Homeowners' pick for heating and cooling across north Florida and the Suwannee Valley
What to Check Before the Heat Goes On for the Season
You have not touched the heat since February. One cold night comes through, you push the thermostat up, and you either get a burning smell, lukewarm air, or nothing at all. Before that first cold snap, there are a few things worth checking and a few things worth having us look at. Here is what we see every fall across Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
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By the Suwannee Valley AC & Heating service team · reviewed by our working technicians
What the off-season does to a heating system
Across our service area, a heat pump or furnace can sit unused from March into November. Eight or nine months of humidity, dust and bugs settle into places they should not be. Blower wheels load up with lint. Outdoor coils collect sand, grass clippings and spanish moss. Contactors pit and stick. On heat pumps, the reversing valve has not shifted in months and sometimes it does not want to. Condensate lines dry out, and whatever grew in them over the summer hardens into a plug. None of this is dramatic while the system is off. It all shows up the first cold night when you actually need heat.
Which failures spike, and when
The first hard cold morning of the season is our busiest call day of the year. That is when weak capacitors, tired blower motors and stuck reversing valves finally quit, because they were only marginal all along. Late October through early December brings the no-heat calls and the burning-dust smell calls. December and January bring heat pumps that run constantly and never satisfy, usually a low refrigerant charge or failed auxiliary heat strips that nobody noticed until it got truly cold. Late winter we see cracked heat exchangers and ignition problems on gas furnaces that have been cycling hard for weeks. Calling in October gets you a scheduled visit instead of a wait.
Safe checks you can do yourself
Put fresh batteries in the thermostat and set it to Heat, then raise the setpoint several degrees above the room temperature so it actually calls. Change the filter. A filter that sat all summer is restricting airflow, and restricted airflow is behind a surprising number of heating repair calls. Walk the house and confirm supply and return vents are open and not blocked by furniture or rugs. Outside, clear leaves, sand and vines back a couple of feet from the heat pump. Check the breaker panel for a tripped breaker. If it trips again after you reset it once, stop and call us.
When to stop and call, and the safety line
If you smell gas, or a rotten-egg or sulfur odor, leave the house first. Get everyone outside, then call 911 or your gas utility from outdoors. Do not flip switches on your way out. Call us after you are safe and the utility has cleared the house. Same order for a carbon monoxide alarm: outside first, then 911. Short of that, call us for anything electrical, anything involving refrigerant, and any burner or ignition problem. A repeated tripping breaker, a scorched smell that does not fade in ten minutes, water around the indoor unit, or a system that runs and blows cool air on Heat all need a technician.
What we do on a pre-season visit
We check the blower wheel and motor amps, test the capacitor, look at the contactor and wiring for heat damage, and clear the condensate drain. On heat pumps we verify the reversing valve shifts, check the defrost board and confirm every auxiliary heat strip is actually pulling current. On gas furnaces we look at the burners, the flame pattern, the ignition components and the heat exchanger. We check refrigerant performance under heating conditions, because a system that cooled fine in August can still struggle in January. Rural routes across the region mean long drives, so we schedule tightly and give you a window. Book fall work before the first cold front.
Homes on wells and sandy soil
A lot of homes we service run on well water with the heat pump sitting in sand. Sand is hard on outdoor units. It works into the coil fins, blows into the fan motor bearings and holds moisture against the base pan until it rusts through. If your unit sits low and rain splashes sand up into it, a rinse from the coil side out helps, and we can do that on a service visit. Keep pump houses and sprinkler heads from spraying the unit directly. Well iron leaves orange scale on anything it touches, and on a heat pump coil that scale acts like insulation and cuts heating capacity.
What to Check Before the Heat Goes On for the Season — common questions
Why does my heat smell like burning the first time I turn it on?
Dust that settled on the heat exchanger or the electric heat strips over the summer is burning off. It should clear within ten or fifteen minutes. If the smell lingers, smells like hot plastic, or comes with smoke, shut the system off and call us.
My heat pump blows air that feels cool. Is it broken?
Maybe not. Heat pump supply air is normally cooler than furnace air, often in the low nineties, so it can feel cool on your hand. If the house is not reaching the setpoint or the system never shuts off, that is worth a heating repair call.
Do I really need a check if the system worked fine last winter?
A pre-season check catches weak capacitors, dirty blowers, clogged drains and dead heat strips before the first cold night. It also keeps you out of the queue on the day everybody else calls. Fall is the easiest time to get on our schedule.
How it works
- Step 1
Tell us the symptoms
You describe what changed. No cold air, a breaker that keeps tripping, water near the air handler, a smell, a noise. That gives us a head start on parts before we ever leave the shop.
- Step 2
We diagnose on site
A technician checks the thermostat, the electrical side, airflow through the filter and coil, refrigerant behavior and the outdoor unit. We look at the whole system, because a frozen coil usually points somewhere else.
- Step 3
You decide the repair
We explain what failed, what it takes to fix it, and how long the rest of the system is likely to hold up. You pick the repair. We do not start work you did not approve.
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Why homeowners call us
- Rural routes are normal for usWe drive long stretches between calls and we plan for it. Trucks carry the common heat pump and air conditioner repair parts so a diagnosis does not turn into a second trip on a hot afternoon.
- Heat pumps and sandy soilMost homes we visit run a heat pump, and sand, lawn clippings and pollen pack the outdoor coil fast. We clear it, check the defrost side in winter, and show you what we found before we close it up.
- Well water housesHomes on well water bring their own quirks, from pump-driven electrical noise to hard water on drain lines and condensate pans. We know where those systems clog and where the slow leaks hide.
- Heating repair tooCold snaps in this region are short and hard. We do heating repair and heater repair on heat pumps, strip heat and furnaces, so one crew handles your system in July and again in January.
- All major brands, gas & electricOne independent crew for Carrier, Trane, Lennox, Goodman, Rheem and more.
- Straight answersIf a system is not worth repairing, we say so, often right on the phone.
About this guide
When the easy checks change nothing, it's time for a tech
Report what you saw during the checks and we handle the rest. A minute to book.
- A real person answers
- Open 7 days
- Written quotes
- All major brands
- Gas & electric
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