Furnace Repair in The Dalles, OR
Furnaces here run from September through June. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Wasco County will get in touch.
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Ten months of heat in The Dalles wears a furnace down
Your furnace runs from September through June here, ten months a year. On winter nights averaging 27°F, it cycles on and off for hours at a stretch, and every start puts load on the igniter and the parts that get the burner going. That much runtime catches up with those parts before it catches up with anything else.
Most homes here heat with electricity, so when a storm takes the power out, the furnace stops no matter what shape it's in. Wasco County has seen 86 winter storms and 43 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and in 2024, 20% of Oregon households went at least 24 hours without power. A furnace already worn from a long heating season has less to give when the power comes back on.
- 10 months
- September through June, your furnace is on duty
- 27°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 86 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.
Oregon licenses HVAC contractors through the Construction Contractors Board. That license belongs to the contractor, not to any single job, so it covers the business rather than the repair itself. A license means the state has tested that contractor and keeps a record of them.
For a furnace repair, that record is what stands behind the person coming into the home. A bad gas connection is the dangerous part of this job, and the state license is what puts a test and a paper trail behind whoever makes that connection. Oregon does carve out one exception. Work under $1,000 does not need a licensed contractor.
Source: Oregon Legislative Assembly
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Most often the thermostat is asking for heat but the furnace isn't getting a signal, or power, to answer it. Check that the thermostat has fresh batteries and is set below room temperature. Next, check the furnace switch, the one that looks like a light switch near the unit, and the breaker for it. If those are fine, the igniter or a safety switch inside the furnace may have failed, and that calls for a contractor to open it up and test it.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- If the air coming out is cold and not just cool, the burners likely aren't lighting even though the blower is running. That points to a failed igniter, a flame sensor that isn't reading the flame, or a gas supply problem. It can also mean the thermostat fan is set to "on" instead of "auto", which runs the blower nonstop even between heat cycles. A furnace that won't light needs a contractor to check it, since it usually means with 27°F nights here, there's no backup source of heat until it's fixed.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- A pilot that won't stay lit is almost always a thermocouple problem. That's the small sensor sitting in the pilot flame, and its job is to prove to the gas valve that the pilot is actually burning. When it wears out or sits out of position, the gas valve reads no flame and shuts off the gas, even though the pilot was lit a second ago. It can be repositioned or replaced, but that's gas work and needs a licensed contractor. A furnace pilot with a bad thermocouple won't stay lit no matter how many times it's relit by hand.