Furnace Repair in SeaTac, WA

When those bone-chilling SeaTac winds come howling, you need a furnace that’s up for battling the bitter chill – no ifs, ands, or buts. Since 1964, local homeowners have trusted the furnace repair masters at Fox to get their heating systems back into fighting shape at the first signs of trouble.

Our team boasts over 60 years of combined experience precisely diagnosing furnace faults and delivering long-lasting fixes right the first time, no guesswork. With fully stocked warehouses on wheels and a commitment to upfront pricing, we’ll have you toasty in a jiffy without any unpleasant surprises.

When your furnace starts going haywire, don’t get left out in the cold. Call the rapid-response pros at Fox anytime at (206) 654-4986 to schedule your furnace repair service today. Your satisfaction is guaranteed!

Fox’s Furnace Repair Services in SeaTac, WA

The Fox team has been SeaTac’s go-to furnace repair crew for decades, and here’s a little peek at the full-service TLC we provide:

Comprehensive Diagnostics

The first step is always getting to the bottom of what’s actually going on. Our techs will thoroughly inspect every nook and cranny of your furnace, running all the tests to accurately pinpoint the root cause. No more throwing darts in the dark!

Thermostat Repair and Calibration

If your thermostat has a bad case of hot/cold confusion or your furnace is ignoring its commands, we’ll get in there to set things straight. Wiring issues, calibration problems – we’ve seen it all. We can even upgrade you to one of those snazzy programmable models if you’re feeling fancy.

Blower Motor Repair and Replacement

That big blower motor is the heart pumping all that cozy air through your ductwork. When it starts sputtering and wheezing, we’ll get it repaired or swapped out for a fresh one to keep that airflow going strong.

Heat Exchanger Repair

The heat exchanger is kind of a big deal – any cracks or damages can cause scary combustion gas leaks. We’ll give it a thorough inspection and professional repair to seal up any safety risks.

Gas Furnace Repairs

If you’ve got a gas furnace, we’re the guys to call for any issues with the ignition system, gas valves, burners, you name it. Our techs know gas components like the back of their calloused hands.

Electric Furnace Repairs

For electric furnaces, we can deal with issues like bad relays, wiring problems, burned-out heating elements – anything on that side of things. We’ll get those electrical faults chased out!

Emergency Furnace Repairs

Let’s face it, furnaces always seem to act up at the worst possible times. That’s why we offer 24/7 emergency repair services. Just give us a holler anytime and we’ll get that heat restored pronto!

Maintenance Services

A little preventative TLC goes a long way to keep your furnace running like a top for years to come. We provide complete tune-up services to minimize surprise breakdowns and keep everything humming.

There you have it – the full furnace repair rundown straight from the Fox team! Whether it’s a quick fix or major overhaul, we’ve got you covered to bring back that cozy home comfort.

How Do I Know If My Furnace Needs Repair?

Your furnace will start dropping little hints when something’s amiss and it’s time for some professional TLC. Here are some of the most common red flags to watch out for that your heating system needs a repair:

Strange Noises

If your furnace has started sounding more like a demolition site with all the clanking, rattling, and screeching going on, that’s a surefire sign something isn’t quite right internally. Excessive racket and out-of-the-ordinary noises are never a good sign for any mechanical system.

Hot and Cold Rooms

When some rooms in your home are feeling like a sauna while others have you cuddling up in a parka, that’s your furnace struggling with inconsistent heating. Could be anything from a bad blower motor to clogged ductwork restricting airflow. Uneven temperatures are a major comfort complaint.

Energy Bill Spikes

If those heating bills went from manageable to making you choke on your morning coffee, it likely means your furnace is having to work way overtime due to some repair need. That increased energy usage is an expensive warning sign that something’s amiss.

Frequent Cycling

Does your furnace seem to be constantly turning on and off over and over again in quick succession? That short-cycling usually points to something amiss with the airflow, thermostat settings or wiring, or an electrical system issue that needs diagnosis.

Odd Smells

If you’re getting whiffs of something burning, a harsh chemical odor, or gas-like smells when the furnace kicks on, that’s an urgent red flag. It could mean you’ve got a cracked heat exchanger leaking combustion gases or another serious hazard requiring professional repairs immediately.

Poor Air Quality

As furnace components get older and dirtier over years of service, your home’s indoor air quality can suffer. If you’re noticing more dust or that lingering burnt smell sticking around even when the system isn’t running, it’s likely time for some repair love or potentially a full system replacement.

If anything seems out of the ordinary with your furnace’s sounds, heating performance, monthly costs, or effects on your home comfort and air quality, it never hurts to get one of our certified Fox techs to come take a look and diagnose it. 

Addressing repair needs promptly prevents those minor issues from snowballing into bigger, costlier breakdowns!

What are the Common Causes of Furnace Breakdowns?

Even a reliable workhorse like your furnace can’t keep on trucking forever without the occasional mechanical hiccup. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the most common causes of furnace breakdowns we see:

Clogged Air Filters

You’d be amazed how many problems stem from homeowners neglecting their air filters. When they get clogged up with dust and grime, it restricts airflow and causes your furnace to work overtime. Regularly replacing those filters is crucial!

Thermostat Troubles

Whether it’s wiring issues, calibration problems, or just a bad thermostat altogether, any disruption in your furnace’s command center can lead to erratic cycling issues and other wacky operation. An unresponsive or inaccurate thermostat is a recipe for breakdowns.

Worn-Out Blower Motors

That hardworking blower motor is responsible for circulating all the hot air through your ductwork. As they age and bearings wear out, they’ll eventually burn out, leaving you without that crucial airflow. Blower replacements are super common.

Cracked Heat Exchangers

For gas furnaces, a crack in the heat exchanger is an urgent issue allowing combustion gases to leak into your home’s air supply. It’s a safety hazard requiring immediate repairs or replacement.

Electrical System Faults

Furnaces have a ton of electrical components like circuit boards, sensors, and relays that control operation. When those electrical systems get glitchy due to age or power surges, you’ll start seeing all sorts of strange symptoms.

Lack of Maintenance

At the end of the day, the biggest culprit is often just lack of routine maintenance and tune-ups. An ounce of prevention goes a long way in catching small issues before they snowball into bigger breakdowns.

The good news is, with comprehensive inspections and a little preventative TLC from our Fox technicians, most of these common breakdown causes can be caught early and addressed! Staying on top of repairs and maintenance is key to prolonging your furnace’s lifespan.

Should I Repair or Replace My Furnace?

When your furnace is on its last legs and those repair bills are stacking up, the million dollar question starts looming: Is it time to bite the bullet and replace the whole system, or just keep limping it along with repairs? Here are some key factors to consider:

Age of Your Furnace

If your furnace is relatively modern, under 10-12 years old, repairs are generally the more cost-effective route as long as it was a quality unit. But if that rusty old thing is pushing 15+ years, you’re likely better off with a full system replacement to gain major efficiency and reliability upgrades.

Cost of the Repair

This one’s a biggie – if the repair estimate is a sizable chunk of change, say $500 or more, it’s worth weighing whether that money could be better spent towards the cost of a new furnace installation. Smaller repairs are usually easier to justify.

Energy Efficiency Gains

Speaking of which, a new furnace is going to be lightyears more energy efficient than your old clunker, especially if it’s over 15 years old. You could be looking at 25-40% savings on those heating bills! Those efficiency gains can help offset the upfront replacement costs over time.

Home Comfort Impacts

Don’t underestimate the value of just having a system you can rely on for consistent, even heating without hot/cold rooms or air quality issues. There’s something to be said for the peace of mind and comfort benefits a new furnace provides.

Repair Frequency

If your furnace has been nickel-and-diming you with frequent breakdowns and repair calls, it may be a sign that it’s just getting too old and worn out to keep bandaging up affordably. Replacing avoids that repair whack-a-mole.

At the end of the day, our Fox techs can inspect your system and provide an honest assessment of whether affordable repairs can extend its life, or if it’s truly reached that point where replacement is the smarter investment. We’ll crunch the numbers to help you make the right call!

Why Is Regular Furnace Maintenance Important?

Consistent professional maintenance of your home’s heating system is crucial for a few key reasons:

Extends Lifespan

Let’s face it, furnaces aren’t cheap. So you’ll want to get every last year possible out of your investment. Keeping up with annual tune-ups, cleaning, and preventative care is the best way to maximize its lifespan. Neglect leads to premature breakdowns.

Improves Performance

Even with regular air filter changes, a furnace gets progressively dirtier and out-of-whack over each heating season. That buildup puts strain on components and robs efficiency. Maintenance restores it to peak operating condition to keep your home evenly heated.

Reduces Repair Costs

What costs more – a tune-up or a repair bill when your heat exchanger cracks? Preventative maintenance allows technicians to catch small issues early before they snowball into bigger problems requiring major fixes.

Maintains Safety

For gas furnaces, a well-maintained system means properly calibrated burners, venting, and heat exchangers to prevent hazardous gas leaks or fire risks. Neglect those areas and you’re playing with fire (and carbon monoxide poisoning).

Protects Warranty

Many manufacturer’s warranties require professional maintenance records to remain valid. Skip those tune-ups and you could be voiding your only protection for expensive component replacements.

Saves Energy & Money

When your furnace has to work harder thanks to dust buildup, airflow restrictions, and poor calibration, you pay through bloated heating bills. Maintenance restores peak efficiency to keep energy costs under control.

Remember that furnaces are hardworking appliances with a lot of moving parts. Devoting a little yearly TLC through professional maintenance is cheap insurance to prevent that heating system from giving out on you when you need it most. Consider it an investment in your comfort, safety and peace of mind!

What Should I Do If My Furnace Stops Working at Night?

There’s nothing quite like being woken up in the middle of the night by your furnace suddenly going silent and cold air seeping in. It’s a rude, shivery awakening that nobody wants to deal with. 

If you find yourself in that situation, here are some tips on troubleshooting and determining if it’s a middle-of-the-night emergency:

Check the Obvious

Before heading into full panic mode, go through the basic checks first. Ensure the thermostat is set to “heat” and your temperature setting is higher than the current room temp. Take a peek at the circuit breaker and make sure it hasn’t tripped. Sometimes the solutions are simple!

Listen for Sounds

With the system turned on, go give your furnace a listen. If you hear the blower running but no ignition firing up, you may have an ignition control or gas valve issue. Loud banging could indicate an overheated air filter or blower problem.

Look for Lights

Many modern furnaces have little diagnostic lights that can clue you in to what’s wrong. A flashing light code may indicate issues like a bad sensor, pressure faults, or other component failures you can’t readily troubleshoot yourself.

Feel for Airflow

Carefully pass your hand over air registers and vents. If there’s little to no airflow, you likely have a blower motor or ductwork obstruction preventing air circulation. But if the air feels warm, it may just be a thermostat calibration issue.

Inspect the Filter

While you’re at it, check your furnace’s air filter. If it’s heavily clogged and dirty, that could be starving the system of airflow and causing it to overheat and shut off frequently.

If you’ve gone through these basic checks and either can’t identify the issue or it seems like a serious problem, don’t try to be a hero. That’s the time to call in the professionals at Fox for an emergency furnace repair visit. Attempting DIY fixes on a complex system like this can quickly turn dangerous.

Our techs are on-call 24/7 with fully-stocked trucks to get your heat back up and running quickly and safely. There’s no need to be shivering all night! Just give us a call and we’ll have someone headed your way in no time.

What are the Risks of Delaying Furnace Repairs?

Here are some of the biggest risks of delaying needed furnace repairs:

Carbon Monoxide Dangers

For gas furnaces, cracks or leaks in the heat exchanger or venting can allow deadly carbon monoxide to seep into your home’s air supply. This odorless, toxic gas is no joke – it causes thousands of poisonings each year. Addressing CO hazards promptly is a matter of safety.

Escalating Damage

What may have started as a minor issue like a worn-out blower motor will inevitably snowball into bigger problems if left unchecked. Pretty soon that blower could burn out the circuit board or overheat and crack the heat exchanger. Nipping little repairs in the bud prevents costlier collateral damage.

Spiking Energy Bills

As your furnace gets increasingly out-of-whack, it has to work way harder and run longer cycles to overcome its inefficiencies. That massive energy waste gets reflected in skyrocketing heating bills month after month until you address the root cause.

Air Quality Issues

From circulating dust and debris to burnt electrical smells, a furnace in disrepair can severely impact your home’s air quality over time. Poor indoor air can trigger allergies, asthma attacks and other health issues.

Uneven Heating

When key components like blower motors or ductwork leaks start failing, you’ll start noticing hot and cold rooms throughout your home as airflow becomes inconsistent. Talk about an uncomfortable winter!

Fire Hazards

Electrical issues, overheated components, or gas leaks can all potentially lead to fires breaking out if a furnace problem goes unchecked for too long. It’s just not worth risking your home over an ignored repair need.

Putting off recommended furnace repairs won’t make those issues go away. In fact, it usually just makes them bigger, more hazardous, and more expensive headaches to finally address down the line. When our Fox techs identify a repair need, you can trust their advice to get it fixed before real trouble brews!

Why Does My Furnace Turn On and Off Frequently?

There’s nothing more annoying than a furnace that just can’t seem to make up its mind – constantly cycling on and off in quick bursts instead of running steady. If your heating system has a bad case of the start-and-stops, here are some of the most common culprits behind that erratic behavior:

Dirty Air Filters

Clogged air filters are very often to blame for short-cycling issues. When airflow gets restricted, it causes your furnace to overheat and shut off before satisfying the thermostat setting. Changing those filters regularly is crucial!

Thermostat Troubles

Whether it’s bad wiring, drained batteries, or just poor placement leading to “ghost” readings, a faulty or improperly located thermostat can easily confuse your furnace into that constant on/off cycle as it struggles to match mixed signals.

Oversized Furnace

If your furnace is simply too big and powerful for the square footage it’s trying to heat, it can cause short-cycling. An oversized unit will heat the space too rapidly, then shut off before running through its full cycle, repeating the process again and again.

Airflow Restrictions

From closed/blocked vents and registers to leaky ductwork, anything impeding airflow can trigger short-cycling. Your furnace needs adequate airflow to operate properly. Remove obstructions and seal up any duct leaks.

Mechanical Wear and Tear

As critical components like blower motors or flame sensors start wearing out over years of service, they can cause your furnace to cycle erratically before eventually failing completely. Preventative maintenance and repairs are key.

Outside Temperature Swings

Believe it or not, even drastic outdoor temperature shifts can occasionally trigger short-cycling issues. Extreme cold puts more strain on a system, causing it to cycle rapidly until interior temps stabilize.

While short bursts of running are normal during initial startup, persistent short-cycling puts serious strain on furnace components and should be addressed promptly. Calling in one of our Fox HVAC techs to inspect and diagnose the root cause can quickly get your system operating smoothly and efficiently again!

Keep That Home Fireplace Burning with Fox

When those brutal winter winds start howling outside your SeaTac home, you need a heating crew you can truly rely on to keep things toasty. For over 60 years now, that’s been the Fox family’s furnace experts.

Since 1964, we’ve been providing honest, quality work that treats every customer like family. Today, that same unwavering commitment guides our team of certified furnace techs. With fully-stocked trucks at the ready 24/7, we’re always prepped to tackle any heating issue causing chaos.

Whether it’s a quick tune-up or major system overhaul, our pros have seen every furnace problem under the sun. We understand upfront pricing and deliver nothing but permanent fixes – your satisfaction is our #1 priority.

So if your home’s heating system has you feeling like you’re stuck out in the cold, call Fox’s rapid-response team at (206) 654-4986. We’ll have a repair truck headed your way at a moment’s notice to get you basking in cozy warmth again. Hassle-free service? You’d better believe it!