Furnace repair in Dallas tends to arrive all at once. A heating system can sit idle from March to November, then a cold front drops through North Texas, thousands of thermostats click over to Heat on the same evening, and the igniters, sensors and heat strips that quietly wore out over the summer show it. This page starts with safety, then helps you work out what kind of heat you have, what the symptoms point to and what a good technician should check.
Dallas Air & Heating is a free phone line, not a heating company. When you call (469) 649-7066, an automated assistant answers, asks whether the problem is heating or cooling, and takes your name, a callback number, your city or ZIP and a short description. The call is then transferred to an independent, locally owned heating and air conditioning company. That company diagnoses the furnace or heat pump, gives you its price, does the repair and is paid by you directly.
Gas safety comes before any furnace repair
A gas furnace burns fuel inside your home. Two situations come before everything else on this page, including the cold.
You smell gas
Atmos Energy, the largest natural gas distributor in Texas, says to leave the premises immediately and then call 911 and Atmos Energy at 866-322-8667. Do not touch switches, the thermostat or appliances on the way out, and do not go looking for the leak. If another company supplies your gas, its emergency number is on your bill.
A CO alarm sounds, or people feel ill
Carbon monoxide has no smell. The CDC lists headache, dizziness, weakness, upset stomach, vomiting, chest pain and confusion as the most common symptoms. Get everyone into fresh air and call 911. Stay out until responders say the house is safe.
- Have working CO alarms. Atmos Energy passes on fire safety advice to put them in a central location, outside each sleeping area and on every level of the home.
- Never heat the house with a gas oven. The CDC is direct about this. Run a portable generator outside only, more than 20 feet from windows, doors and vents.
- Have gas heat checked once a year. Atmos recommends a yearly inspection, cleaning and tune-up of the furnace, flue and chimney by a trained professional.
Gas furnace, heat pump or electric heat?
Texas leans electric. The U.S. Energy Information Administration, using Census Bureau survey data from 2019, reports that about 61 percent of Texas homes heat mainly with electricity and about 35 percent mainly with natural gas. Across Dallas-Fort Worth you will find all three systems below, sometimes on the same street. Knowing which you have makes the phone call shorter and the diagnosis faster.
Gas furnace
How to tell: a gas line and a metal flue pipe at the unit, and a gas bill that climbs in winter. The outdoor unit only runs in summer.
How it heats: burners warm a heat exchanger and a blower pushes air across it.
Typical failures: igniter, flame sensor, pressure switch, inducer motor, control board.
Heat pump
How to tell: the outdoor unit runs in winter too, and the thermostat may show Aux or Em Heat.
How it heats: it moves heat from outdoor air into the house. The U.S. Department of Energy says a heat pump can cut electricity use for heating by up to 75 percent compared with resistance heat.
Typical failures: defrost control, reversing valve, outdoor fan, refrigerant leak, backup heat strips.
Electric heat strips
How to tell: no gas service, and the outdoor unit sits still in winter while the indoor unit heats.
How it heats: electric coils in the air handler glow hot, much like a toaster.
Typical failures: burned-out elements, sequencers or relays, limit switches, blower motor.
Not sure? Take a photo of the thermostat screen and the label on the indoor unit before you call. The company you are put through to can usually tell the system type from those.
What Winter Storm Uri showed North Texas
Dallas winters are usually mild, which is exactly why a hard freeze catches systems off guard. The National Weather Service in Fort Worth recorded the February 2021 storm in detail.
- Days below freezing. DFW Airport stayed at or below freezing for 139 straight hours, from 5 p.m. on February 13 to noon on February 19, after an earlier 93 hour stretch that same month.
- The low. The temperature at DFW fell to 2 degrees below zero on February 16, 2021, with 5.0 inches of snow for the event.
- The grid. ERCOT, which runs most of the Texas power grid, called for rotating outages on February 15 as generating units went offline in the cold. Emergency conditions did not end until February 19.
Two lessons came out of that week. First, a gas furnace still needs electricity: the EIA points out that most modern furnaces rely on power for ignition and to run the blower, so a power cut stops gas heat too. Second, a heat pump loses capacity as the temperature drops and leans harder on its electric backup, right when the grid is most strained. The first night of a freeze is the worst time to find out the heat has a problem, because every heating company's phone rings at once. Running the system on a cool fall evening puts you ahead of that line.
No heat in Dallas? Match the symptom
This table helps you describe the problem clearly when you call. It is not a repair guide. The right-hand column is what a good technician tests to confirm the cause.
| What you notice | Often points to | Safe for you to check | What a technician tests |
|---|---|---|---|
| No heat at all, nothing happens | Thermostat setting or power, a tripped breaker, a failed control board | Thermostat on Heat and set above room temperature, fresh batteries, one breaker reset, the service switch at the unit turned on | Power and the thermostat signal at the unit, then the control board |
| Furnace clicks or hums but never lights | Igniter, pressure switch, inducer motor or gas supply | That the furnace door is fully closed, since many units will not run with it loose | The full start-up sequence to see which step fails, igniter resistance, gas pressure |
| Lights, then shuts off within seconds | Dirty flame sensor, venting problem, overheating | The air filter, because a clogged one can trip the high-limit safety | Flame signal, venting and draft, limit switch, heat exchanger |
| Heat pump blows cool air for a long time | Stuck in defrost, low refrigerant, reversing valve, failed backup heat | Thermostat mode, and that the outdoor unit is not buried in leaves or heavy ice | Reversing valve operation, a forced defrost cycle, refrigerant charge, amp draw on each heat strip |
| Thermostat shows Aux heat almost all the time | The heat pump has stopped doing its share and the strips carry the load | Whether the outdoor unit runs while the heat is on | Outdoor fan and compressor, defrost control, charge |
| Burning dust smell on the first cold day | Dust burning off the heat exchanger or strips after months idle | Change the filter and let it run; it should fade | Only needed if the smell lingers or gets stronger |
| Hot plastic or electrical smell, or a bang when it lights | Overheating wiring or motor, or delayed ignition | Turn the system off at the thermostat and call | Wiring, blower motor, burners and ignition timing |
If you smell gas at any point, stop and follow the gas safety steps at the top of this page. Do not open the burner compartment, relight anything or bypass a switch. Those safety controls are there to keep a gas appliance from running when it is unsafe.
Heat pump habits that look like faults
Heat pumps cause more confused calls than any other system, mostly because a few things they do on purpose look like something is broken.
Defrost
In cold, damp weather frost builds on the outdoor coil. The Department of Energy explains that the same reversing valve that switches between heating and cooling also defrosts that coil in winter. For a few minutes the unit may stop its fan and give off a cloud of steam, then heating resumes. A unit that stays encased in ice is a different matter.
Aux heat and emergency heat
Aux on the thermostat means the heat pump has brought on its backup heat by itself, usually on a very cold night or during defrost. Emergency heat is a manual setting that runs only the electric heat strips. One electric co-op's guidance puts it simply: use it only when there is a real emergency, such as a failed compressor, because the strips can dramatically raise the bill.
A pattern worth watching after any cold snap: the heat pump quietly stops heating while the strips keep the house warm. Nobody notices until the electric bill arrives. If the outdoor unit sits silent while the indoor unit heats, or Aux shows on a mild day, have it looked at. Any refrigerant work on a heat pump must be done by a technician certified under the EPA's Section 608 program.
What a good heating technician does on the visit
Whatever the system, you should end the visit with a clear finding, a written price and an honest opinion on whether the repair is worth it. These are the habits that point to a careful diagnosis rather than a guess.
- Watches a full heating cycle from the start to see exactly where it fails, instead of swapping the most likely part
- On a gas furnace, checks the flame, venting and heat exchanger and tests for carbon monoxide, then confirms the safety controls work
- On a heat pump, runs it in heating mode, confirms the outdoor unit is contributing and proves the defrost control works
- Measures each electric heat strip so you know how many stages still work
- Shuts a gas furnace off and shows you why if anything suggests a cracked heat exchanger
- Writes the price down before starting, and tells you if a repair no longer makes sense on an old system
Still no heat after checking the thermostat, filter and breaker? Call any hour. Tell the assistant whether you have gas heat, a heat pump or electric heat, and what you noticed.
Before the next cold front
Run the heat for fifteen minutes on the first cool evening of fall. Put in a fresh filter, test the CO alarms, and clear leaves away from a heat pump's outdoor unit. A fall heating tune-up is the time to have the burners, flame sensor and heat exchanger checked on a furnace, or the defrost control and strips on a heat pump. If the system is near the end of its life, the installation and replacement page covers sizing and the choice between a new furnace and a heat pump.
- Call any hourAn automated assistant answers (469) 649-7066 and asks whether it is about cooling or heating.
- Describe the problemGive your name, a callback number, your city or ZIP and what the system is doing.
- Get put throughThe call goes to an independent, locally owned heating and air conditioning company, which hears a short summary before it picks up.
- Deal with them directlyThat company diagnoses, quotes, does the work and is paid by you. If it cannot answer, it gets your details to call back.
How this line works: Dallas Air & Heating is a free phone line, not an HVAC company. It answers your call and connects you with an independent local heating and air conditioning company, which inspects, quotes and does the work, and which you pay directly. The line holds no HVAC license and does not repair, install or schedule anything itself. Those companies may pay Dallas Air & Heating a referral fee. You never pay the line. How it works.
Check the license yourself. In Texas, air conditioning and refrigeration contractors are licensed by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR), and the license number belongs on the company's quotes and invoices. Ask for it and look it up with the TDLR license search (opens in a new tab) before work starts. It is also fair to ask for a certificate of insurance.
Related services and guides
- Emergency AC Repair (24/7)
- HVAC Tune-Up and Maintenance
- AC Installation and Replacement
- How to Choose an HVAC Company in Dallas
Heating repair across Dallas-Fort Worth
Calls come in from across Dallas, Collin, Denton and Tarrant counties. Gas and electric providers differ from one city to the next, and each area page notes what is specific to that place.