Too cold for furnaces

The latest blast of extreme cold weather to hit Southern Ontario has people cranking their thermostats to warm their homes. But with so many home heating systems working overtime, many are breaking down and service technicians are seeing at least double their usual number of calls.

Having a furnace break down in this weather can make home owners desperate. It also makes furnace repair workers busy. We went on a call with a technician to look at some of the causes of furnace malfunction.

When the cold weather hits, many a furnace breaks down, and that means service technician John Cameron is busy: “Our regular shifts are 9 hours but we’re working around the clock.”

And John says many cases have been urgent: “Some of the houses I’ve been in lately uh, it’s, it’s unbelievable how cold they’ve been.”

Cameron says that in the cold weather, your home furnace has to work longer and harder. Which means any issues within are likely to present themselves. Right now, he’s working at a home in Carlisle that has been without heat since Wednesday morning, while owner Brian Sim tried to get some of his own work done: “Well, I started off trying to work with gloves, uh it was pretty cold in there.”

Here Cameron noticed that the furnace light was off. Once that was fixed he begins doing general maintenance to make sure the entire system runs smoothly. That’s because any time a furnace fails, he knows there are a few likely reasons, and he has a simple checklist: “Definitely check the batteries in the thermostat, start there, replace the batteries, check the filter, check the breaker. Make sure the breaker is on, make sure the furnace switch is on.”

One of the most important things to check and one of the most often overlooked is your exhaust. Now when the warm air from your furnace comes outside and meets with the cold air, if there’s any blockage it can create condensation, further blocking the pipe and possible shutting down your furnace. Just having a cover on the pipe could be enough to create a shut down.

John said: “Any debris whatsoever can and will create issue.”

The cover over the exhaust and intake pipes had to be removed in order to allow air to flow more freely, and ensure that this didn’t happen again before being put back on.

One sure fire way to guard against furnace break down is to have annual maintenance done. It is easily overlooked because they are best to be done in warmer months, but it’s never too late.