Furnace Repair in Worcester, MA
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Worcester County will get in touch.
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Eight months of heat, and nights near 18 degrees
From October through May your furnace is the only thing standing between the house and a Worcester County winter. Winter nights average 18°F, so on the coldest ones the burner is cycling on and off for hours at a stretch, and every start puts wear on the igniter and the flame sensor. Those are usually the first parts to fail, and you notice it as the furnace trying to start, clicking, and giving up instead of lighting.
More than a third of homes here heat with fuel oil, and a clogged nozzle or a dirty filter can choke a system right when it is working hardest. Worcester County has seen 71 winter storms and 427 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and in 2024, 10% of Massachusetts households lost power for at least a full day. A furnace that comes back on by itself when the power returns still needs a working thermostat to tell it what to do.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 18°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 71 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Start with the thermostat and the power switch on the furnace itself, since a dead battery or a flipped switch causes this more often than people expect. Check your breaker panel too, since a tripped breaker will shut the whole system down. If those are fine, the igniter may have failed, or a safety switch may be holding the furnace off because it sensed something wrong. A furnace with fuel oil also needs fuel in the tank, so check that if yours runs on oil. A contractor can test the switches and the igniter to find which one is stopping it.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most of the time this means the furnace is running but not igniting, so air is moving through the ducts without ever getting heated. A dirty flame sensor is a common cause, since it can't tell the burners to stay lit. It can also mean the thermostat fan is set to "on" instead of "auto", which pushes air through even between heating cycles. If the air stays cold and the burners won't stay lit, a contractor needs to look at the ignition system directly.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This usually points to the thermocouple, the small sensor that tells the gas valve the pilot is burning. When it wears out or sits out of position, it shuts the gas off even though the flame is fine. A draft blowing across the pilot can also blow it out, so check the area around the furnace for airflow. A dirty pilot orifice will do the same thing by starving the flame. None of these are worth relighting over and over. A contractor should check the thermocouple and the pilot assembly directly, especially with 8 months of heating season ahead here.