Emergency Furnace Repair in St. Louis, MO

A furnace that quits in a St. Louis cold snap is an emergency when the house is heading toward freezing or when someone inside is older, ill or very young. Protect those people and your pipes first. Then call a specialist, because the fault is often a small part that is fixable the same day when the schedule allows.

Is no heat an emergency in St. Louis?

No heat is an emergency when the cold can hurt people or pipes before the next business day. The National Weather Service counted 4,100 heating degree days in St. Louis in 2025, and the nights that matter are the ones near or below freezing.

Ready.gov says a body temperature below 95 degrees is an emergency. The CDC notes that older adults are more affected by cold, so the call is urgent for them even in a house that still feels cool rather than cold. If the house is above 60 degrees, everyone is healthy and the forecast is mild, a morning visit is usually reasonable.

Gas smell or CO alarm: what comes before the repair call

Gas and carbon monoxide come before heat. If you smell gas, leave the building first, touch no switches or flames, and call 911 or Spire at 800-887-4173 once you are outside. Spire states there is no charge when it investigates a gas smell.

If a carbon monoxide alarm sounds, get everyone outside into fresh air and call 911. EPA says people with symptoms such as headache, dizziness, nausea or confusion need medical care, and that nobody should heat a home with a gas oven or sleep in a room with an unvented heater. A cracked heat exchanger or a blocked flue can cause CO, so a furnace that shut down with an alarm needs a technician before it runs again. Our guide on what to do first when you smell gas covers the sequence in detail.

How do you keep the house and the pipes safe tonight?

Shrink the space you are heating and keep water moving. These steps hold a house through a night without heat.

1. Pick one interior room, close the door and put a rolled towel along the bottom.
2. Dress in layers and share blankets. Cover the head, neck and chest first.
3. Let faucets on exterior walls drip, and open the sink cabinets so room air reaches the pipes, as the Red Cross advises.
4. Do not drop the thermostat at night during a freeze. The Red Cross says to suspend lower nighttime settings.
5. Use a plug-in heater only as its manual allows, and never a gas oven, grill or generator indoors. Ready.gov says generators belong outdoors.
6. If a pipe freezes, open the faucet and warm the pipe with a hair dryer. Never use an open flame.

Call as soon as the situation is stable. The earlier the technician hears the symptom, the more likely the right part is on the first trip.

What can you check safely before the technician arrives?

Check only what does not involve gas, panels or wiring. Most of these take under five minutes.

• Set the thermostat to Heat, raise the setpoint a few degrees and replace the batteries.
• Find the furnace's wall switch, which looks like a light switch, and confirm it is on.
• Check the breaker for the furnace and reset it once if it tripped.
• Pull the filter. If you cannot see light through it, replace it.
• Look for a blinking light through the small window on the furnace and note how many flashes you see.

Leave the burner compartment closed and do not relight a pilot unless you know the manufacturer's procedure and smell nothing. Our filter guide explains why a clogged filter shuts a furnace down.

What does the technician do when a furnace is down?

The technician checks safety first, then follows the ignition sequence from the thermostat call to the burners. That order finds the real fault instead of a guess.

Then the technician explains the finding in plain language and gives options, followed by a clear, upfront quote before work begins. Afterward the technician runs the furnace through a full cycle and checks what else is working. A Google reviewer who was quoted a new furnace elsewhere wrote that the real fault was a capacitor, found and fixed here. Our furnace repair page covers the full inspection.

What does a no-heat visit include?

A no-heat visit is a diagnosis and, when the part allows, the repair. We work on gas furnaces, heat pumps, boilers and light commercial heating.

• A safety look at the flue, the burner area and the gas connection.
• Testing the ignition parts in order, before replacing any of them.
• A plain explanation of the fault and the options.
• A clear, upfront quote before work starts.
• A full heating cycle after the repair.

How quickly do no-heat calls get answered?

We cannot promise an arrival time, because the weather, the day and the schedule all decide it. We are open 24 hours and offer same-day service when the schedule allows. What customers wrote on Google is the best guide.

Mary E. wrote that the furnace stopped about 5 pm, the call was returned immediately, and the technician was there at 7 am the next morning, having wanted to come the night before. Gaquan C. wrote that the technician came out in 10-degree weather and the family had heat. Amy A. wrote about a furnace repair in freezing cold at a very reasonable price. Those are the reviewers' stories, not a promise about your call.

What does an emergency furnace repair cost, and should you replace?

Expect to hear the number before the technician starts work. No after-hours price is published here, and none is stated that cannot be backed up. Ask on the call what the visit will cost, then get the repair price once the cause is known.

Replacement is rarely a midnight decision. Furnaces commonly last 15 to 20 years with routine maintenance, so a very old unit with a cracked heat exchanger is a real conversation. A failed igniter or capacitor is not. Weigh the quote against the age of the furnace, and read how furnace replacement pricing works before you decide.

The bill moves with the failed part, whether it is on hand, the labor involved and the furnace's age. Angi puts St. Louis HVAC labor at about $75 to $150 per hour in 2026, a market range and not our quote.

Do furnace repairs and replacements need a permit?

St. Louis County says a permit is required to install, alter, repair or replace heating systems, so ask the contractor to name who handles it. In the City of St. Louis, Ordinance 70800 requires replacement units to be installed by a mechanical contractor licensed in the City, with a permit and a $25 application fee, per the City's mechanical permit page. Missouri has no statewide HVAC license. Frederick E. wrote that repaired gas leaks passed Spire's reinspection. Request the license number that applies to your home from any contractor, us included.

Why Kenan Corporation for a furnace that quit in the cold

Reviews tell the story, and we hold a 4.6★ rating from 29 Google reviews as of October 2026.

• Cold-weather calls. Gaquan C. wrote that the technician came out in 10-degree weather, and Amy A. wrote about repairing a furnace in freezing cold.
• Gas leak repairs. Frederick E. wrote that leaks found after a gas inspection were fixed, pressure-tested and passed Spire's reinspection.
• Repair before replacement. One Google reviewer was told a furnace needed replacing, and the cause was a capacitor.
• Open 24 hours. Call at any hour and ask about the schedule for your address.

Where do we drive for no-heat calls?

A dead furnace has different usual suspects by neighborhood.

• Jennings: 75 percent of homes heat with gas, and 1990s furnaces on 1950s ducts fail at igniters, flame sensors and capacitors.
• Ferguson: a masonry chimney that served a 1920s boiler may not suit a new furnace, so venting comes up early.
• Florissant: a furnace original to a 1960s house would be 50 years old, so most are replacements.
• Clayton: 63 percent of occupied homes heat with gas, and prewar basements are low, so access shapes the visit.
• Affton: the 1980s and 1990s furnaces are now failing; about 50 minutes out, so call first.
• Richmond Heights: gas heats 74 percent of occupied homes, and every visit includes a look at the flue.
• Webster Groves: 1890s to 1960s houses mix boilers and furnaces, so tell us if the heat is radiators.
• Maplewood: furnaces sit beside water heaters under low beams, and inducer motors are a common failure.
• St. Charles: 1990s and 2000s subdivision furnaces are in the 15 to 20 year range.

The emergency HVAC overview explains how all after-hours calls are handled.