Alliance Comfort Services

Furnace repair in Raleigh, NC

A gas furnace that will not light is usually a small failed part, not a dead furnace. A licensed North Carolina contractor answers this number 24/7, and same day furnace repair in Raleigh, NC covers most of the city.

Call (919) 510-1472

What your furnace is doing, and what it usually is

  • You hear a click, then nothing

    Usually: Almost always the hot surface igniter. It is a brittle silicon carbide element that glows orange to light the burners, it is a wear part, and it fails more often than anything else on the appliance.

    We watch the ignition sequence through and confirm which stage it stops at before anything gets quoted.

  • It lights, burns a few seconds, and shuts off

    Usually: The flame sensor. It is a metal rod sitting in the flame that proves to the control board that gas is really burning. A normal layer of oxidation on it and the board sees nothing, so it closes the gas valve within seconds and tries again.

    That distinctive four or five second cycle tells us what it is before we arrive.

  • The blower runs and the air is cold

    Usually: The burners never lit, or the high limit switch is tripping on temperature. High temperature nearly always means airflow: a loaded filter, closed registers, an undersized return.

    The difference matters, because one is a failed part and the other is a filter. We measure rather than guess.

  • It tried, gave up, and will not restart

    Usually: Often the pressure switch, which confirms combustion gases are venting out of the house before any gas is allowed to flow. A failed inducer, a blocked flue, or a plugged condensate drain will hold it open.

    A rollout switch is the serious version and does not reset itself on purpose. That one gets found out, not reset.

Describe what it is doing and you will get a real answer about tonight. A licensed contractor picks up, 24 hours a day.

Call (919) 510-1472Or schedule service

The older furnaces, and the one pattern worth knowing

A modern gas furnace has no standing pilot. On the older ones that still do, cold air with the blower running is usually a failed thermocouple, which lets the pilot light and then die the moment you release the button.

Short cycling is the pattern worth recognizing. The furnace lights, gets hot, then drops the burners while the blower keeps going. The furnace is not overheating because it has failed. It is overheating because it cannot move its heat away, and the switch is preventing damage. Fix the airflow and the switch stops tripping.

A tripped rollout switch is the one to take seriously. It means flame rolled forward out of the burner box instead of drawing into the heat exchanger, which points at a blocked flue, a failed inducer, or a cracked exchanger. It does not reset itself, and that is deliberate. Leave the furnace off and call.

The cracked heat exchanger, said plainly

The heat exchanger is the steel wall between the fire and the air your house breathes. Combustion on one side, house air on the other, and the two never meet. If that steel cracks, combustion gases including carbon monoxide can reach the supply air. That is a real risk.

It is also the most abused upsell in this trade, which is the other reason to be direct about it.

Nobody can diagnose a cracked heat exchanger over the phone, and a contractor who offers to should not be trusted with the answer. It is verified in person. The burners come out, the exchanger is inspected with a camera and a mirror, combustion is measured with an analyzer, and the flame is watched for disturbance the moment the blower starts. That produces evidence, which either exists or it does not. You are entitled to see it before anyone talks about a new furnace.

If a carbon monoxide alarm has sounded, a rollout switch has tripped, or a sharp smell will not clear, shut the furnace off and call. Emergency service runs overnight.

Repair it or replace it

Most of this you can reason through before anyone quotes anything, and none of it requires a price.

Signs it is a repair

  • The furnace is in the first half of its service life and has been maintained.
  • What failed is a wear item: an igniter, a flame sensor, a pressure switch, a capacitor, an inducer motor.
  • This is the first real failure, or the first in several years.
  • Nothing else on the unit is making noise or acting up.

Signs it is a replacement

  • The heat exchanger is cracked. That is the appliance itself, not a part bolted to it.
  • A third unrelated failure in two winters. The unit is worn out everywhere, not in one place.
  • A loud blower motor, a flaky control board and an exchanger out of warranty together. That is one replacement arriving in installments.
  • Parts for it have become hard to get.

Not sure which side you are on? Say what it has done and how old it is, and you will get a straight answer rather than a quote.

Call (919) 510-1472Or book a look at it

Gas furnaces in Raleigh

Furnaces are the main heating equipment in about half of North Carolina households, according to EIA residential energy data. This is common equipment here, not a specialty item.

It turns up in two configurations. Some houses heat with gas alone. Others run dual fuel, where a heat pump carries most of the winter and a furnace takes the coldest nights. That setup fails quietly: the gas side quits, the heat pump keeps running, the house stays warm, and the power bill is what tells you.

If your outdoor unit runs all winter and there is no gas appliance in the house, you have a heat pump. Heat pump repair covers that, and heating repair in Raleigh covers no-heat problems whatever the equipment.

Who shows up

Alliance Comfort Services LLC is licensed in North Carolina, number L.34059, through the NC State Board of Examiners of Plumbing, Heating & Fire Sprinkler Contractors. The licensed contractor answers the phone and is the person at your door. Rated 5.0 from 25 reviews on Google.

Furnaces serviced: Carrier, Trane, Lennox, Goodman, Amana, Rheem, Bryant, American Standard, Daikin, and Mitsubishi.

What happens when you call

  1. You reach the licensed contractor

    Not a scheduler. Describe what the furnace is doing and roughly when it started, and you get a real time on the phone.

  2. The ignition sequence gets watched through

    Thermostat call, inducer, pressure switch, igniter, burners, flame proving. The furnace tells you where it stops if you let it run.

  3. Combustion and airflow get measured

    Temperature rise across the exchanger, static pressure, and combustion readings, because a furnace that overheats and a furnace that has failed are different problems.

  4. You hear the price before the work starts

    What failed, what replacing it involves, and what it costs. You approve it, or you do not, and either way nothing has been done yet.

Common questions

Why does my furnace smell like burning on the first cold night?
Dust burning off a heat exchanger that has been idle since spring. It should clear within an hour. A sharp or acrid smell that keeps going is not that.
Is a cracked heat exchanger dangerous?
Yes, because it can put carbon monoxide into the air moving through your house. It also cannot be diagnosed remotely. If someone tells you over the phone that you have one, get a second opinion.
Can you come out tonight?
Yes. A licensed contractor answers 24 hours a day, weekends included.

What customers say

5.0 out of 5, from 25 reviews on Google

Read all 25 on Google

Fall is when a furnace problem is cheapest to find

The $59 System Tune-Up is for new customers, and it covers the combustion side and the safety switches while the furnace is still running. Everything we cover in Raleigh is on one page.

Call (919) 510-1472
Call (919) 510-1472Schedule service
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