Furnace Repair in Bloomington, IL
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers McLean County will get in touch.
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Eight months of heat puts real wear on your furnace
From October through May, your furnace is the thing standing between you and a 20°F night. That is eight months of burner cycles, and each start puts stress on the igniter and the flame sensor. Those parts wear a little every time the furnace fires, and eventually one of them fails, usually on a cold night when the furnace is working hardest.
McLean County also sees its share of winter storms and wind, and the power grid does not always hold through them. When the power drops and comes back, most furnaces restart on their own, but the ones with a failing control board or blower motor sometimes do not. If your furnace has been running hard all winter and it goes quiet, or it starts blowing cold air, something in that chain has given out.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 20°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 71%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 11 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace would cut about $140 a year off heating for a typical McLean County home.
Estimates for a typical McLean County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Illinois fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Repair makes sense when one part has failed and the heat exchanger is sound.
Replacement makes sense when the heat exchanger is cracked or the furnace keeps needing parts.
In Illinois, HVAC licensing for homes is left to the cities and towns.
McLean County does not run its own licensing program. Whether a furnace repair contractor is licensed depends on the city or town where the house sits. Some towns test and license HVAC contractors directly. Others have no such requirement, and a contractor there works without any local credential behind them. There is no state license to fall back on either way.
A furnace repair means working on the gas connection, and that connection is the part that has to be right. Whether anyone checks it after the work is done depends on the same local rule, town by town, with nothing at the state level to say otherwise. Most homes in McLean County heat with gas, so that connection is the detail this job comes down to.
Source: Illinois General Assembly
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Start with the thermostat. Make sure it's set to heat and set a few degrees above room temperature, and check that it has power or fresh batteries. If the thermostat looks fine, check the furnace switch, which looks like a light switch near the unit, and the breaker for the furnace. Many furnaces also have a door on the front that has to be seated correctly against a safety switch, so a loose panel will keep the whole system from starting. If all of that checks out and the furnace still won't run, a contractor will need to look at the ignition system.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- The most common reason is the fan running without the burners lit, which happens for a few seconds at the start of every heating cycle while the furnace warms up. If cold air keeps blowing for minutes at a time, check the air filter first, since a clogged one can choke off airflow and trip a safety switch that shuts the burners down while the fan keeps running. A dirty flame sensor or an igniter that isn't lighting the gas will also cause this, and neither is something to try to fix yourself. With winter lows here averaging 20°F, a furnace stuck blowing cold air needs attention quickly.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This usually means the thermocouple, the small sensor that proves the pilot is burning, has failed or is out of position. When it can't sense the flame, it shuts the gas valve as a safety measure even though the pilot was lit a moment ago. A draft blowing out the pilot or a dirty pilot orifice can cause the same symptom. A thermocouple can be adjusted or replaced, but working on gas components is a job for a licensed contractor, not something to handle on your own.