You probably don’t give your furnace much thought – until it matters most and fails. There are many reasons why a furnace stops working and sometimes it’s an easy fix. You just need to know what to look for and how to fix it. However, as a HVAC contractor we recommend hiring a HVAC professional who is skilled and trained. But if you feel like discovering why your furnace isn’t working properly, here are the five most common furnace problems to look for. 

Dirty Flame Sensor 

The most common furnace problem is a dirty flame sensor. You will know if your flame sensor is dirty when you turn on your furnace and the igniter lites a flame, but within a few seconds the flame goes out. Furnaces typically try 3-5 times to lite before it goes into a lockout. A lockout is when a furnace does nothing for about 3 hours before trying to lite again. 

Why does a flame sensor become dirty in a furnace? Naturally a flame sensor becomes dirty and build up occurs. Too much build up prevents it from sensing the flame. If it can’t sense the flame then it turns the gas valve off. 

Predicting your water heater’s future is risky — although it’s most likely to last 10 to 15 years, waiting until it breaks can be costly: The average insurance claim for water damage due to a failed water heater is $4,000. And to make things worse, you may be stuck without hot water or end up with a flooded home.

So if you don’t know the age of your current unit, it’s worth checking to see if you’re nearing that time to replace your water heater. It pays to prepare before your water heater gives up or fails, which can be inconvenient (at best) or catastrophic (at worst).

Since finding the date of installation isn’t always straightforward, we came up with the handy guide below to help you find the age of your water heater.

Hybrid water heaters, also known as heat pump water heaters, are among the best-kept secret in home appliances. Though their heat pump technology makes them ultra-efficient, hybrid water heaters are also notable for performing as well or better than standard electric tanks, with a long lifespan and unmatched savings, to boot.

Sound too good to be true? Here’s how it’s possible.

The heat pump in a hybrid water heater works by capturing heat from the surrounding air and transferring it to the tank. This is much more efficient than standard electric water heaters, which work hard to generate their own heat. In fact, hybrid water heaters use just 40% of the electricity consumed by conventional models — a difference you’ll notice on your electric bill.

Planning your HVAC service this summer will be different than any other summer. As a matter of fact with COVID-19 uncertainty, everything this summer will change for the better good of keeping our communities healthy and safe. 

If you’re a homeowner needing your heating and cooling system serviced, repaired or replaced, Bend Heating & Sheet Metal can help. Over the past month, we’ve made internal changes such as limiting employee contact, wearing protective gear, working remotely for those who can, sanitizing our office and shop, and offering curb side pickup for sheet metal projects. 

By making the necessary changes early, we assure that we are here to help, providing full service and availability with healthy employees.  

In compliance with an executive order from the office of Governor Brown regarding COVID-19 measures, we are implementing social distancing policies in our office in order to remain open to best serve our customers. 

All of our service employees are required to stay in their work vans when receiving their service orders from service manager. When servicing our customers they are required to respect the social distancing order and follow strict protocol when following customers wishes on social distancing. 

We are still open for estimates for new equipment and installation. 

We will continue to serve our customers as safely as possible until further notice. 

Stay well,

From all of us at Bend Heating.

We wanted to provide an update on our ductless heat pump promotion for manufactured homes that launched in March 2019. Bend Heating was the exclusive heating and cooling contractor in Bend, OR to have been chosen by The Energy Trust of Oregon to professionally install ducted or ductless heat pumps for manufactured homes. And now that is was proven a success, the offer has been extended through December, 31 2019!

2 Year Heat Pump Study

In 2017, Bend Heating began a study with Energy Trust of Oregon that installed heat pumps or ductless heat pumps for 60 manufactured homes. Energy Trust of Oregon audited the differences in energy draw between newly installed heat pumps and electric furnaces. The difference was incredible. Homeowners saw a reduction in energy bills of over 50%. For this reason and many others, Bend Heating was selected as the only heating and cooling company in Central Oregon to be a part of this of this program.

“I love my new ductless heat pump. It’s working great and I couldn’t be happier.”

Dan Peterson