Seasonal tune-up and full diagnostic on your Carrier, Trane, or Goodman system - readings shown to you before any repair is proposed
Diagnosis first, numbers second - you approve the repair price before a single part goes in.
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AfterFast, Reliable Furnace Repair Across San Francisco
Furnace repair in San Francisco typically runs $175 – $825 depending on the part and the furnace type, and most repairs are completed in a single visit. If your heat is out in the Richmond or the Sunset, you don’t have time for a company that puts you on a callback list. Dalton Heating & Air answers the phone with a live person 24 hours a day, sends a background-checked technician inside the stated window, and puts the price in writing before any work starts. Call (361) 306-9515 and you’ll know what the repair costs before we touch a single component.
Why Dalton Heating & Air Is San Francisco’s Preferred Furnace Repair Company
Most San Francisco furnace calls we run involve pre-war wall furnaces, floor furnaces, or ductless heat pumps rather than the central forced-air systems common in newer suburbs. That matters because the right repair on a 1920s Marina District wall furnace looks nothing like the right repair on a 1990s gas furnace in Daly City. Our technicians train on both, and we service all nine major residential HVAC brands including Trane, Lennox, and Goodman.
We work under The Garrison Standard, the operating code set by Garrison Partners when the network launched in 2003. It binds every tech to the same discipline on every job in San Francisco: arrive inside the window, price in writing before starting, do the work by the book, leave the site clean, and stand behind the repair for a full year. That guarantee is written, not spoken. If the repair fails within 365 days, we return at no charge under the 365-Day Done Right Promise.
Marco Benitez leads our team, and he holds every technician to The Garrison Code on each call from the Outer Sunset to South San Francisco. Homeowners who have been burned by a no-show or a price that shifted at the door tend to notice the difference. The price we quote is the price you pay. The guarantee is on paper. The tech who shows up is uniformed and background-checked, and you’ll know their name before they ring the bell.
Furnace Maintenance in San Francisco
Furnace Maintenance in San Francisco means something specific here: coastal fog and salt air corrode burner assemblies and pilot tubing faster than you’d see inland, especially in the Sunset, the Richmond, and anywhere within a mile of Ocean Beach. A tune-up catches that corrosion before it becomes an ignition failure on the first cold night. We clean the burners, test the thermocouple, check gas pressure, inspect the heat exchanger for cracks, and measure static pressure to confirm your return air path is moving enough air for the unit. A maintenance visit runs $95 – $235 depending on furnace type and accessibility.
Burner and Pilot Service
Fog-driven moisture settles on burners and pilot assemblies in older San Francisco homes and causes rust that blocks the flame sensor or clogs the pilot orifice. We disassemble what’s serviceable, clean what can be cleaned, and replace what can’t. This is the single most common maintenance fix we perform in the city.
Heat Exchanger Inspection
On every tune-up we inspect the heat exchanger for cracks or pinholes. A cracked exchanger is a carbon monoxide risk, not a maintenance item. If we find one on an old wall furnace with no ductwork, we’ll tell you plainly and walk through the repair-versus-replace math, including whether a ductless heat pump makes more sense for your home.
Heat Pump Repair in San Francisco
Heat Pump Repair in San Francisco has become a larger share of our work year over year, because so many pre-1940 homes in the city never had central ductwork installed. When a furnace dies, the honest answer is often a mini split heat pump rather than another wall furnace. We repair refrigerant leaks, failed reversing valves, faulty defrost boards, and compressor or fan motor failures on ducted and ductless heat pumps alike. Heat pump repair runs $175 – $765 depending on the component and the system type.
Mini Split Diagnostics
Mini splits in San Francisco condos and Edwardian flats frequently develop condensate drainage issues or refrigerant leaks at flare connections. We diagnose the problem with a digital manifold and pressure test before quoting anything. The written price includes the part, the labor, and the refrigerant if the system needs a recharge, which is topping off the cooling fluid your system requires to reach set temperature.
Reversing Valve and Defrost Board Work
Coastal humidity means heat pumps here work harder in shoulder season, when outdoor coils swing between heating and cooling modes. A stuck reversing valve or a failed defrost board is a common failure we see in the Richmond and Sunset. We carry common boards and valves on the truck so many of these repairs finish the same day.
Trusted Brands We Service in San Francisco
Our technicians are factory-trained to service Trane, Lennox, and Rheem, along with six other major residential brands. Because we work across all major lines, we don’t steer you toward a brand we happen to sell. We diagnose the unit you have, quote the repair it needs, and stock common parts for older San Francisco systems in our local service vehicles. That means fewer second trips to chase a part and faster turnaround when your heat is down.
Common Furnace Repair Problems We See in San Francisco Homes
- Corroded pilots and burners in fog-belt neighborhoods. The Sunset, the Richmond, and the Outer Parks see salt-air corrosion on furnace internals that inland units never experience. Ignition failures here are usually rust, not a failed gas valve.
- Cracked heat exchangers in pre-war wall furnaces. Old wall and floor furnaces vent into shared interior spaces and have no ductwork to tie into. A cracked exchanger on one of these units forces a serious conversation about replacement, often with a ductless heat pump instead of another wall furnace.
- Short-cycling in remodeled Victorians. A tightly sealed remodel changes the return air math. When the return path gets choked off by new walls or a converted closet, static pressure climbs and the furnace overheats and trips the limit switch. The fix is a static pressure test and return air correction, not a new board.
- Failed ignitors on 20-year-old induced-draft furnaces. In newer San Francisco construction, like parts of Mission Bay or the Dogpatch, we see hot surface ignitor failures on mid-efficiency units. This is a $180 – $350 repair and is usually done the same day.
Pricing for Furnace Repair in San Francisco, CA
Here’s what furnace repair actually costs in San Francisco. A typical diagnostic and minor repair runs $175 – $350. Mid-range repairs like an ignitor replacement or a gas valve swap land between $250 and $525. Bigger jobs, like a blower motor replacement or a heat exchanger repair on a central furnace, run $400 – $825. Tune-ups are $95 – $235. Every quote is written before we start and includes parts, labor, and the full-year guarantee. We don’t charge overtime for emergency calls, and the estimate is free. Call (361) 306-9515 and we’ll give you a fixed price before any work begins.
| Service | Typical Price Range in San Francisco |
|---|---|
| Furnace Repair | $175 – $825 |
| Tune-Up | $95 – $235 |
We Also Serve Cities Near San Francisco
Dalton Heating & Air handles furnace repair calls throughout the Bay Area. In addition to Furnace Repair in San Francisco, we serve Daly City, Brisbane, Sausalito, and South San Francisco. If your furnace is down and you’re just over the line in Daly City or Brisbane, call (361) 306-9515 and we’ll dispatch a local tech from the San Francisco Bay Area office.
Serving San Francisco, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the San Francisco area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs About Furnace Repair in San Francisco
Replace it if the heat exchanger is cracked, the unit is over 20 years old, or the repair would cost more than half the price of a new system. For older San Francisco homes without ductwork, replacement usually means a ductless mini split heat pump, not another wall furnace. We’ll show you the load calculation and the price for both options before you commit to anything. Call (361) 306-9515 for a free estimate.
A load calculation tells us exactly how many BTUs your home actually needs, based on square footage, insulation, window count, and San Francisco’s specific microclimate. Most original furnaces in the city are oversized because they were installed before insulation and double-pane windows existed. If you’re replacing a unit, the load calc prevents you from paying for capacity you don’t need. It’s included in our replacement quotes and it changes the equipment recommendation more often than not.
SEER2 is the updated efficiency rating for heat pumps and air conditioners, measuring how much cooling you get per watt of electricity consumed over a typical season. Higher SEER2 means a lower electric bill for a San Francisco home running a heat pump year-round. Furnaces use AFUE instead, which measures how much of the gas burned becomes actual heat. We’ll explain the numbers on any quote you get from us, in plain language, before you sign anything.
Short-cycling in San Francisco is usually a static pressure problem, not an electrical one. Tightly sealed remodels in Victorians and Edwardians choke off the return air path, the heat exchanger overheats, and the limit switch shuts the system down before damage occurs. The fix is measuring static pressure and correcting the return air, not throwing another part at it. If it’s electrical, we’ll find that too, but we start with the airflow math.
Yes. We repair ducted heat pumps, ductless mini splits, wall furnaces, floor furnaces, and central forced-air furnaces throughout San Francisco. Our Furnace Repair team handles the full range of heating equipment you’ll find in this city’s housing stock. Call (361) 306-9515 and tell us what you have; we’ll tell you if we can fix it and what it costs before we come out.
Written by Marco Benitez, Owner at Dalton Heating & Air, serving San Francisco since 2003.