Furnace Repair in the East Bay

Most of the furnaces we're called out to in the East Bay are older than the people living with them. A mild climate means equipment here rarely fails outright. Instead, it degrades quietly for years, then stops on the first genuinely cold night in November – usually at the most inconvenient hour.

Hassler Heating & Air Conditioning has repaired furnaces across Alameda, Contra Costa and Marin counties since 1999. We work on modern condensing units, on wall and floor heaters, and on gravity systems installed before most of these houses had wiring for a refrigerator. Our line is staffed around the clock.

We are here to keep you warm. Call (510) 288-5563 to schedule furnace repair in the East Bay today.

Why Furnaces Behave Differently in the East Bay

Heating here doesn't behave the way it does in most of the country, and the equipment reflects that.

The season runs from October through May, and in the Berkeley and Oakland hills it barely stops at all. That's a long run time on systems that rarely get the hard freeze that forces people to replace them, so East Bay furnaces tend to stay in service decades past the point where equipment elsewhere would have been pulled out.

The housing stock compounds it. Much of Berkeley, Oakland, Alameda and Albany predates 1940, and a surprising amount of the original heating is still running. We work on gravity furnaces that have no blower and move heat by convection through oversized ducts. We service wall heaters and floor furnaces in homes that never had central heat at all. And we deal constantly with ductwork that was added to houses built without it, usually decades later and often badly, running through crawlspaces nobody has opened in twenty years. None of this is fast work, and after twenty-five years we wouldn't want it any other way. These houses are a large part of why people live in the East Bay, and keeping them warm through a long damp winter beats swapping identical units in identical subdivisions.

Marine air is the third factor. Salt carries further inland than most people expect, and it reaches heat exchangers, flue connections, and sheet metal in ways you won't see in Walnut Creek or Concord. A furnace in Richmond or Albany ages differently from the same unit five miles east.

A technician who mostly works in newer construction can stand in front of a gravity furnace and genuinely not know what they're looking at. That's how working furnaces get condemned and failing ones get patched for another season. We've been working on these houses long enough to tell the difference. 

Furnace Repairs We Handle

Gas furnace repair is the bulk of our heating work in the East Bay, alongside wall heaters, floor furnaces, and the older gravity systems still warming pre-war homes. The common failures we see look like this:

• It won't light, or takes several attempts. A dirty flame sensor or a failing igniter is usually to blame, and on older systems it's often the pilot assembly or the thermocouple. These are inexpensive parts and a fast fix, and they account for more November callouts than anything else.
• It runs briefly, then shuts off. Short cycling points to restricted airflow, a failing limit switch, or a system that was oversized when it went in. In East Bay homes with retrofitted ductwork, it's frequently the ducts rather than the furnace.
• It blows cold air. The cause is usually the igniter, the gas valve, or a flame sensor shutting the burner down for safety a few seconds after ignition. It's worth calling rather than guessing at this one.
• It's loud in a way it wasn't before. Grinding usually means blower motor bearings. Squealing often means the belt on older units. Banging on startup can mean delayed ignition, which is worth looking at promptly.
• Some rooms are cold and others aren't. In two-story Berkeley and Oakland homes this is more often a duct problem than a furnace problem. We check ductwork as part of the diagnosis rather than treating it as a separate job.
• Gas bills climbed with no change in use. An aging furnace loses efficiency slowly enough that you don't notice month to month. The bill notices.

No Heat? We Answer 24/7

Cold gets into an uninsulated 1920s house faster than the thermometer suggests, and East Bay’s damp air makes it worse. A furnace that fails on a Friday evening is not something to leave until Monday.

Our line is staffed overnight, at weekends and on holidays, and the person who picks up is someone who can actually book you in rather than take a message for the morning. Tell us if there's an infant, an elderly parent or anyone unwell in the house, because that changes what we'll advise you to do while you wait.

Not every no-heat call needs a visit, either. A fair number come down to a tripped furnace switch, a flat thermostat battery, or a filter clogged badly enough to shut the system down on its limit switch. We'll work through those with you on the phone before anyone gets in a van, because getting your heat back in ten minutes is a better result for you than an appointment.

No heat tonight? Call (510) 288-5563 to schedule your East Bay furnace repair today.

What Happens When You Call

You shouldn't have to take a contractor's word for it. Here's how a furnace repair call runs.

• Day or night, someone picks up. We take the details, including whether anyone in the house is vulnerable to the cold, which tells us whether you need someone immediately.
• We diagnose before we quote. The technician tests the system rather than eyeballing it, finds the actual fault, and shows you the failed part instead of describing it.
• You see the price before any work starts. Nothing happens until you approve it.
• We check the things you didn't ask about. That means heat exchanger condition, venting, combustion air and gas pressure. On a sixty-year-old system those matter more than whatever brought us out.
• We'll tell you when the answer is no. If a repair doesn't make sense against the age of the equipment, we'd rather lose the job than take your money for it.

Why East Bay Homeowners Choose Hassler

We've been repairing furnaces in these three counties since 1999. Here's what keeps people calling us back:

• We hold a 4.9-star average across more than 700 Google reviews. A good number of those were written by people whose heat had just stopped working. Read our reviews.
• We know what's inside a sixty-year-old furnace. We work regularly with gravity systems, standing pilots, thermocouples and limit switches that stopped being manufactured decades ago. We've been opening these up since 1999, and we know which ones are worth saving.
• We check the ducts before we blame the burner. A surprising share of East Bay heating complaints turn out to be leakage rather than equipment, so we also handle insulation, air sealing, and duct repair. Finding that costs you less than a furnace you didn't need.
• We've claimed over $5 million in energy rebates for our customers since 2015. If a repair turns into a replacement, that's money you shouldn't leave behind.
• Our technicians are NATE-certified and we're Diamond Certified. Diamond Certified rates contractors on independently surveyed customer satisfaction rather than on who pays for a listing, and we're also a Carrier Factory Authorized Dealer.
• We work weekends and evenings, and a replacement quote costs nothing. We schedule outside business hours because furnaces don't wait for Monday, and financing spreads the cost if a repair turns into a replacement.

Where We Repair Furnaces

These are our neighborhoods. We're in homes across Alameda, Contra Costa and Marin every day of the week, on streets we've been working for a quarter of a century. If you're anywhere in the East Bay or the wider Bay Area, find your city below, or skip the list and call.

• Alameda County: Berkeley, Oakland, Albany, Alameda, Hayward, Emeryville, Piedmont, Rockridge, Montclair
• Contra Costa County: El Cerrito, Richmond, Walnut Creek, Lafayette, Pleasant Hill, Concord, Orinda, Moraga, Hercules, Pinole, Kensington
• Marin County: San Rafael, Mill Valley, Larkspur, Ross, Novato
• Don’t see your city? See all of our service areas.

Furnace Repair: Common Questions

Do you offer emergency furnace repair?

Yes. Our line is staffed overnight, at weekends and on holidays. Tell us if there's no heat and someone in the house is vulnerable to the cold, because that changes what we'll advise you to do while you wait.

Do you work on furnaces you didn't install?

Yes. Who installed it makes no difference to us, and that includes equipment from companies that no longer exist. We service all major residential furnace brands.

My house has a gravity furnace. Can you still repair it?

Usually, yes. Gravity furnaces are common in pre-1940 East Bay homes and we work on them regularly. There does come a point where parts availability or heat exchanger condition makes replacement the honest recommendation, and we'll tell you plainly when you've reached it.

Should I repair my furnace or replace it?

In general, if the furnace is past fifteen years old and the repair is a significant share of replacement cost, replacing usually wins. A cracked heat exchanger is a clearer call, because that's a safety issue rather than a repair decision. We'll give you the honest answer on your specific equipment.

How long should a furnace last in the East Bay?

Fifteen to twenty years is typical, though our mild climate means plenty of East Bay furnaces run well past that. Longer life isn't always good news — an old furnace that still works can be running at a fraction of its original efficiency and costing you the difference every month. Annual maintenance is usually what separates a furnace that reaches twenty from one that doesn't.

Are you licensed?

Yes — California contractor's license #770180. Our technicians are NATE-certified and we're Diamond Certified.

Do I need a permit to replace a furnace?

Yes. Replacing heating equipment requires a permit across the East Bay and the work has to meet current code. We handle it as part of the job, and it's worth checking that whoever you hire does the same, because unpermitted work tends to surface later when you sell.

Would a heat pump be better than repairing my furnace again?

Often it is, particularly in this climate. East Bay winters are mild enough that a heat pump never has to work hard, and one system heats and cools. If your furnace is nearing the end anyway, it's worth comparing before you spend money on another repair. Heat pump conversions also qualify for rebates a gas replacement doesn't.

Book Furnace Repair in the East Bay

Whether the furnace quit this morning or has been getting worse all winter, tell us what it's doing and we'll tell you what it takes to fix it.

Replacement quotes cost nothing and carry no obligation, and we'll flag any rebates you're eligible for before you decide anything.

There's a person on the line at every hour of every day, holidays included. Call (510) 288-5563and tell us what the furnace is doing, or book online.