Wouldn’t it be nice if your home’s furnace could work without fail year after year and never need any kind of professional service done on it? We wish this were the case for you, but really the only way of accomplishing this would be to buy a new heater every time your existing one had a problem—and well, that just doesn’t make much sense!
Honestly, even if you are diligent in caring for your furnace, you’ll eventually encounter some problem, even if it’s minor. And the best thing you can do for your furnace is learn to recognize the signs of a problem, so you can contact our team and get repairs on your schedule right away. One of the most common furnace repair calls we get is in regards to a furnace that’s blowing out cold air.
“What’s Happening with My Furnace?”
Sometimes what you’re describing as “cold” air could actually be low airflow, so that’s what we are going to focus on in this blog post. Though as a side note, we will say that if you have a heat pump instead of a furnace, it could really be cold air due to the system being switched to cooling mode.
Repairing airflow issues ASAP is a top priority, particularly if you’re using a gas-powered furnace. This is because whatever’s causing your gas furnace airflow issue could lead to potentially hazardous situations, like overheating or even carbon monoxide leaks. Given that, what causes this issue?
A Clogged Air Filter
The good news is, changing your air filter is an easy task. In fact, it’s one you should be doing on your own every 1–3 months. How often you change or clean your air filter depends on the type of air filter you have and the level of contaminants in your home.
Damaged or Obstructed Ductwork
Your furnace’s air ducts transfer conditioned air throughout your living space, and this portion of your system takes up half of the entire heater. If you’re suffering from ductwork leaks, the results can be detrimental—you’ll definitely notice low airflow, or what feels like lukewarm air, coming from your vents.
Improperly Sized Air Ducts
This somewhat goes along with the damaged or obstructed ducts—except this problem tends to occur when ductwork isn’t properly installed to begin with. The fact of the matter is, if your ductwork is too big or too small, your furnace or heat pump will experience efficiency problems that will end up costing you money.
A Broken Blower Fan
This is the component that enables heated air to actually move through your air ducts and into your home. If your blower has broken down, the air won’t have any momentum, and you’ll feel extremely low airflow, or what feels like air that’s not warm enough, coming through the vents.
Do You Have a Heat Pump?
The tips we shared above applied to furnaces, but heat pumps can have this problem too. As we alluded to above, heat pumps have two modes—heating and cooling. If your heat pump is blowing cold air, the first thing you should do is check to ensure its on heating mode. If it is, but you’re still having a problem, it could be that it is in its defrost cycle. One last possibility is a refrigerant leak—which is something that should be located and repaired ASAP.
For expert Tacoma furnace service and more, contact Sunset Air today!
