No-Heat Emergency Repair in Lexington, SC

Most Midlands winters are gentle, which is exactly why a heating failure catches people off guard. When a cold front drops overnight lows into the 20s and the furnace or heat pump goes quiet, the house loses warmth fast. Our emergency heating repair in Lexington, SC covers gas and propane furnaces, heat pumps and their backup heat strips, with calls answered 24/7.

Is a cold house an emergency tonight?

It depends on the forecast, the home and who is living in it. Call right away if:

• The low is near or below freezing and the indoor temperature is dropping steadily.
• A baby, an older adult or anyone with a health condition is at home.
• Your water lines run through a crawlspace, as they do under many 1950s to 1970s brick ranches around Lexington, West Columbia and Seven Oaks.
• You live in a manufactured home, where pipes and ducts sit close to the cold.
• There is a gas odor, or the CO detector has gone off.

If the night is in the 40s, the heat strips on your heat pump are still warming the house, or a fireplace or safe electric heat is holding a room comfortable, a morning appointment is often the smarter call.

Checks to make before picking up the phone

For any system

• Thermostat on heat, set a few degrees above the room, fresh batteries in it.
• Breaker panel: look for a tripped furnace, air handler or heat pump breaker, and reset it once only.
• Filter: a clogged filter can trip a furnace's high-temperature safety switch and shut the burners down.

Gas or propane furnace

Check that the service switch near the furnace is on and the lower door panel is pushed fully closed, because a safety switch behind it cuts power when the door is loose. Make sure the gas valve handle lines up with the pipe. On propane, read the tank gauge; a run-dry tank is a common culprit.

Heat pump

Steam rising from the outdoor unit with the fan stopped is the normal defrost cycle. A coil encased in solid ice, or a unit that never comes out of defrost, is a fault. If the outdoor unit is dead, emergency heat runs the strips alone and can keep the house warm until help arrives.

For warmth in the meantime, use space heaters on the floor with three feet of clearance, plugged straight into a wall outlet. Never heat a home with an oven, gas grill, or generator, and keep a generator well away from windows and doors.

Furnace not working or heat pump not heating: the usual culprits

The cause tells you a lot about how long the fix takes.

Gas furnaces

Our furnace repair page goes deeper into each of these.

Heat pumps

A failed capacitor or outdoor fan motor, a stuck reversing valve, a bad defrost control or a refrigerant leak will all stop the heat pump from heating. If the heat strips are also out, look to the sequencers, the strip breakers or the air handler's blower. The heat pump repair page covers those in detail.

What our no-heat service handles, from igniters to heat strips

A no-heat call has one goal: warm, safe air back in the house tonight, or a safe bridge until the right part or new equipment arrives. It covers furnaces burning natural gas or propane, electric furnaces, heat pumps with backup heat strips, air handlers and ductless heat pumps. The work usually falls into these jobs:

• Ignition faults: hot surface igniters, flame sensors, pressure switches and inducer motors
• Safety lockouts from high-limit and rollout switches, and the airflow or venting problem that caused them
• Heat pump failures: capacitors, outdoor fan motors, defrost controls and reversing valves
• Backup heat: strip sequencers, heat-strip breakers and air handler blowers
• Control boards, transformers and thermostat wiring
• Gas leak and carbon monoxide checks before any fuel-burning appliance is restarted

When the right part sits at a supply house until morning, the bridge might be heat strips alone, a furnace made safe and left off, or one warm room with a safe electric heater, and you will know which before the technician leaves.

How an overnight heating call works

Heating calls reach a live person around the clock, who asks: furnace or heat pump, gas or propane, any smell or alarm, and who is home. A household with an infant or an older adult on a freezing night goes near the top of the list.

We do not commit to an arrival time we cannot keep. Seven Oaks is about fifteen minutes from our base and West Columbia around twenty, but the first hard freeze brings a wave of calls. You will hear an honest estimate, and the technician calls ahead.

On arrival, safety comes first, and the visit runs in this order:

1. Gas and air. On fuel-burning equipment, a leak check at the valve and fittings and a CO reading indoors.
2. Read the board. The furnace's blink code and fault history, or the heat pump's defrost board.
3. Test the sequence. Inducer, pressure switch, igniter, flame proof and blower in order on a furnace; capacitor, fan motor, reversing valve and strip sequencers on a heat pump.
4. Explain and decide. What failed, in plain words, then your choice of next step.
5. Confirm combustion. After the repair, flue venting is checked and combustion tested with an analyzer.
6. Check the temperature rise. Supply air measured against return air proves the system is heating.

What affects the cost of emergency heating repair

Cost depends on what failed and when; on a Lexington winter night, these move it:

• Hour and day. Overnight, weekend and holiday visits carry an after-hours charge.
• Part availability. Igniters and flame sensors may be replaced right away; control boards and inducer motors can mean a next-morning supply run.
• Fuel and system type. Gas, propane and heat pump repairs involve different parts and testing.
• Access. Attic furnaces and crawlspace equipment take more labor time.
• Bridge versus final fix. Running heat strips or making a furnace safe overnight, then finishing in daylight, can lower the total.
• Diagnosis time. A dirty flame sensor is found in minutes; a pressure switch tripping only once the vent warms takes longer.
• Venting and gas corrections. A blocked flue, loose vent or leaking gas fitting must be fixed before the furnace runs.

When the furnace or heat pump is beyond repair

A cracked heat exchanger, a dead compressor, or a system old enough that the repair would outcost its remaining life may mean replacement. You will get the pros and cons of each option, not a sales pitch. New equipment often arrives and goes in within days. See furnace installation for how that works, and ask about financing if it helps.

Permits, gas codes and who may do the work

Replacing a furnace or heat pump generally needs a mechanical permit from the local building department (the Town of Lexington inside town limits, Lexington County outside them), with gas and venting work inspected under the adopted codes. South Carolina licenses residential HVAC contractors through SC LLR's Residential Builders Commission, and LLR's website lets anyone confirm a contractor's license. Heat pump refrigerant work falls under EPA Section 608, which bars venting refrigerant. We carry full licensing and insurance. A gas smell is never a wait-and-see problem: call Dominion Energy South Carolina or your propane supplier from outside first.

Why households call us before a hard freeze

An owner-operated Lexington company answers, so whoever picks up can tell from a blink code or a description of the outdoor unit whether heat strips will carry you to morning. Among our 29 Google reviews, all five stars, is a heating failure called in ahead of a 25-degree night, and reviewers mention the same habits: a call before arrival, each option laid out with its trade-offs, the decision left to them. If the equipment is past saving, new Bryant equipment is quoted free and financing is available. A household with a special-needs member living at home gets 20% off.