Heating services in Fresno
Your furnace sits idlefor most of the year.
Then one cold night in November you ask it to work, and it does not. Repair, maintenance, replacement and combustion safety for Fresno homes — diagnosed properly, priced before we start, and honest about whether it needs replacing.
24/7 emergency Repair first CSLB #999179
Our heating services
Six ways we keep Fresno homes warm and safe. Pick the one that fits, or call and we will point you to the right one.
Furnace Repair
Full diagnostic, the fault shown to you, and a firm price before anything is touched.
See furnace repairEmergency & Same-Day
No heat overnight with children or elderly at home? We answer 24 hours a day.
See emergency repairHeat Exchanger & CO Safety
The inspection that matters most on any gas furnace, and the one most often skipped.
See safety inspectionMaintenance & Tune-Up
Find the problem in October rather than at eleven at night in December.
See maintenanceReplacement & Installation
Load-calculated sizing, permits pulled, combustion verified and airflow measured.
See replacementWall & Floor Furnaces
Common across older Fresno neighborhoods, and a different animal from central heat.
See wall furnace repairNot sure which one you need?
Find the sentence that sounds like your situation and we will take you to the right page.
The part of heating that is not about comfort
A gas furnace burns fuel inside your house
That is the difference between heating and cooling, and it is why we treat a furnace inspection differently from an air conditioning one. Combustion produces carbon monoxide as a normal byproduct, and the heat exchanger is the barrier keeping it separated from the air you breathe while the flue carries it outside.
When that barrier cracks, combustion gases can enter the airstream and get distributed through the house by the same blower delivering your heat. It is not common, and it is not something to be frightened of — but it is the one heating fault that can genuinely harm you, which is why it gets checked rather than assumed.
How we inspect a heat exchanger, and what a credible condemnation should include.
Symptoms worth acting on
- Headaches or nausea that improve when you leave the house and return when you come back. That pattern is the signal.
- More than one person in the household feeling unwell at the same time, including pets.
- Soot or scorch marks around the furnace, or a burner flame that is yellow and lazy rather than crisp and blue.
- A sharp or acrid smell when the heat runs that is not the familiar dust burning off on the first cold day.
If a CO alarm sounds: get everyone outside first, then call from outside. California requires carbon monoxide alarms in homes with fuel-burning appliances or an attached garage — if yours has none, or they are more than about ten years old, that is worth fixing this week regardless of your furnace.
How we work
Repair first. Replace only when it makes sense.
Furnaces get condemned in this market more often than they need to be, usually on the basis of age or a heat exchanger that nobody actually inspected properly. An old furnace is not automatically a dead one.
Plenty of the systems we are called to replace need an igniter, a flame sensor cleaned, a pressure switch or a blower repair. We find out which one you have before anyone talks about a new furnace — and when replacement genuinely is the answer, we will show you why rather than telling you.
- We diagnose before we quote.Gas pressure, temperature rise, static pressure and combustion, measured rather than assumed.
- You see what we see.Photos of the actual fault, including inside the heat exchanger, explained plainly before you approve anything.
- A condemnation comes with evidence.If we tell you a furnace is unsafe to run, you will see exactly why and get it in writing.
- Clear options, no pressure.Repair cost against replacement cost, with the reasoning, and time to think about it.
Heating a home in the Central Valley
Our winters are mild, which sounds like good news for a furnace. In practice it creates a very particular set of problems.
Eight months of sitting still
A Fresno furnace runs a fraction of the hours one in Denver does. Long idle periods let bearings stiffen, dust settle on burners and flame sensors, and rodents move into a warm cabinet nobody has opened since March.
Everything fails on the same night
The first genuinely cold evening is when the whole city switches its heat on at once, and it is when we take the most calls of the year. A tune-up in October costs the same as one in December and gets you a much shorter wait. Book a tune-up.
Low run hours hide problems
A furnace used lightly can carry a developing fault for years without ever announcing it. Cracks, corrosion and drift in gas pressure do not care how often the system runs, which is exactly why annual inspection matters more here rather than less.
Wall and floor furnaces are still everywhere
Large parts of older Fresno were built with gravity wall furnaces and floor furnaces rather than central heat. They are a genuinely different piece of equipment, and plenty of companies will not work on them. We do.
One blower, two seasons
On most central systems the furnace blower is also what moves your cold air in July. So a heating fault can be a cooling fault, and a duct problem shows up in both. We look at the whole system rather than the season.
Attic installations, in Fresno attics
Furnaces mounted in attics here spend summer in 150-degree heat, which is hard on wiring, controls and flexible connections long before winter asks them to work.
Where we work
Heating service across Fresno and the surrounding Fresno County communities.
Heating questions
How much does furnace repair cost in Fresno?
Most furnace repairs fall between $175 and $3,500 depending on the part. Igniters, flame sensors and pressure switches sit at the low end, blower motors and control boards in the middle, and heat exchanger work at the top — where replacement usually becomes the better value. See our published pricing.
Do I need a furnace tune-up if I barely use my heat?
Arguably more than someone who uses it constantly. Light use means a developing fault can sit unnoticed for years, and eight months of idleness lets dust settle on burners and flame sensors, stiffens bearings and gives rodents time to move in. The combustion side also needs checking annually regardless of run hours, because corrosion does not depend on usage.
Another company said my heat exchanger is cracked. Should I believe them?
Maybe, and it is worth verifying. A cracked heat exchanger is a genuine safety issue and a legitimate reason to condemn a furnace — it is also the most common reason a working furnace gets replaced unnecessarily. A credible condemnation comes with visual evidence of the crack and combustion readings, not just an assertion. Our second opinions are free.
Do you work on wall furnaces and floor furnaces?
Yes. Older Fresno neighborhoods are full of them and a number of local companies will not touch them. They are genuinely different equipment with different parts and different safety considerations, and we service and replace them. More on wall and floor furnaces.
Why does my furnace smell when I first turn it on?
Usually dust burning off the heat exchanger after months of sitting idle, which is normal and clears within an hour or so on the first run of the season. What is not normal is a sharp or acrid smell, a smell that persists across several days of use, or anything resembling gas. Those warrant switching the system off and calling.
How long should a furnace last in Fresno?
Often longer than the national averages suggest, because our mild winters mean far fewer run hours than a furnace in a cold climate accumulates. That said, age alone is a poor reason to replace one. What matters is the condition of the heat exchanger, the combustion readings and whether repair costs are approaching a meaningful share of replacement. How we make that call.
Do you offer emergency heating repair?
Yes, 24 hours a day. A house with no heat matters most when there are infants, elderly residents or anyone with a health condition involved, and those calls get prioritized. More on emergency service.
Let's find out what is actually wrong
Measured diagnosis, the fault shown to you, and a firm price before any work begins.
Guidance on this page is general information and not a substitute for a professional diagnosis. If you suspect a carbon monoxide problem, leave the building first and call from outside. Prices referenced are typical ranges for the Fresno area and are not quotes. California Heating & AC Repair is operated by Craftline Renovations, Inc. · CSLB License #999179 · Licensed and insured.