Furnace Repair in Flint, MI
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Genesee County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eight months of winter work
Your furnace runs from October through May here, eight months of the year. On nights that average 19°F through December through February, it cycles on and off most of the night to hold the house steady. Most homes in Flint heat with gas, and that furnace is doing more starts and stops over more months than homes in milder places ever ask of one.
Genesee County has logged 16 winter storms and 71 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and across Michigan more than a third of households lost power for at least a day in 2024. When the power drops in the middle of a cold stretch, the furnace stops with it, and it needs to come back on the moment the power does. That kind of strain, cold nights and sudden outages both, is what tends to catch up with an igniter or a control board first.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 19°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 81%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 16 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace would cut about $150 a year off heating for a typical Genesee County home.
Estimates for a typical Genesee County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Michigan fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Repair makes sense when one part has failed and the heat exchanger is sound.
Replacement makes sense when the heat exchanger is cracked or the furnace keeps needing parts.
Michigan requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The license is issued to the contractor, not to the job. That means the state has tested this business and keeps a record of it, but it does not mean a state inspector signs off on your furnace repair once the work is done. The license is what tells you this contractor met Michigan's standard to do the work at all.
With gas furnaces as common as they are in Genesee County, the part of the job worth caring about is the gas connection itself. That is what makes a bad repair dangerous, not just ineffective. Michigan's licensing covers the contractor doing that work, and it is the license that stands behind whoever connects your furnace to the gas line.
Sources: Michigan Legislature · Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Most often the thermostat isn't calling for heat the way you think it is, or power isn't reaching the furnace. Check that the thermostat is set above room temperature and has fresh batteries if it uses them. Then check the furnace switch, the one that looks like a light switch near the unit, and the breaker for it. If those are fine, the igniter or the flame sensor may have failed, and that's a job for a licensed contractor to test.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- If air is moving but it's not warm, the furnace may be running its fan without the burners lighting. That points to an ignition problem, a clogged filter starving the burners of air, or a gas supply issue. A dirty filter is worth checking first since it's the one thing you can rule out yourself. If the filter is clean and you're still getting cold air after a minute or two, the burners aren't lighting and a contractor needs to find out why.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This usually means the thermocouple has worn out and can no longer hold the gas valve open once you let go. A draft blowing out the flame is possible too, so check that nothing near the furnace is pushing air across it. If you relight it and it goes out again within a minute, the thermocouple is the likely cause. Older furnaces with a standing pilot don't use any power to keep that flame lit, so a power outage isn't the reason it went out.