It’s midnight. It’s -15°F outside. You hear a loud bang, and then your furnace goes quiet. Or it’s July and your AC stops blowing cold air during a heat wave. In both cases, your instinct is to call someone immediately, and that’s exactly right. But in the minutes before your technician arrives, there are things you can do that help keep your family safe and even speed up the repair. Here’s the playbook.
When Your Furnace Stops Working in Winter
Step 1: Don’t Panic, Check the Simple Stuff First
Before anything else, run through this quick checklist:
- Thermostat: Is it set to “Heat” and above your current room temperature? Is it displaying anything? Try replacing the batteries.
- Circuit breaker: Check your electrical panel. A tripped furnace breaker is surprisingly common. If it’s tripped, reset it once. If it trips again immediately, don’t keep resetting, call us.
- Power switch: Most furnaces have an on/off switch on the wall nearby that looks like a light switch. Make sure it’s in the “On” position.
- Gas supply: If you have gas service, make sure the valve near your furnace is open (parallel to the pipe = open, perpendicular = closed).
- Filter: A completely clogged filter can cause your furnace to shut off on a safety limit. Pull the filter out and check it.
Step 2: Safety First, Gas Smells
If you smell gas:
- Do not touch any switches or electrical devices
- Get everyone out of the house immediately
- Call your gas utility or 911 from outside
- Do not re-enter until cleared
This is not the time to troubleshoot. Gas leaks are a life-safety emergency that takes priority over everything else.
Step 3: Keep Your Home From Getting Dangerously Cold
While you wait for a technician:
- Gather the family in one room and close doors to keep body heat concentrated
- Use electric space heaters if you have them, keep them away from anything flammable and never leave them unattended
- Seal drafts under doors with towels or blankets
- Protect your pipes, if it’s extremely cold and going to take a while, open cabinet doors under sinks and let a thin trickle of water run to prevent freezing
- Layer up, have everyone get into winter layers, use sleeping bags if it’s getting very cold
Step 4: Note What You Heard or Saw
When the technician arrives, any information helps: Did you hear a bang, a click, a long run cycle before shutdown? Did you smell anything? When did it last work normally? What does the thermostat display say? The more detail you can provide, the faster the diagnosis.
When Your AC Stops Working in a Heat Wave
Step 1: Check the Basics
- Thermostat: Set to “Cool,” temperature below current room temp, fan on “Auto”
- Circuit breaker: AC units often have two breakers, one in your main panel, and a disconnect box near the outdoor unit. Check both.
- Outdoor unit: Is it running? Is there ice on the refrigerant lines? If the lines are iced up, turn the system to “Fan Only” for an hour before calling. Ice buildup can cause the system to stop cooling.
- Air filter: A clogged filter causes poor airflow which can cause the system to freeze up or run inefficiently.
Step 2: Keep Your Home Cooler
- Block sunlight, close blinds and curtains, especially on south and west-facing windows
- Move to the lowest floor, heat rises, basements stay cooler
- Use fans to move air, even if it’s warm air, it helps with evaporative cooling on skin
- Stay hydrated, especially important for children and elderly family members
- Minimize heat sources, avoid cooking, turn off lights and electronics you don’t need
Step 3: Check for Vulnerable Family Members
Heat is more dangerous than cold for vulnerable people. If you have elderly parents, young children, or family members with health conditions, make a plan early, get to an air-conditioned location (library, shopping mall, neighbor’s house) if your home is getting dangerously warm.
Information to Have Ready When You Call
When you call Maverick’s, or any HVAC tech, having this ready helps:
- Your address and best phone number to reach you
- Make, model, and age of your equipment (usually on a label on the unit itself)
- What happened: When did it stop? What did you hear or smell?
- Current temperature inside your home
- Whether it’s a furnace, AC, heat pump, or boiler
One Last Thing: Call Early, Not Late
Emergency calls that come in at 11pm during a deep freeze are harder to respond to than calls that come in at 3pm when you first notice something is off. If your system is behaving strangely, cycling oddly, making new sounds, not quite keeping up, call us before it becomes a full failure. A diagnostic call now is much better than an emergency call later.
At Maverick’s Heating & Air, we answer emergency calls 24/7 for the Brainerd Lakes Area. Call (218) 316-0550 and we’ll get to you as fast as we can.