Furnace Repair in Kodiak, AK
If your furnace quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Kodiak Island Borough will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Your furnace never really gets a break here
In Kodiak your furnace runs all 12 months of the year, not just through the winter. Even on the nights it isn't fighting a 27°F low, it's still cycling to keep the house at temperature. That's a lot more starts and stops over a year than a furnace in most places ever sees, and every one of those cycles puts wear on the igniter and the burner.
Most homes here heat with fuel oil, so the oil furnace's own parts, the nozzle, the burner, the ignition system, are what tend to wear first under that kind of year-round use. And with power in Alaska going out for a full day or more in a fair number of households each year, a furnace that depends on electricity to run its blower and controls can leave you without heat even when the furnace itself is fine.
NOAA 1991–2020 monthly normals
Alaska requires contractors to register with the state.
That registration means the contractor's business is on file with the state. Nobody tested their gas or furnace knowledge to get that number. The state isn't vouching for the work, only recording who is doing business under that name.
For a furnace repair, the gas connection is the part that matters most, because that is where a mistake turns dangerous. Alaska's registration does not cover that. It is a record of who is allowed to operate as a contractor, not a check on how the work is done.
Source: Alaska Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Start with the thermostat. Make sure it's set to heat and the temperature is above room temperature, since a setting bumped by accident is the simplest fix. If that's not it, check the breaker, since a tripped one will shut the whole system down. Furnaces built on fuel oil also need power to run the burner and blower, so if your house lost power recently, the furnace won't restart on its own. If the thermostat, breaker, and power are all fine and it still won't run, a contractor needs to look at the ignition system.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most often this means the blower is running but the burner hasn't lit. Check the thermostat fan setting first. If it's set to "on" rather than "auto", the blower runs constantly and will push cold air between heating cycles, which feels like a problem when it isn't. If the fan is set to auto and you're still getting cold air, the igniter or the flame sensor may be failing to light the burner, and that calls for a contractor to check it out.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This usually means the thermocouple has worn out. It's the small part that sits in the pilot flame and tells the gas valve the flame is lit. Once it fails, the valve shuts the gas off as a safety measure even though you just relit the pilot. A draft blowing out the flame is another common cause, worth ruling out before assuming it's the thermocouple. Either way, a contractor can test which one it is and replace the part.