HVAC Repair in Elkhart, IN
Homes here need heat from October through May and cooling from June through August. If your system quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Elkhart County will get in touch.
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Elkhart County asks a lot of your system, most of the year
Your furnace and your air conditioner both earn their keep here. Heat runs October through May, eight months. Cooling picks up in June and carries through August. That leaves your system idle maybe a month all year.
Winter nights averaging 20°F mean the burner is cycling on and off for hours at a stretch, and every cycle puts wear on the igniter and the parts that control it. Most homes here heat with gas, so when that igniter finally gives out, the house goes cold and stays cold until it's replaced. Summer afternoons near 82°F push the other way, running the compressor hard on the hottest days. And with storms knocking out power often enough in this state that homes go a full day dark, a system that's already worn has less room to recover once the power comes back on.
- 8 months
- October through May, your system heats
- 3 months
- June through August, it cools
- 20°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 82°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace and air conditioner would cut about $130 a year off heating and cooling for a typical Elkhart County home.
Estimates for a typical Elkhart County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Indiana fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Repair makes sense when one part has failed.
Replacement makes sense when the furnace's heat exchanger is cracked, the air conditioner's compressor has failed, or repairs keep coming.
In Indiana, HVAC licensing for homes is left to the counties and cities.
Elkhart County decides who can do this work, not the state. Indiana has no state HVAC license and keeps no state record of who is qualified. Whatever rule applies here comes from the county or the city the house sits in, and it holds only where that local government has chosen to license or register HVAC contractors at all.
On a repair job, that means the license question has no state answer to fall back on. Gas connections are the part that has to be right, since a bad one is what makes the job dangerous, and whether that gets checked depends on whatever Elkhart County or the city inside it requires for this kind of work. Where no local rule exists, there is no record of who did it or how.
Sources: Indiana Department of Workforce Development · State of Indiana
- Why is my heat not working?
- Most often it is the igniter, a flame sensor that has coated over, or the thermostat calling for heat when the furnace is not responding to it. Gas furnaces will not fire if the igniter has failed, since nothing lights the burners. If the blower runs but no warm air comes out, check the air filter first. A filter clogged with dust chokes off airflow and can shut the furnace down as a safety measure. If the whole system is dead, including the blower, check the breaker and any switch that looks like a light switch near the furnace, since that shuts off power to it.
- Why is my system running but not cooling the house?
- If the outdoor unit and indoor blower are both running but the air is not cold, check the filter first. A clogged filter starves the coil of airflow, and ice can build up on it, which stops cooling even though everything sounds like it is working. Look at the outdoor unit too. If the coil or fins are packed with grass clippings or leaves, the system cannot shed heat properly. If the filter is clean and the outdoor unit is clear but the house still is not cooling, the refrigerant charge or a part inside the outdoor unit needs a contractor to look at it.
- What can I check before calling for HVAC repair?
- Start with the thermostat. Make sure it is set to heat or cool as needed and that the batteries are not dead. Check the air filter next and replace it if it is gray or clogged, since that alone causes a lot of no-heat and no-cool calls. Look at the breaker panel for a tripped breaker, and if the furnace has a power switch nearby, make sure it is on. If the outdoor unit is not running, clear away anything blocking it, leaves, grass, or ice. If you have done all this and the system still is not working right, a contractor will need to look at what is inside it.