Costs of Heating Repairs

Heating systems, especially furnaces, are more complex than you think. It's not just a fire in a big pot with a couple of water pipes thrown in for good measure. Instead there is a sophisticated system not only to burn but to maintain that temperature and exchange the heat in a regulated way. That means there is the thermostat, the sensors, and the circuit board to deal with as well as the more obvious elements like valves and blower motors. As with any machine the better you keep it serviced the less you will end up spending on expensive replacement parts but since furnace systems are typically in use for decades it's wise to prepare for the fact that sooner or later you're going to have spend on new parts.
 
Call Out Costs
No matter what the cost of the repair you will have to pay for the call out – unless you have a maintenance contract with us which allows for a certain number of visits. Call out costs vary enormously from one company to the next and while the standard call out fee can be as little as 50 dollars you should be aware that for reasons of staffing and logistics call out prices are higher at the weekend, on holidays, and out of hours.  So while we offer emergency call out because we never leave our customers in the cold, we really recommend that you test your heating before you need it and at the start of a working week to get the best possible call out fee if something needs to be done.
 
Repair or Replace
What you pay depends also on what we do.  Many customers with quality heating systems only start to have to call us in when those systems are getting a little long in the tooth.  By which time replacement of the parts may be a better bet than fixing something which will fail again sooner or later through simple old age.  In some cases we can repair rather than replace but only if we feel that's worthwhile for you.  A flame sensor, for example could cost as little as eighty dollars to fix and three times that to replace so that usually makes sense. A simple thermostat replacement could cost as little as fifty dollars, depending on the model,  and in that case we'd usually recommend just putting in a new one rather than risk paying a little less but ending up fixing twice (or more).

Electrics/Electronics
There are more electronics and circuit boards in your heating system than you think but they're not all equally sophisticated or expensive.  With something like a pressure sensor circuit board we are often able to fix it for a relatively small sum, at least six times less than the cost of replacement and that then makes sense to give it a go.
 
Best Case/Worse Case
Best Case scenario is where the fix is so simple, like a fuse or a nozzle clean, that you're really only looking at the call out charge. Worse case? Well we hate to be the ones to tell you this but if that heat exchanger breaks down and needs replacing we're talking well North of a thousand bucks.