Furnace Repair in Joliet, IL
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Will County will get in touch.
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Eight months of heat, twenty below zero nights
Your furnace runs October through May here, eight months of the year. On winter nights averaging 20°F, it cycles on and off for hours at a stretch to keep up. Every start is a strain on the igniter and the flame sensor, and over enough cold nights one of them gives out. That's when you notice the burner won't catch, or it lights and then shuts back down.
Will County has seen 17 winter storms and 202 damaging wind events over the past ten years. Storms like that knock out power, and across Illinois 16% of households lost power for 24 hours or more in 2024. Most furnaces need electricity to run the blower and the control board, so when the power goes out, so does your heat, even with gas still feeding the burner.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 20°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 88%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 17 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 Will County home.
Estimates for a typical Will 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.
Illinois leaves this to the local building department, and in Will County that means whatever rule applies depends on the address. There is no state exam behind the work, no state license number to check. A town with its own licensing rule governs inside its borders. Outside that, the county's rule applies, or none does. It comes down to where the house sits, not any statewide standard.
For a furnace repair, the gas connection is the part that matters most, since a bad one is what makes the job dangerous. Illinois has no state rule that puts a name or a number behind who checks that connection. Whatever oversight exists here comes from the city or county the house falls under, not from a license. With most homes in Will County heating with gas, that gap is the one worth knowing about before the work starts.
Source: Illinois General Assembly
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Start with the thermostat. Check that it's set to heat and the set temperature is above room temperature, and check the batteries if it uses them. If the thermostat looks fine, check the furnace switch, the one that looks like a light switch near the unit, and the breaker for the furnace at your electrical panel. A furnace that still won't start after that likely has a problem an owner can't fix by hand, like a bad igniter or a safety switch that's shut it down.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most often this means the blower is running but the burners aren't lighting. Check that the filter isn't packed with dust, since a blocked filter can choke off airflow and trip a safety switch that stops the burners while the fan keeps going. If the filter is clean and you're still getting cold air, the igniter or flame sensor may be failing, or the gas valve may not be opening. With nights averaging 20°F here in Joliet through the winter, it's worth getting this looked at quickly rather than waiting it out.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- A pilot that won't stay lit is usually a sign the thermocouple has worn out. That's the small sensor that sits in the flame and tells the gas valve it's safe to keep the gas flowing. When it fails, the valve shuts the gas off as a safety measure even though the pilot lit fine a moment ago. A draft blowing out the flame is possible too, but if you've relit it several times and it keeps going out, the thermocouple is the more likely cause and a contractor can replace it.