Furnace repairs are less needed now more than ever, but if you do find yourself with a furnace repair need – call the professionals at Able Appliance! There have been a number of advancements made in furnaces over the past few decades that allow newer systems to work better than ever. But many homes still have furnaces with traditional pilot lights, and owners of these systems should be aware of the problems that pilot lights can develop.
When natural gas is delivered to your furnace, it needs a way to ignite. In older furnaces, a standing pilot light is used for this purpose. A traditional standing pilot light is a small flame that burns constantly inside of your furnace, regardless of whether or not your system is in a heating cycle. When your furnace is ready to begin a heating cycle, the pilot light is used to ignite the burners. After a heating cycle is complete, the pilot light remains lit until the next cycle is ready to begin. There are several problems a pilot light could cause that would need a furnace repair, and some of those things include:
- Pilot light blows out – The most common and well-known problem with pilot lights is that the flame can blow out. Sometimes this can happen simply due to a strong draft nearby or the thermocouple in your furnace might manually shut off the pilot light for safety reasons.
- Pilot light burns inefficiently – The flames from traditional pilot lights should burn a bright blue color. If your pilot light’s flame is orange or yellow, it is burning inefficiently due to a lack of oxygen. The thermocouple should sense when this happens because the heat from the flame will not be as hot as it should be. If you notice that your pilot light’s flame is burning a color other than blue, contact Able Appliance for a furnace repair.
- Dirt builds up on the intake valve – One of the reasons why a pilot light can start to burn inefficiently is that dirt can build up on its gas intake valve, when this happens, the flame’s oxygen supply will be restricted. This can be avoided with regular furnace maintenance.
- Thermocouple malfunctions – If the thermocouple detects that the temperature of the flame is too low, or if there is no flame at all, it will shut off the gas supply to the pilot light. But the thermocouple itself can develop problems, such as slipping out of place or accumulating dirt, which can cause the gas supply to the pilot light to be cut off even if it doesn’t need to be.
Founded in 1983, we will take care of all your heating and furnace repair service needs. Give us a call today, and we’ll send one of our trained heating service technicians out right away. Furnace repair in-home service calls are free with your repair! We service most major brands, check out our list to see all the brands we service. Call one of our locations or contact us online today for all your furnace repair needs.
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