HVAC Repair in Kankakee, IL
Homes here need heat from October through May and cooling from June through August. If your system quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Kankakee County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eleven months a year, your system doesn't get a break
Kankakee County only gives your furnace and air conditioner one real month off. Heat runs October through May, and the burner is lighting and shutting off all through those nights that average 20°F. Then summer comes and the compressor picks up the load for June through August, working hardest on the afternoons that hit 83°F.
That kind of year-round use wears on the parts that start the system up, the igniter on the furnace side and the capacitor that kicks the compressor on. Most homes here heat with gas, so a furnace that won't light is the most common way this shows up. Add in the storms, nine winter storms and 99 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and the power itself is part of the problem. Illinois saw 16 percent of households lose power for a full day or more in 2024, and when it comes back on, not everything in your system is built to restart on its own.
- 8 months
- October through May, your system heats
- 3 months
- June through August, it cools
- 20°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 83°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace and air conditioner would cut about $160 a year off heating and cooling for a typical Kankakee County home.
Estimates for a typical Kankakee 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.
Replacement makes sense when the furnace's heat exchanger is cracked, the air conditioner's compressor has failed, or repairs keep coming.
In Illinois, HVAC licensing for homes is left to the cities and towns.
Kankakee County does not set its own HVAC licensing rule. Illinois leaves that decision to cities and towns, so whether a contractor needs a local license depends on where the house sits. There is no state exam behind any of it and no state record to check. Whatever protection exists here comes from the town or city where the work is done, not from the state.
For a repair like this, the gas connection is the part that matters most, since a bad one is the dangerous part of the job. Whether that gets checked by anyone depends on the municipality, since Illinois itself has no state rule covering it. In Kankakee County, that answer changes from one town to the next.
Source: Illinois General Assembly
- Why is my heat not working?
- Most often it is the igniter or the flame sensor. Gas furnaces have to prove ignition before the gas valve stays open, and a dirty flame sensor or a cracked igniter will shut the burner down within seconds of starting. It can also be a closed vent damper, a tripped limit switch, or a thermostat set below the room temperature by mistake. With winter nights here dropping to 20°F, a furnace that short cycles or won't fire needs a contractor out the same day.
- Why is my system running but not cooling the house?
- The blower is moving air, but something is stopping that air from picking up heat. A dirty filter or a frozen evaporator coil are the two most common causes. Airflow gets restricted, the coil gets too cold, and ice builds up on it. Low refrigerant from a leak does the same thing over time. Check the filter first. If it is clean and the system still is not cooling, a contractor needs to check refrigerant pressures and the coil itself.
- What can I check before calling for HVAC repair?
- Check the filter first, since a clogged one chokes airflow to both the furnace and the air conditioner. Check the thermostat batteries and make sure it is set to heat or cool, not just fan. Check that the breaker for the system has not tripped. If you have a gas furnace, make sure the switch that looks like a light switch near the unit has not been bumped off. If all of that checks out and the system still is not doing its job, a contractor will need to look at it directly.