Reasons Why Your Heater Is Not Heating

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During the cold seasons, it is important to have your heater working, although at times this may not be the case. There are a number of reasons that may be the cause of your heater not working. We will look at some of the reasons below:

  1. Poor Maintenance

Heater

During the winter season, this is possibly the number one reason why there are so many calls of a heater that is not working. More often, there is usually no problem with the heater as its plainly just dirty; this is seen when:

  • There are dirty burners as it prevents the heater to work efficiently
  • The dirty air filters hinder airflow, amplifying the existing problem due to improper duct sizing. Hence, it is a requirement that you change your filters in every 90 days.
  • A dirty blower motor leads to equipment failure. The heat exchanger does not work until it has enough cool air moving across it; thus preventing it from overheating. Therefore, when the motor is dirty, the heat exchanger will not have enough of the moving air leading to it to not heating.
  • You have a flame sensor that is dirty, as it will not light the burners. This is because it will cut off the moment it turns on.

Therefore, to have your heater working efficiently you can have an annual maintenance program. Have a professional clean your heater yearly.

  1. A Dead Capacitor

A blower capacitor looks like a big battery. It starts the furnace when the setting of the thermostat tells it to turn on. The capacitors has levels of tolerance, if it’s below a certain level the blower will not be able to reach the proper RPM or it simply will not start the blower.

In worst cases, the capacitor can lead to a blower malfunction which is very costly to repair. This means that your heat will not turn on. Therefore, it is important that you ensure your capacitor tolerance is checked during the routine inspections. If they are already dying, it’s best that you replace them.

  1. Too Much Gas

The heater manufacturers have the specs for the amount of gas that their equipment ought to burn. Calibrating of the equipment during installation is important, in order to ensure that it works efficiently. This is to avoid it from not working at an inconvenient time.

An improperly calibrated heater burns a lot of gas, which with time will result to;

  • The heater overheating which will leads to the heater cycling on a limit switch or
  • You overpaying for gas during the winter period

A combustion analysis should be done during the annual inspection of the heater. From the analysis you will be able to tell if your heater is burning too much gas.

The above mentioned reasons are just some of reasons that will cause your heater not to heat. Other reasons include; an improper ductwork installation and a bad inducer draft motor among others.  All things consider you can avoid problems with your heater by having a routine inspection done.