Notes On How To Repair A Gas Furnace
To the average person the mere thought on how to repair a gas furnace is enough to scare you away. But once you understand what makes up a gas furnace it becomes less scary. If you take a moment and objectify the furnace then you’ll realize that it’s only an appliance that’s meant to give comfort by supplying warmth to your home. So don’t be too critical of yourself and you might just learn a thing or two on how to repair a gas furnace.
A gas furnace can be categorized into three main sections:
The units that generates the heat or cold.
The burners that create the heat. The heat exchanger that makes the heat available to warm the air that is blown over it. The draft inducer that causes the negative pressure that draws the heat from the burners toward the exchanger and the venting system that expels the exhaust gases from the system.
The thermostat and other control systems.
The various controls and safety switches that allow control of the system and safety functions.
The distribution system.
The blower and the air flow ducts that allow the warmed air to travel throughout the house to perform the heating function.
You do need to realize that you will only be able to perform a basic level of repairs. Because you are not going to become a professional at how to repair a gas furnace overnight by only reading a few articles. Due to certain parts needing special tools and testing equipment, those parts of the furnace do need a professional to work on them. Particularly the burners heat exchanger, stack control the ignition system and the gas line.
The very first thing to do is to make sure that all power to the furnace is switched off. The best option is to turn off the power to the whole house at the main switch box, unless you can find the fuse box that services the furnace controls and completely remove the fuse and keep it on your person until you’re done.
If your furnace isn’t sufficiently heating the house and you have already checked the thermostat setting and reset all the control units you have available on the system the most likely problem would be that the blower might be clogged or that the filter needs changing. Dust is the foremost enemy of any system that has air circulating through it. Dust gets pulled in through vents and the moving parts create static electricity that attracts oppositely charged dust particles.
You’ll need to remove the blower access panel usually located on the front of the unit. Remove the filter (most of them slide out or has a latch holding it in place. Vacuum the filter until clean or replace with identical type of filter. Inspect the blower for accumulated dust and clean if necessary as well as check that the blower belt is intact and replace if need be. On completion replace blower cover making sure interlocks are made, replace fuses and reset power. And if everything works again the way it used to, you’ll know you know something about how to repair a gas furnace.
