Indianapolis – The coldest air of the season is here and this is no time to find out that your furnace is broken.
Furnace repair companies are booked and there’s a good chance an ounce of prevention is worth hundreds of dollars in repairs.
Homeowner Ron Rice had just such an issue this past week.
“Gosh, it was Saturday around 1 when I called Thiele,” Rice said.
Just as the temperatures were really starting to drop, his furnace decided to take a break.
“I think it is an electric circuit board of some sort,” he said.
Over the weekend, the temperature in Rice’s home hovered in the 50s. He used a small, electric heater to ward off the cold, but he will tell you there is nothing as disheartening as not hearing the furnace kick on.
“That is the worst part about it when I get to people’s houses. There is the ‘I don’t know’ factor. They don’t know how much it is going to cost, ‘Can it be fixed today?’, ‘Am I going to have to move in with my in-laws?’,” said Keith Wray with Thiele Heating and Air Conditioning.
It turns out, the only part Rice needed controls everything. The good news is that it was available locally.
Wray says Rice’s model of furnace has a reputation for failed circuit boards.
“Furnace is going to warm up for 30 seconds and then the blower motor is going to turn on,” Wray said as he fixed Rice’s unit.
That makes the fix fairly easy and one that no level of maintenance would have prevented in this case.
“First, number one rule of breakdown is because of a dirty air filter. The second is lack of maintenance,” Wray said.
So the sound of the furnace kicking on is one Rice will not be taking for granted anytime soon.
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