If your furnace smells like burning, the most likely cause is dust. A furnace that sat idle all summer collects a thin layer of it on the burners and heat exchanger, and the first real heat of the fall cooks it off. That odour usually fades within a few hours of steady running. A burning smell that keeps coming back, or one that reminds you of hot plastic or wiring, is a different story, because it usually means a part is overheating. Why Your Furnace Smells Like Burning: The Short Answer Most of the time the cause is harmless. Dust…

No, not in a way any licensed technician will stand behind. When people ask whether a furnace heat exchanger can be repaired, they nearly always mean a cracked one, and that gets fixed by replacing the heat exchanger or the whole furnace, never by welding or sealing the metal. What you still get to decide is which of those two replacements makes sense, and that comes down to the age of the unit, the warranty, and the condition of every other component in the cabinet. Can a Heat Exchanger Be Repaired? The Short Answer A cracked heat exchanger gets replaced,…

Most Calgary homeowners who ask about furnace repair cost end up paying somewhere between $200 and $1,500 for the fix, and the $149 service call is what finds the fault in the first place. That range is wide because a furnace has cheap parts and expensive parts, and the price on your invoice depends almost entirely on which one failed. Below are the numbers we actually charge at Calgary Air Heating and Cooling Ltd, what pushes them higher or lower, and how to tell when a repair stops making sense on an older unit. Furnace Repair Cost at a Glance…

The quickest way to tell if a furnace ignitor is bad is to watch and listen to what happens at start-up. A healthy ignitor glows bright orange within a minute of the thermostat calling for heat, and the gas lights a few seconds later. If that glow never shows up, the ignitor is the first part to suspect. This guide covers the signs, the checks you can safely do yourself, and the point where it becomes a technician's job. How to Tell If a Furnace Ignitor Is Bad: The Short Answer Turn the thermostat up a few degrees and watch…