Serving the Wasatch Front, Utah · Davis & Salt Lake County
Furnace Repair
No heat, repeated shutdowns, unusual noise, weak airflow, or an unreliable ignition cycle can come from several electrical, airflow, fuel, venting, or control problems. CMB HVAC tests the system and explains the failure before recommending a repair.
A furnace is a sequence: thermostat call, draft, ignition, flame proof, warm-up, blower, repeat. When any step fails, the board stops the sequence and the symptom you notice — no heat, short cycling, a house that never quite warms — is just the end of a chain. We walk the chain with meters until the failing step is named, then quote the repair flat-rate in writing.
Safety first, always: if you smell gas, leave the building and call your gas utility or 911 from outside. If a CO alarm sounds, same answer. Equipment gets repaired after people are safe — and any heat-exchanger or safety concern we find is documented with the evidence and the inspection method, not a scary assertion.
Thermostat to flue — we find where the sequence stops instead of guessing at the most expensive part.
Any safety concern comes with the evidence: inspection method, measurements, photos. No fear, no assertions.
Written options before work starts — and a straight repair-versus-replace conversation when it's close.
The completed repair is tested through multiple full cycles — ignition through blower — not just declared done.
Tap a symptom to jump to the component most often behind it — the diagnosis will confirm.
Lights up, runs a few seconds or minutes, shuts down. The classic — and most misdiagnosed — furnace symptom.
Clicking with no flame, or nothing happening at the call for heat. Ignition is a chain, not a single part.
The furnace fires but the house doesn't warm — blower, filter, or duct problems hide here.
Runs fine, then stops partway through heating — and the pattern repeats. Overheating has causes worth finding.
The board already knows where the sequence fails — its codes and our meters agree faster than guesswork.
The call for heat confirmed at both ends — settings, wiring, transformer, and the board's flash codes read first.
Pressure switch and venting proven before ignition is blamed — a blocked intake flunks the draft and stops everything.
Igniter output, gas valve timing, and flame-sensor signal measured — the three-step handshake that lights and keeps the burn.
Burner condition, flame pattern, and heat-exchanger integrity assessed with the method documented — never asserted.
Filter checked, blower amp draw and temperature rise measured — the pair that turns combustion into a warm house.
Flashing codes on the furnace board? Count them (color and pattern) and call (385) 865-6749 — they narrow the search fast.
For significant repairs the honest quote includes the comparison — both figures in writing on the same visit.
The right call when the sequence fails at a worn part — igniter, flame sensor, pressure switch — and the rest of the furnace measures sound.
Best for: single failed components on otherwise healthy equipment
Fix what gets you through the winter, and take a replacement quote home to think about — scheduled on your terms, not during a cold snap.
Best for: older furnaces with repairable faults and a history accumulating
A cracked heat exchanger (documented), a discontinued board-and-ignition stack, or repeated significant repairs shift the math. We'll show both numbers.
Best for: exchanger failures, obsolete parts, or repair-history patterns
The symptom rarely sets the price — the failing step in the sequence does. Your written quote already accounts for it.
A flame sensor and a blower motor both stop the heat; their part costs are orders of magnitude apart. The diagnosis determines the tier.
Condensing (90%+) furnaces add condensate and a second heat-exchanger pass — more parts in the sequence, sometimes more in the repair.
Common wear parts ride on the truck. Obsolete boards and rare components can add sourcing time — we'll tell you honestly which it is.
A closet furnace and a crawl-space unit are different jobs with the same part. Access is priced into the flat rate, not discovered after.
Repairs are quoted flat-rate before work starts and the service call is free when we do the work. We don't publish a price list because furnaces fail in dozens of different places — an itemized written quote beats a range that fits neither job.
Free service call. Codes read, safeties proven, ignition tested, airflow measured — until the failing step is named.
Flat-rate options, itemized. Repair-versus-replace comparison included when it's a live question.
The verified cause is fixed — not the symptom. Correct parts, correct setup, gas and electrical work to code.
Multiple complete heating cycles tested and measured. You get the readings and the explanation of what caused the failure.
Wasatch Front furnaces live long lives but work hard ones: long cold seasons, wide overnight swings, and dry air that carries dust straight into filters and blowers. The classic local pattern is the first-hard-freeze failure — anything marginal survives the shoulder season and quits during the first sustained cold. The second pattern is dust: a filter that's been in since March is the most common thing standing between a furnace and the airflow it needs.
The terms from your invoice, explained — and the anchors for the symptoms above.
The hot-surface igniter (or standing/intermittent pilot on older units) that lights the burners. A cracked igniter or a failed pilot means clicking with no flame — but a furnace that won't light can equally be the gas valve, pressure switch, venting, board, or a safety condition upstream. We follow the sequence to find where it actually stops before replacing anything, because a new igniter doesn't fix every furnace that won't light.
The rod that proves flame to the control board; no proof, no continued gas. A contaminated sensor is the classic cause of 'lights, runs seconds, shuts off' — cleaning restores it — but identical symptoms can come from grounding, wiring, gas pressure, or venting. We read the flame signal (in microamps) before cleaning or replacing, then test through multiple cycles and check what contaminated it in the first place.
The safety that proves the inducer is moving combustion air before allowing ignition. It trips on venting blockages, blocked intake/exhaust pipes, failing inducers, and — in a twisted irony — the tiny tubing that connects it. A furnace that clicks, tries, and gives up often stops here; the fix might be a switch, or might be the venting the switch was honestly reporting.
The over-temperature safety that shuts burners off when the furnace gets too hot. It's doing its job when it trips — the question is why: a clogged filter, a failing blower, closed supply registers, or an undersized return are the usual drivers. Repeated limit trips are a symptom with a cause, and we find the cause rather than resetting our way through the winter.
The small fan that establishes draft through the heat exchangers before ignition — the 'airplane' sound that starts every modern furnace cycle. Rumbling, squealing, or a hum with no spin points here. Without proper draft the pressure switch won't prove, the burners won't light, and nothing downstream matters — which is why it gets tested early in the sequence.
The fan that moves heated air through your ducts — and cooled air in summer, on most setups. Failures live in the motor, its control module (on variable-speed units), the capacitor where fitted, the control signal, or the wheel and the static pressure it's fighting. We test which before replacing, install the correct replacement, set airflow to the equipment's specification, and verify both heating and cooling operation when the blower serves both.
The brain that runs the sequence and stores the flash codes. Boards fail — but they're also blamed for faults that actually live in the sensors, safeties, and wiring feeding them. We verify the inputs before condemning the brain, because a board swap on a furnace with a shorted safety is money spent twice.
The sealed metal chambers that separate combustion from the air you breathe — the one component where evidence matters most. We inspect by whatever method the furnace allows: visual access, combustion measurements, pressure behavior, camera inspection, and manufacturer guidance, and we document what we found with photos and the method used. A suspected crack is a finding with evidence, not a sales line — and if you ever get a second opinion, that documentation travels with you.
Book online or call. We'll find where the heat stops, quote the fix flat-rate, and verify it through full cycles.
