Furnace Repair in Ellensburg, WA
Furnaces here run from September through June. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Kittitas County will get in touch.
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Ten months of heat a year wears a furnace down early
Ellensburg only gets a couple months off from heating. September through June, the furnace is the thing standing between your family and a 23°F night, and it runs that hard for ten months straight. That kind of duty cycle wears out igniters and blower motors long before a furnace in a milder place would show the same wear.
Most homes here heat with electricity, and Kittitas County gets its share of winter storms, 26 of them over the last ten years. When the power drops, the furnace stops too, and across Washington almost a quarter of households went a full day or more without power in 2024. A furnace that was already struggling to light or slow to blow warm air often won't come back cleanly once the power does.
- 10 months
- September through June, your furnace is on duty
- 23°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 26 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Washington requires contractors to register with the state.
That registration means the contractor's business is on file with the Department of Labor and Industries. There is no trade exam behind it, so it does not mean anyone tested their furnace or gas work. Registration tells you the business is accounted for, not that it was checked for skill.
For a furnace repair, the part that matters most is the gas connection, and Washington's registration does not test for that. The number on file confirms the business is registered with the state. It does not stand in for a check on how the gas work itself was done.
Source: Washington State Legislature
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Most often the thermostat isn't calling for heat, or power to the furnace has been cut off somewhere along the line. Check that the thermostat is set to heat and the batteries are good, then check the breaker and the switch that looks like a light switch on or near the furnace itself. If those are fine, the igniter may have failed, or a safety switch has shut the furnace down because it sensed something wrong. A furnace won't run through a safety switch on purpose. That part needs a contractor to test and replace.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- If air is moving but it isn't warm, the burners likely aren't lighting even though the blower is running. A dirty flame sensor is a common cause. It reads the flame to confirm the burners lit, and once it's coated with residue it can't sense the flame anymore, so the furnace shuts the gas off and just blows air. A clogged filter can also make a furnace run cool by cutting off the air moving across the heat exchanger. If the filter looks clean and air is still cold, the flame sensor or the igniter is the likely cause, and a contractor can clean or replace it.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- A pilot that won't stay lit is usually a sign the thermocouple has worn out or isn't sitting in the flame the way it should. The thermocouple is the small metal rod next to the pilot flame that tells the gas valve the pilot is burning. If it's out of position, coated with soot, or just old, it stops sending that signal and the valve shuts the gas off. A draft blowing across the pilot can also blow it out, so check that a vent or door isn't pushing air toward it. If relighting it doesn't hold, the thermocouple needs to be adjusted or replaced by a contractor.