Furnace Repair in Mitchell, SD
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Davison County will get in touch.
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Eight months of heat puts real wear on a Mitchell furnace
From October through May your furnace is what keeps the house livable. That is eight months of the year it has to work, and on nights that average 11°F it runs long and hard to keep up. Every cycle means the igniter fires, the blower kicks on, and the burner has to light clean each time.
That many cycles over that many cold nights wears on the parts that start the furnace before it wears on anything else. An igniter that is failing will struggle to light the burner at all, and you will notice it as a furnace that clicks but does not catch, or short bursts of heat that cut out too soon.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 11°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 26 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace would cut about $90 a year off heating for a typical Davison County home.
Estimates for a typical Davison County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, South Dakota fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Repair makes sense when one part has failed and the heat exchanger is sound.
Replacement makes sense when the heat exchanger is cracked or the furnace keeps needing parts.
In South Dakota, HVAC licensing for homes is left to the cities and towns.
South Dakota does not test or license HVAC contractors at the state level. Whatever oversight exists comes from the city or town where the house sits, and that rule can differ from one town to the next, or not exist at all. There is no single state record to check, and no state exam behind the person doing the work.
For a furnace repair, the part that matters most is the gas connection, since a poor seal or a bad valve is what turns a repair into a hazard. Whether anyone checks that connection depends on the town, not on any state license, since South Dakota does not set that rule itself. Close to half the homes in Davison County heat with gas, so that connection is a real part of this job here, not a rare exception.
Source: South Dakota Legislature
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Start with the thermostat and the switch. Check that the thermostat is set to heat and the temperature is above room temperature, and make sure the power switch on the furnace itself, it looks like a light switch, hasn't been bumped off. If those are fine, check the breaker, since a furnace that won't even try to start is often just not getting power. Past that, it could be the igniter, a safety switch, or the gas valve, and those need a contractor to sort out. With winter lows here averaging 11°F, a furnace that won't start needs attention fast.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most of the time this means the blower is running but the burners haven't lit. Check that the thermostat fan setting is on auto, not on, since a fan set to on will blow air between heating cycles and that air will feel cold. If the fan is on auto and you're still getting cold air, the igniter or flame sensor may be failing to light the burners at all, and that's a repair a contractor needs to look at. Homes here need the furnace working from October through May, so this isn't one to leave alone.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This usually means the thermocouple is worn out or the pilot tube is dirty. The thermocouple is a small sensor that sits in the pilot flame and tells the gas valve it's safe to keep the gas flowing. Once it wears out or gets coated in soot, it can't sense the flame properly and the valve shuts the gas off, even though the pilot lit just fine a moment ago. A contractor can test the thermocouple and replace it if that's the cause.