Furnace Repair in Fayetteville, AR
Furnaces here run from October through April. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Washington County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Seven months of work, every year
Your furnace runs from October through April here, about seven months a year. On winter nights that average 29°F, it cycles on and off for hours at a time to hold the house steady. Each cycle puts a little more wear on the igniter and the flame sensor, the parts that have to work every single time the burner lights.
Almost half the homes in this area heat with electricity, and Washington County sees its share of winter storms and wind, sixteen winter storms and ninety-nine damaging wind events over the last ten years. When the power drops, the furnace stops with it, and in Arkansas about a quarter of households went at least a day without power in 2024. If your furnace has been struggling to keep up or won't come back on after an outage, that is the season catching up with it.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace is on duty
- 29°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 16 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Arkansas requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The license belongs to the contractor, not to any single job, so it travels with them from one house to the next. Because the state handles this, cities and counties in Arkansas aren't allowed to add their own license requirement on top of it.
For a furnace repair, that means the person working on your gas connections and burner assembly has already been tested and is on record with the state, wherever in Arkansas you happen to live. That accountability doesn't reset at the county line.
Source: Arkansas Department of Labor and Licensing
- 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 make sure the batteries aren't dead if it has a screen. 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 at your panel. A furnace that still won't start with power confirmed at both spots usually has a failed igniter, a bad flame sensor, or a safety switch holding it off, and that calls for a licensed contractor to test it.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most often this means the furnace is still warming up, since it takes a few minutes for air to heat once the blower starts. If cold air keeps coming after several minutes, check your filter first. A clogged filter can choke off airflow and trip the furnace's limit switch, which shuts the burners off but leaves the blower running. If the filter is clean and you're still getting cold air, the igniter or gas valve may not be lighting the burners at all, which is a job for a licensed contractor.
- 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. That's the small sensor next to the flame that tells the gas valve the pilot is burning, and once it fails, the valve shuts the gas off as a safety measure even though the flame was fine. A draft blowing across the pilot or a dirty pilot opening can cause the same thing. Since this involves the gas valve, have a licensed Arkansas HVAC contractor take a look rather than repeatedly relighting it yourself.