Furnace repair, installation and maintenance in Stoney Creek

On a high-efficiency furnace that is almost always a condensate drain or intake pipe freezing overnight, which trips the pressure switch; it thaws by late morning and the furnace restarts. It is a straightforward repair: re-route or insulate the drain, or extend and re-angle the vent terminations.

A well-maintained gas furnace typically runs 15 to 20 years. A mid-efficiency unit from the 1990s is at the end of that range now, and a high-efficiency furnace installed around 2010 is approaching it. Three things shorten the life: skipped annual maintenance, an oversized unit that short-cycles, and a clogged filter that overheats the heat exchanger. Past 15 years, repairs become more frequent and parts harder to find, and a new 96 percent furnace usually pays back part of its cost in lower gas bills. The one fault that ends a furnace at any age is a cracked heat exchanger. We will tell you plainly whether a repair or a replacement makes more sense for your unit; the full reasoning is in how long does a furnace last?

It depends on the square footage, insulation, windows, ceiling height and how the ductwork is laid out, not just on what was there before. Many older homes have furnaces that are oversized, which short-cycles the burner and wears it out. We run a proper heat-loss calculation before quoting a replacement.