Furnace Repair in Waukesha, WI
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Waukesha County will get in touch.
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Eight months of winter puts a real strain on your furnace
In Waukesha County your furnace runs from October through May, eight months a year. On nights that average 16°F, it cycles on and off for hours at a stretch, and each start puts a little more wear on the igniter and the ignition control board. Over enough winters those parts are the first to fail, usually on the coldest nights when the furnace is working hardest.
Most homes here heat with gas, so a furnace that won't light often means dealing with the cold with no backup source. Wisconsin has also logged 18 winter storms and 103 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and with 18% of households going at least 24 hours without power in 2024, a furnace that depends on that power for its blower and controls can leave a house cold for reasons that have nothing to do with the furnace itself.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 16°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 77%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 18 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace would cut about $110 a year off heating for a typical Waukesha County home.
Estimates for a typical Waukesha County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Wisconsin fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Repair makes sense when one part has failed and the heat exchanger is sound.
Replacement makes sense when the heat exchanger is cracked or the furnace keeps needing parts.
Wisconsin requires contractors to register with the state.
Wisconsin requires contractors to register with the Department of Safety and Professional Services. That puts the business on file. Nobody tests the contractor's work to get there, and the state does not run a trade exam for HVAC. Counties and cities in Wisconsin cannot add their own license requirement on top of this, so the registration is the only state-level record that exists on a contractor, wherever in Waukesha County they work.
For a furnace repair, that record does not cover the part of the job that matters most. A furnace repair means someone is working on a gas connection and a flame, and a bad connection there is the dangerous part of the work. The registration does not test for that. In Waukesha County, 77.2% of homes heat with gas, which is most of the furnaces a contractor here will touch.
Sources: Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau · Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Start with the thermostat and the power switch, since those cause more no-heat calls than anything inside the furnace itself. Check that the thermostat is set to heat and the temperature is above room temperature, and make sure the switch on or near the furnace, which looks like a light switch, hasn't been bumped off. After that, check your breaker panel. If power and settings are fine and the furnace still won't start, the igniter, the flame sensor, or the pressure switch could be the problem, and those need a contractor to test.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most often the furnace is still starting up and hasn't warmed the air yet, or the thermostat fan is set to on instead of auto, which pushes air through the ducts even between heating cycles. Set the fan to auto and see if the air warms up on the next cycle. If it's set correctly and you're still getting cold air, the igniter may be failing partway through the cycle, or the furnace could be shutting off on a safety switch before it fully heats. That's worth having a contractor look at, since running a house through a Waukesha winter without reliable heat isn't something to wait out.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- A pilot that won't stay lit usually means the thermocouple has worn out. That's the small part that sits in the pilot flame and tells the gas valve it's safe to keep the gas flowing. When it fails, the valve shuts the gas off as a safety measure, even though the flame was fine a second earlier. Relighting it yourself might work for a night, but the thermocouple needs to be replaced to fix it for good, and that's a job for a licensed contractor.