HVAC Repair in Eugene, OR
If your system quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Lane County will get in touch.
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Ten months of heat, and not much room for it to fail
Your furnace here runs September through June. That is ten months out of the year it has to work, with only a couple months off. Most homes heat with electricity, so when the system struggles, there is no backup burner or second system to lean on.
Winter nights average 33°F, cold enough that the furnace cycles on and off for hours at a stretch. Every cycle puts a little more wear on the igniter and the blower motor, and after enough cold nights, one of them quits. Add in the wind. Lane County has logged 13 damaging wind events and 4 winter storms over the past ten years, and storms like that knock out power. In Oregon, 20% of households went at least a full day without power in 2024. If your system runs on electricity, a power cut means no heat until it comes back, and most systems restart on their own once it does.
- 10 months
- September through June, your system heats
- 33°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 75°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
Oregon requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The license is tied to the contractor, not to the specific repair. When you hire someone licensed through the Construction Contractors Board, the state has tested that contractor and keeps a record of them. That record follows the business, so it covers this job the same way it covers any other job they take on.
Because your job is a repair on a heating and cooling system, the contractor doing the work should be the one carrying that license. Oregon does allow work under $1,000 to be done without a licensed contractor, so small fixes can fall outside this rule. Anything above that, on a furnace or an air conditioner, is the kind of job the license is meant to cover.
Source: Oregon Legislative Assembly
- Why is my heat not working?
- Start with the thermostat. Make sure it is set to heat and the temperature is set above the room temperature, since a setting bumped a degree or two can look like a dead system. Check your breaker panel next, because a tripped breaker will cut power to the furnace without any other warning. If the furnace uses a standing pilot, look for the small flame behind the access panel. If it uses an igniter instead, you will not see a pilot at all, and a failed igniter is one of the more common reasons heat stops on its own. With winter lows here averaging 33°F, a furnace that will not fire is worth getting looked at the same day.
- Why is my system running but not cooling the house?
- Check the air filter first. A filter clogged with dust blocks airflow across the coil, and the coil can ice over when that happens, which makes the system run without cooling much at all. Look at the outdoor unit too, since leaves or grass clippings packed against the fins choke off the airflow it needs. If the filter is clean and the outdoor unit is clear, the system may be low on refrigerant, and that is a leak a contractor needs to find and fix, not something to top off yourself.
- What can I check before calling for HVAC repair?
- Check the thermostat settings and the batteries in it, since a thermostat that has gone blank or lost its schedule can look like a bigger problem than it is. Check the breaker panel for anything tripped. Pull the air filter and hold it up to a light. If you cannot see light through it, it is restricting airflow and needs to be replaced. For a furnace, look for a flame or listen for the igniter cycling. None of this costs anything to check, and if the system still is not working after, a contractor can take it from there.