Gas furnace won't turn on, how much to replace?

[Kroze]

My gas furnace won't turn on

I checked and it followed the instruction on the furnace itself. The pilot is automatic and it said not to try and light it yourself.

Can someone give me an idea of how much does it cost to replace one? My house is a 2 bedroom townhouse and have about 1000 square feet.

 

[Vette73]

How old is the furance? Also this is natural gas right? Does the fan coem on if you set the Thermostat? Check breakers and fuses yet?

If it is less than 5 years old just fix it. Not that hard.

If its well over 5years old and you plan on living there at least 3year+ then look into a high efficency model.

 

[BoomerD]

More information is required.

How old is the furnace?

Repairing it is probably going to be your best option unless it's old and highly inefficient. Odds are, it's something fairly simple.

We have a couple of HVAC folks here...I'm sure they'll be along shortly.

 

[edro]

LOL
It won't turn on so you want to replace it?
What do you think Furnace Repairmen do all day?

 

[spidey07]

If it's an auto pilot light it isn't too terribly old, just get it repaired. Probably 250-400 bucks.

 

[lxskllr]

It might be something weird. On mine, an automatic damper wasn't opening, and the furnace wouldn't kick on. I'd flip the circuit breaker an and off, and I guess the surge would get the damper to move on occasion. Once I figured out exactly what was happening, some oil on the mechanism fixed it up. It's been fine for about 5 years now,

 

[Analog]

Mine had a faulty differential pressure switch. Replaced that and it works fine.

 

[BurnItDwn]

My gas furnace wouldn't turn on October of 2009. I would hear an electrical buzz, but, the pilot wouldn't light and it wouldn't start to blow.

I googled the name of the model of furnace, and the word "broken" or "fix" or "repair" ... and pretty much the most common problem was "take out a piece and blow canned air through it, sometimes it gets clogged", furnace has been perfectly fine since then.

Furnaces are expensive to replace, much cheaper to buy a $3 can of pressurized air.

Find out common problems with your furnace, and see if any of the solutions are easy like that....

 

[SpiderWiz]

Last year, same deal gas furnace wouldn't come on, electrical starter. Turns out to be the thermostat. $100-150 for service call.

 

[PowerEngineer]

As others have suggested, there are a number of checks that a gas furnace goes through before letting the gas flow; your problem could be any one of a number of things (e.g. exhaust fan not running, bad pressure differential switch, bad electric igniter). Call for service from an outfit that carries your brand of furance; they'll have all the parts needed in their truck.

 

[runzwithsizorz]

Many utility providers have a service where they will send out a tech to examine your system, even clean it, and advise you for free.

 

[Lotheron]

LOL
It won't turn on so you want to replace it?
What do you think Furnace Repairmen do all day?

The brakes on my car don't work, how much are new cars?

 

[boomerang]

I think you have to replace the whole house.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2110312

I'm hoping this is a parody thread.

 

[DrPizza]

As BurnItDwn pointed out (what an ironic name for this), a little googling and you can find a few things that you can do yourself. There are several maintenance items which should be done annually, depending on the age and model of the furnace. If you don't do them, or have them done for you, after a few years, you could end up with where you are now. A little maintenance now & you may solve the problem without the need for a $150 visit from a technician.

Replacement:
A new 90-95% efficient gas furnace runs around $650-$800 for your installer. What he charges you for the cost of the furnace is a different story. Ditto how much he charges you for the installation.

 

[marvdmartian]

Same thing with gas water heaters. Sometimes it's just the thermocouple not working right, which will prevent gas from flowing, since it thinks you don't have a pilot light lit (or other ignition source available).

Shoot, when I bought my house, I was thinking that I would have to get the water heater repaired or replaced (it's already 11 years old), because the house inspector couldn't get it to light. Evidently, although he's a pretty awesome house inspector, he must suck at lighting water heaters! I got it to light, first try.

 

[spidey07]

Same thing with gas water heaters. Sometimes it's just the thermocouple not working right, which will prevent gas from flowing, since it thinks you don't have a pilot light lit (or other ignition source available).

Shoot, when I bought my house, I was thinking that I would have to get the water heater repaired or replaced (it's already 11 years old), because the house inspector couldn't get it to light. Evidently, although he's a pretty awesome house inspector, he must suck at lighting water heaters! I got it to light, first try.

The biggest mistake folks make is not letting the thermocoupler get hot enough, that means holding down the valve a good 2+ minutes.

 

[bruceb]

Agree, most likely issue is a bad thermocouple. I had to change mine out twice so far and my furnace was installed in 1980 .. They are not expensive (around $10-$20) but somtimes getting to them takes some creativity.
Themocouple usually sits by the burner assembly.

 

[Rastus]

The thermocouple going bad is common. You can buy a universal one at Home Depot for about $12 and pop it in in minutes. Even if that isn't the problem, it's worth a shot and you will have a spare to boot.

 

[John P]

In the Northwest for a 1800 square foot house you would be looking at $2,000 for a single stage 80% furnace and up to $4,000 - $5,000 for a dual stage variable speed 95%model.

High efficiency models are eligible for a tax credit of 30% of the total cost up to $1,500 max tax credit until 12/31/10.

Everybody knows this.

Make sure it's not something simple like the ignition module ~ $250 to replace.

 

[spidey07]

Dear lord at people suggesting replacing it.

Age of the unit? This isnt a VCR people.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Dear lord at people suggesting replacing it.

Age of the unit? This isnt a VCR people.

Replacing the heater or thermocouple?

The latter is no big deal.

 

[spidey07]

Replacing the heater or thermocouple?

The latter is no big deal.

Of course. But OP asked about replacing the heater and it's obviously not very old as it's got an auto-pilot.

My response was to John_P.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Of course. But OP asked about replacing the heater and it's obviously not very old as it's got an auto-pilot.

Yeah I get the feeling that he doesn't have a good grasp of this kind of thing. It's going to cost a couple thousand at least I'd think for the space he's talking, but then again that's as crude an estimate as it gets and I'm shooting low.

 

[spidey07]

Yeah I get the feeling that he doesn't have a good grasp of this kind of thing. It's going to cost a couple thousand at least I'd think for the space he's talking, but then again that's as crude an estimate as it gets and I'm shooting low.

Right, much more info is needed here. There's a few really strong HVAC folks on this board.

 

[John P]

Dear lord at people suggesting replacing it.

Age of the unit? This isnt a VCR people.

Dude, he asked how much a replacement unit would cost, not if he should replace it or not.

I answered his original question (which nobody else has done) as well as suggested he makes sure he has the furnace checked out to make sure it's not something simple.