Furnace, heat pump and dual-fuel repair from a family-owned Chapel Hill company. We answer heating calls 24/7. Serving the Triangle since 2007, and named the Triangle’s best HVAC company by the Independent.
Heating Repair in Chapel Hill & Carrboro, NC
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Furnace and Heat Pump Repair in Chapel Hill
Boer Brothers Heating & Cooling handles heating repair in Chapel Hill and Carrboro for gas furnaces, heat pumps and dual-fuel systems. Our shop is on NC Highway 54 West in Chapel Hill, and our family has run it since 2007. When your heat stops working, a NATE-certified technician finds the cause, shows you what failed, and gives you a price before any work starts. The price we quote is the price you pay. Our trucks carry the parts that fail most often in winter, so many repairs are done in one visit.
We answer heating calls 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. One customer who came home to no heat on a January evening wrote, “After-hours tech came within an hour and diagnosed the problem.” Not every call gets a visit that fast, but you’ll always reach a person.
If a repair makes sense, that’s what we’ll recommend. If your system is near the end of its life, we’ll show you the repair price next to your replacement options and let you decide.
What Are the Most Common Heating Repairs?
The most common heating repairs in Chapel Hill and Carrboro homes are ignitor, flame sensor and drain-line problems on gas furnaces, and capacitor, defrost, refrigerant and backup-heat problems on heat pumps. Recent jobs include a locked-up inducer motor, a failed condensate pump that had shut a furnace down, and a heat pump leaning on its expensive auxiliary heat.
| What you notice | Gas furnace: usual cause | Heat pump: usual cause |
|---|---|---|
| No heat at all | Failed ignitor, tripped safety switch, clogged condensate line | Failed capacitor or contactor, tripped breaker |
| Heat starts, then shuts off | Dirty flame sensor, overheating from a clogged filter or blocked vents | Control, airflow or refrigerant problem |
| Weak or lukewarm air | Blower motor, duct leaks or blockages | Low refrigerant, defrost problem, failed heat strips |
| Bills jump with no cold snap | Burner or airflow problem | Auxiliary heat running too often |
Most of these give warning signs before they fail, and a fall heating tune-up is where they turn up. The Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends a professional inspection of fuel-burning heating systems every year. Maintenance Club members also get preseason scheduling and 10% off repair parts.
Signs Your Heater Needs Repair
- The house won’t reach the thermostat setting, or some rooms stay cold
- The system starts and stops every few minutes
- New noises, or a burning smell that doesn’t go away after the first run of the season
When Is No Heat an Emergency?
No heat is an emergency when you smell gas, a carbon monoxide alarm goes off, or the house is losing heat with a hard freeze on the way. Most other problems can wait for a daytime appointment, and some aren’t failures at all, like a heat pump steaming during its defrost cycle. Before you call, check that the thermostat is set to Heat, the breaker hasn’t tripped, the furnace switch is on and the filter isn’t clogged. Our guide to common heating problems and what to check first walks through each one. If the heat is still out, call 919.813.2556.
You Smell Gas
Leave the house first. From outside, call 911 and Enbridge Gas North Carolina at 877-776-2427. Do not flip light switches or touch the thermostat on the way out. Enbridge, formerly PSNC and Dominion Energy, supplies natural gas in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. Once the utility says it’s safe, we can inspect and repair the furnace.
Your Carbon Monoxide Alarm Goes Off
Get everyone outside and call 911, then call us before the furnace runs again. A yellow or flickering burner flame, instead of a steady blue one, is also a reason to call. A cracked heat exchanger is one possible cause of carbon monoxide, and a blocked flue is another. If another company says your heat exchanger is cracked and wants to replace the furnace right away, a second opinion is reasonable. One customer in that spot asked us to check, and our technician tested twice and found no leak.
No Heat Before a Hard Freeze
Call us that night. The Raleigh-Durham area averages 7.6 nights a year at or below 20°F, and on those nights a house without heat can get cold enough to freeze pipes in outside walls and crawlspaces.
Aux Heat Running in Mild Weather
This can wait for a daytime appointment, but not for weeks. Backup electric heat is the most expensive heat in the house. It should come on mainly on the coldest nights, during defrost, and while the house catches up after a big thermostat change. If it runs for long stretches on a 45°F day, have us check the heat pump, its settings and its refrigerant charge.
Heating Repair FAQs
You’ll get the price before any repair starts, and the price we quote is the price you pay. The total depends on what failed. Cleaning a flame sensor costs far less than replacing a blower motor or fixing a refrigerant leak. Maintenance Club members get 10% off repair parts, and financing is available for larger repairs.
Yes. We repair furnaces and heat pumps no matter who installed them. We’re an authorized Trane dealer, and we repair all major brands.
A single failed part on a younger system is almost always a repair. Replacement is worth pricing when an older system needs a second major repair, or the same problem keeps coming back. You may hear about the “$5,000 rule”: multiply the system’s age by the repair cost, and if the result tops $5,000, consider replacing. It’s a rough starting point, not a verdict. Our heating installation page covers replacement options.
Close doors to keep heat in the rooms you’re using. Plug any space heater straight into a wall outlet and keep it 3 feet from anything that can burn. Never heat the house with a gas oven or grill. On a freezing night, open sink cabinets on outside walls and let those faucets drip. If your heat pump’s outdoor unit has stopped, switching the thermostat to Emergency Heat keeps the house warm until the repair.
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At Boer Brothers Family of Services, we offer a comprehensive range of HVAC and Plumbing solutions designed to keep your home or business comfortable and energy efficient year-round. Our expert team specializes in HVAC and Plumbing repair, installation, and maintenance services. Contact our experts today!
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