Furnace Repair in Dover-Foxcroft, ME
Furnaces here run from September through June. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Piscataquis County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Ten months of heat, nights near zero
Your furnace in Dover-Foxcroft runs from September through June. That is ten months a year, with only a short break in summer. Winter nights average 6°F from December through February, so the burner is cycling on and off for hours at a stretch to hold the house at temperature. Every one of those cycles puts a load on the igniter and the burner assembly, and over ten months that adds up faster than it would somewhere milder.
More than half the homes here heat with fuel oil, which means an oil burner, a nozzle, and a filter doing that work night after night. Piscataquis County also sees its share of winter storms, and when the power goes out, an oil furnace with no backup power goes out with it. If your furnace has gone quiet on a cold night, or it is running constantly and still not keeping up, that is what ten months of Dover-Foxcroft winter does to it.
- 10 months
- September through June, your furnace is on duty
- 6°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 147 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Start with the thermostat. Check that it's set to heat and the temperature is above room temperature, and if it runs on batteries, try fresh ones. If the thermostat looks fine, check the furnace switch, the one that looks like a light switch near the unit, and the breaker for the furnace. Fuel oil furnaces also need to have oil in the tank, so if yours runs on oil, check the gauge. If all of that checks out and the furnace still won't start, the igniter or a safety switch may be the problem, and that calls for a contractor to look at it.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most of the time this means the blower is running but the burner hasn't lit, or hasn't lit yet. A furnace fan can take a minute to push out warm air after it starts, so cold air for a short stretch is normal. If the air stays cold, check the thermostat fan setting. Set to "on" it runs constantly, even between heating cycles, and that constant air will feel cold. If it's set to "auto" and you're still getting cold air, something is keeping the burner from lighting, and a contractor will need to find out what.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This usually points to the thermocouple, the small sensor that tells the furnace the pilot is actually burning. When it wears out or sits out of position, it reads the flame as out even when it isn't, and shuts the gas off. A draft blowing across the pilot can also snuff it out on its own. Either way, a pilot that won't hold is a repair job, not something to keep relighting on your own.