Furnace Repair in Bend, OR
Furnaces here run from September through June. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Deschutes County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Ten months of heat puts a lot of hours on your furnace
Bend needs heat September through June, ten months of the year. On winter nights that average 22°F, your furnace is not cycling gently. It is lighting, running, shutting off, and lighting again, night after night, most of the year.
That kind of use wears on the parts that start the burner and keep it running, the igniter and the flame sensor especially. Almost half the homes here heat with electricity, and Deschutes County has logged 83 winter storms and 24 damaging wind events over the past ten years. When the power drops on a cold night, an electric furnace stops until it comes back on, and you feel the house cool down fast.
- 10 months
- September through June, your furnace is on duty
- 22°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 83 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Oregon requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The license is issued to the contractor, not to the specific job, so it covers whoever is doing the work rather than being pulled for each furnace they touch. The Construction Contractors Board tests and records these contractors before they're allowed to hold that license, so a licensed number means the state has vetted the business itself.
For a furnace repair, that license is what stands behind the work. Oregon does carve out an exception for jobs under $1,000, where a licensed contractor isn't required, so a small repair could fall on either side of that line depending on what it ends up costing. Gas connections are the part of a furnace repair worth getting right, since a poor one is what makes the job dangerous, and above that dollar threshold it's the state license that answers for it.
Source: Oregon Legislative Assembly
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Most often it is the thermostat, the power, or the gas supply. Check that the thermostat is set to heat and a few degrees above room temperature, and that it has power if it runs on batteries. Next check your breaker panel, since a tripped breaker will shut the furnace down completely. If those are fine, the igniter or the flame sensor may have failed, and that calls for a contractor to test and replace. With winter nights here averaging 22°F, it is worth calling one as soon as you notice the furnace is not responding.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- This usually means the furnace is running the fan without the burners lighting. A clogged filter can cause this by making the furnace shut down its heating cycle while the blower keeps moving air. It can also mean the igniter or flame sensor is failing, so the burners never catch. A contractor can tell which one it is once they open the unit up and test it.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- A pilot light that keeps going out is almost always the thermocouple. That is the small sensor that tells the gas valve the flame is lit, and once it wears out, it shuts the gas off even when the pilot is burning fine. A draft blowing across the pilot or a dirty pilot orifice can also cause it. Either way, this is a gas valve issue, and a contractor should be the one to replace the part rather than relighting it repeatedly.