Life is full of surprises.

While we all hope that those surprises come in the form of lottery winnings, more often than not we just get bills and expenses. Having your furnace break down is annoying. Unfortunately it happens from time to time, often without warning. You can reduce the risk of breakdowns with regularly scheduled maintenance, but you still never really know when something will go wrong.

Chances are, your furnace is going to break down when it’s cold outside and you need it most. You’ll probably be tempted to get it fixed as quickly as possible, and who could blame you? Walking around your house in a winter coat is pretty miserable, but it’s important to make sure the right person is performing your furnace repair.

Customers often tell us that they feel like they’re at the mercy of their HVAC contractor. Their main concern is that they don’t know if the prices they’re being charged are fair. At HVAC Philly, we want to provide you with the average furnace repair cost for different problems so you aren’t left in the dark.

Furnace Repair Costs

Let’s start with the basics. If something goes wrong with your furnace, you need to figure out what caused the problem. Sometimes you can do this by yourself, but for hard to diagnose breakdowns, you’ll need to have your HVAC contractor come in and see what’s wrong.

Service Fee. Many HVAC companies will charge you around $99 to send a technician to your house, diagnose the problem, and provide an estimate. Usually, if you hire the HVAC company to repair your furnace, they’ll waive the service fee. HVAC Philly provides free estimates, so give us a call at 215-625-7111 if you need a furnace repair cost estimate.

Filter Replacement. Replacing the filter in your heater is usually considered preventative maintenance. However, if you let your filter get clogged enough, replacing it could be the repair you need. This is something you can and should do yourself. Filters cost less than $20 and are easy to replace. Basically, if something goes wrong with your furnace, the best case scenario is that it can be fixed by replacing a clogged filter.

As we get into more expensive parts, you should know that in some cases, it makes more sense to replace your furnace entirely instead of getting it repaired. Check out our previous post on how to know when to replace your heater.

The Expensive Parts

Gas Valve Replacement. A gas valve ensures that a safe, steady flow of gas gets to your furnace so it can keep you as warm as you need. If you find that the gas valve needs replacing, you can expect a cost of $275 for a furnace gas valve and $400 for a boiler gas valve.

Circuit Board Replacement. The circuit board in your heater controls most operations including the gas valve, furnace ignitor, and flame sensor. Unfortunately, replacing your furnace’s circuit board is one of the most expensive repairs possible. Circuit boards in 2 stage communicating furnaces cost around $575 to replace. Boilers have aquastats, which act as circuit boards and can cost as much as $500 to replace.

Ignitor Replacement. Hot surface ignitors replace standing pilot lights in most newer furnaces and are much more dependable. That being said, they’re not too different from lightbulbs in that they burn out and need to be replaced from time to time. These ignitors can cost up to $220 to replace.

Flame Sensor. A flame sensor is responsible for well, sensing a flame! It ensures that fire is present in your heater so that gas valve isn’t just letting out fuel that won’t get burned. Replacing a flame sensor also costs around $220.

Blower Motor. The blower motor in your furnace pushes heated air through the vents in your home. It’s also the most expensive component to replace in a furnace. We don’t recommend replacing the blower motor unless your furnace is at least 10 years old or has never had maintenance performed on it. Either way, it’s probably going to be more cost effective to get a new furnace installed instead of shelling out $750 for a new blower motor.

Hopefully now you have a better idea of what your furnace repair cost will be. If you live in Philadelphia, Montgomery, or Bucks County, give the HVAC experts at HVAC Philly a call. If you determine that repairing your furnace just isn’t worth it, we offer new furnace installations with a 10 year warranty starting at only $1999.00!

Stay warm my friends.