to Temperature
When a furnace isn’t burning fuel efficiently, you might notice that your furnace is having a hard time getting to temperature. Instead, the furnace might be running more than in the past, and you notice that the air coming out of the vents is relatively cold.
As with other combustion problems, tuning might be enough to remedy the problem. However, it might also be time to replace your furnace.
Yellow Burner Flame
Another sign that your furnace is not burning fuel efficiently is the color of flame at your furnace’s burner(s). Proper combustion should create a solid blue flame. Less efficient combustion might give off a yellow or orange flame. This might be a constant yellow or orange flame, or it might be blue shot through with intermittent streaks of other colors.
Excess Soot
Although natural gas is colorless and odorless (the gas odor you smell is added for safety), it’s a hydrocarbon just like gasoline and coal. So, when it burns, it can produce soot.
However, the amount of soot produced when burning natural gas should be very small. Natural gas molecules are much smaller than other hydrocarbons, so they should burn cleaner. If you’re seeing a lot of soot collecting around the furnace or in the exhaust, there is a combustion problem. Minor combustion problems just need a tune-up, but in the case of major ones, you might need to consider furnace replacement.
Difficulty Starting
When your thermostat detects a cold temperature, it should trigger the furnace. However, if the furnace doesn’t start, or if it starts then stops immediately, there could be a problem with the thermostat, the furnace, or both.
The problems could mean tuning the furnace, replacing the thermostat, or replacing the furnace.
Frequent Repairs
As furnaces begin to wear out, they require more frequent repairs – and the repairs are often more costly. At a certain point, it makes more sense to replace a furnace than to keep paying for the repairs.
Furnace Age
There is no age where it is strictly necessary to replace your furnace. However, once your furnace reaches 15 years of age, the odds are good that it will require more repairs more frequently or that it could fail suddenly, so you should consider whether replacement makes more sense than waiting for the inevitable repairs or failure.
Furnace Replacement in Colorado
If your furnace is showing one or more of these signs, it’s time to consider furnace replacement.
Since 1970, Major Heating and Air Conditioning has been helping people in Colorado to stay comfortable in their homes and businesses no matter the weather. We strive to provide our customers with the highest quality HVAC service and products at an exceptional value. Whether you need routine service or furnace installation in the Denver area or in the mountains, Major Heating and Air Conditioning is ready to help.
Please contact us today to schedule an appointment.