A: Follow the pipes back from the leak or burst pipe to find the shut off valve closest to the leak. If you cannot find an in-line shut off valve you can turn off your main shut off, which should be located in your basement near an ouside wall with the water meter. If it's a bad leak, turn the water off first, then call us ;-)

 

A: One of the biggest tasks for us as the contractor is making sure we send the correct person to handle your needs. What you can do to help us better serve you is to know what kind of heating system you have in your home.

Forced Hot Air: Blows air out through registers either located in the wall, ceiling or floor.

Forced Hot Water: You will have raidiators or baseboard on your outside walls that warm up and put off heat to heat your home.

Electric Heat: You will have raidiators on your out side walls that warm up and put off heat to heat your home.

Hydro Air: You have a forced hot water boiler that feeds an air handler and provides forced hot air heat to the home.

Always try to know what type of heat you use in your home and always make sure before you make that service call that you do not have an empty propane or oil tank or that you have natural gas to your home.


 

Heat Questions - Forced Hot Air Systems
(Natural Gas and Propane)

A: Check to make sure the switch on the side of the furnace is on and that the gas is on. Most likely your pilot has gone out, your hot surface ignitor is burned out or your spark iginition assembly has failed. There are other reasons that could also cause this like a blocked flue pipe outside causing the pressure switch to fail. Unlbock flue pipe and try to restart furnace. if this does not work, turn the heat off at the thermostat or the furnace service switch on the side of the furnace and call us for repair.

 

A: Check your thermostat and make sure that it does not have a low battery sign on it if it is a digital thermostat. Try replacing your batteries in the thermostat and if your thermostat is equipped with a reset button do not forget to push the reset after installation of the batteries. Also, check to make sure all the power switches to the system are on, including the circuit breaker which may have tripped. if the breaker has tripped, flip it over to the "off" position and wait a couple seconds and flip it back on. If it stays "on" then try to run your heat. If it trips off again there is a problem such as a short and needs to be addressed. If the unit will still not start, call us for service.

 

A: There may be a condensate pump on the floor next to your furnace that removes the condensation your ac system makes when running or your condensing furnace produces when running. This pump may have failed or you could have a blocked drain line from the equipment. With air conditioning, a huge culprit of this is your ac system running on a dirty filter. Low air flow will cause the cooling coil to freeze and when it deforsts it could possibly run all down the inside of yor furnace. Call Harry W. Wells and Son so we can resolve this for you.

 

A: The filter is usually located right next to the furnace between the return duct and the furnace. If there is no filter visable from the outside of the unit then it is most likely inside the furnace behind the bottom door panel on the furnace on the left or the right hand side. If you still can't find it, give us a call and let's see if we can first help you over the phone. If that does not work then we may have to come out and look at your system.

 

A: Do not turn on any appliances if you are getting a strong odor of gas. Call your gas provider or call Harry W. Wells and Son and we will locate the issue and repair it. (Please do not attempt to find it or repair it yourself. Leave it to the licsensed gas service technicians).

 

A: This is caused by a number of things ranging from an unbalanced system to a furnace being too large or too small for the house. I know what you're thinking, "How can my furnace be too big for my house?" Up until about the 80's, most people would over size their furnaces with the belief that bigger was better. This is not the case at all. What happens is your furnace will run very short cycles, constantly turning on and off because it is getting too hot and needs to turn the burner off and cool itself down, then refires. We call this cycling on limit, or short cycling. This, in turn, causes your furnace not to run long enough to allow it to get heat to the 2nd floor. it could also be that your furnace is sized correctly, but the home is not balanced and it needs to be. Another possibility is that the return air in the home is not enough. There are many reasons this can happen. If you are having this issue, give us a call and we will send someone out to evaluate your system for free. (Oversized furnaces, dirty filters and lack of supply and return duct size are the leading causes for heat exchanger failure).

 

A: This is usually caused by what we call delayed iginition, which is just as dangerous as having a gas leak and needs to be adressed immediatley. This is caused by the heat exchanger filling up with gas then igniting. This can be caused by multiple problems but is usually attributed to a unit that has not been serviced in a while and the gas logs build up corrosion and blocking of part of the burner log. Another culprit is when people finish their unfinished basements and build rooms around their HVAC equipment cutting off combustion air to the furnace. Shut the unit off at the emergency saftey switch and call Harry W. Wells and Son to address the issue.

 

A: This can be caused by a dirty air filter causing the indoor cooling coil to freeze over or a bad blower motor on the furnace not moving any air or a plugged up cooling coil which needs to be cleaned or the system could have a freon leak that needs to be repaired. Do not assume it will fix itself and try to keep using it. You will burn up that outdoor compressor and then your repair cost could be tripled compared to what you would have spent if you called an HVAC contractor to repair it. Call Harry W. Wells and Son to check it out for you.

 

Forced Hot Water Boilers and Water Heaters

A: There are two pipes coming off the top of your water heater. One is cold water and one is hot water. follow the 2 pipes back until you find a valve on the cold water pipe and turn it off. This will prevent your water heater from filling up with more water and will only let what is in the tank out. If you cannot find a valve on either pipe then find where the main water comes into the house and just above and below your water meter there should be a shut off. Turn it off until a service man can arrive and repair the problem or replace the tank for you.

 

A: Your relief valve has blown off or started dripping usually because the expansion tank on your system has failed or you might not have an expansion tank at all. Call Harry W. Wells and Son and make an appointment to have your relief valve and expansion tank replaced. Once a relief valve starts dripping it usually will not stop until it is replaced because it only takes a small grain of dirt to make it fail. Tthis would also apply to forced hot water boilers.

 

A: Make sure that your thermostat is calling for heat. If you are still not getting heat or no heat in 1 zone it could be that the circulator for that zone has failed and needs to be replaced or if your zone system is set up with zone heads (zone control valves) that a zone head is not functioning correctly. Call to make an appointment to have the problem looked at and turn off that zone until some one arrives.

 

A: Check to make sure the switch on the side of the furnace is on and that the gas is on. Most likely your pilot has gone out, your hot surface ignitor is burned out or your spark iginition assembly has failed. There are other reasons that could also cause this like a blocked flue pipe outside causing the pressure switch to fail. Unlbock flue pipe and try to restart furnace. if this does not work, turn the heat off at the thermostat or the furnace service switch on the side of the furnace and call us for repair.

 

A: No, this is not normal and tells us that most likely your system is air bound and needs to have the air purged from the system. This can be a difficult process and we would be happy to help you in this matter.

 

A: The (banging) noise is most likely due to your boiler running low on water or having no water at all in. Do not attempt to fill your hot boiler with cold water, you will crack the block and need a new boiler. This could mean your automatic fill is not doing its job and needs to be looked at. If your furnace is booming this is usually caused by what we call (delayed iginition) which is just as dangerous as having a gas leak and needs to be addressed imediatley. This is caused by the heat exchanger filling up with gas then igniting. This can be caused by multiple problems but is usually attributed to a unit that has not been serviced in a while and the gas logs build up corrosion and blocking of part of the burner log. Another culprit is when people finish their unfinished basments and build rooms around their HVAC equipment cutting off combustion air to the furnace. Shut the unit off at the emergency saftey switch and call Harry W. Wells and Son to address the issue.