Furnace Repair in Van Buren, AR
Furnaces here run from October through April. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Crawford County will get in touch.
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Seven months of heat puts a lot of hours on your furnace
From October through April your furnace is the thing standing between your house and a 30°F night. That is seven months of the burner lighting, running, and shutting off, over and over, night after night. Every one of those starts puts wear on the igniter and the parts that get the burner going.
More than half the homes in this area heat with electricity, so when the power goes out, the furnace goes with it. Crawford County has seen 9 winter storms and 60 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and across Arkansas almost a quarter of households lost power for a full day or more in 2024. When the lights flicker back on, a furnace that will not restart on its own is a common way people find out something else needs attention.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace is on duty
- 30°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 9 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 is issued to the contractor, not to the job. Arkansas tests and records the person or business taking on your work, and that record stays with them from one furnace to the next, not with any single repair. Because the state handles this, cities and counties in Arkansas cannot layer on their own HVAC license requirement, so the license you check is the same one anywhere in the state.
For a furnace repair, that license is what stands behind the work. Gas connections are the part that can hurt someone if they are done wrong, and in Arkansas it is the state license, not any city or county rule, that is meant to keep an unqualified contractor off that job in the first place.
Source: Arkansas Department of Labor and Licensing
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Most of the time it's the thermostat, the power, or the gas supply. Check that the thermostat is set to heat and the temperature is above room level, then check the breaker and the furnace's own power switch, which looks like a light switch near the unit. If you have a gas furnace, make sure the gas valve is open. When all of that checks out and the furnace still won't start, the igniter or a safety switch inside the unit may be the problem, and that calls for a licensed contractor to look at it.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- A furnace blows cold air for a few minutes after it starts while it warms up, and that's normal. If it's blowing cold the whole time it runs, the burners may not be lighting even though the blower is, which can point to a bad igniter or flame sensor. A clogged filter can also starve the burners of the airflow they need. Either way, this isn't something to leave alone through a Van Buren winter, since nights here average 30°F from December through February.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- A pilot light that won't stay lit is usually a sign of a weak or failing thermocouple, the small sensor that tells the gas valve the pilot is burning. If it can't sense the flame properly, it shuts the gas off as a safety measure. A draft near the pilot or a dirty pilot orifice can cause the same thing. This is gas equipment, so have a licensed HVAC contractor diagnose it rather than relighting it repeatedly.