Gas Furnace and Heat Pump Repair for the Two Cold Weeks Arizona Gets

Valley heating gets ignored until the first 38° morning, when it doesn't come on. It's a short season, but a system that hasn't run in heat mode since March fails in predictable ways. We fix them, and better, we catch them in the fall.

Heat pump specialists, not just AC techs

Most Valley homes heat with a heat pump: the same outdoor unit that cools in July runs backwards in January. Owner Eric Lipp is a Master Heat Pump Technician through the Electric League of Arizona, the DOE Energy Skilled–recognized program, and Patriot Air is an APS and SRP qualified contractor. Reversing valves, defrost logic, and charging a heat pump in heat mode are where generalist techs get it wrong. It's what we train for.

What we service

• Heat pumps, the majority of Valley homes. Reversing valves, defrost boards, auxiliary and emergency heat strips, thermostats. Tempe heat pump repair pricing.
• Gas furnaces. Ignitors, flame sensors, pressure switches, inducer motors, gas valves, heat exchangers, and a carbon monoxide test on every visit. Tempe heating repair.
• Electric furnaces and air handlers with heat strips. Sequencers, elements, limit switches.
• Package units with heat. Same rooftop work we do all summer.

Common Arizona heating problems

• Heat pump blowing cold air. Sometimes normal: heat pump air runs 90° to 100°, and a defrost cycle blows cool for a few minutes. Past 10 minutes it's a reversing valve, defrost board, or refrigerant problem. How to tell the difference.
• Aux or emergency heat running constantly. The heat pump isn't keeping up and the strips are carrying the house at three to four times the cost per hour. It shows up on the SRP or APS bill before you feel it.
• Outdoor unit iced over. Light frost on a cold morning is normal. A solid block at noon means the defrost cycle isn't firing.
• Furnace clicks but won't light. Ignitor or flame sensor. Cheap, fast fixes.
• Runs, then shuts off. Dirty filter, limit switch, or a cracked heat exchanger. The last one isn't cheap and is a carbon monoxide risk; we test for it.
• Burning smell on first use. Usually dust burning off the strips or exchanger, normal for a few minutes. If it persists, shut it off and call.
• Breaker trips when the heat comes on. A failed sequencer or shorted heat strip. Breaker tripping guide.
• New thermostat, now it cools on Heat. The O/B reversing valve setting is backwards. One menu change.

What heating repairs cost

Your written quote comes before any work. Full tables on the Tempe heating repair and Tempe heat pump repair pages.

Fall heating tune-up

Book it in October or November, before the first cold morning. $59.95 per system, same as the spring AC tune-up. What gets checked depends on what you heat with.

Gas furnace. Ignition and flame sensor, gas pressure, safety controls, heat exchanger integrity, and a carbon monoxide test — the two failures worth catching before winter are CO and short-cycling, where the furnace lights, runs a minute, and shuts off again. Short-cycling is usually airflow, a limit switch, or a flame-sense problem, and left alone it cracks heat exchangers.

Heat pump. Run in heat mode with refrigerant pressures taken in heat, a forced defrost cycle, each auxiliary heat strip stage tested, reversing valve checked, and the thermostat verified to stage correctly so the strips aren't carrying the house.

Electrical components, either way. Contactor, capacitor, sequencers and relays tested under load — heating failures on a cold morning are electrical far more often than mechanical.

Attic and equipment-space check. On gas equipment we check the combustion draft stack for separation, rust and proper draft. We look for air and duct leaks at the plenum and connections and quote repairs. We check the secondary drain pan for rust-through, standing water and a working float switch — an attic air handler sitting in a rusted pan is a ceiling waiting to come down — and flush the drain.

Gas line sediment trap. Current code requires a sediment trap (drip leg) on the gas line at each appliance. A lot of older Valley installs don't have one. If yours is missing, we'll tell you what it costs to add — it's a short job, and it keeps debris out of the gas valve.

Replacement

If you're replacing the AC, the heat side comes with it. A heat pump does both. If you have a gas furnace and are choosing, we'll quote both. On a split system with a working furnace we usually recommend keeping it or going dual fuel, since a heat pump air handler needs a new 230-volt circuit. On a rooftop gas pack, switching to a heat pump is common. On SRP, we file the Cool Cash rebate (APS ended its equipment rebate in 2026). The repair-or-replace math applies to heating too.

We cover Tempe, Chandler, Mesa, Gilbert, Scottsdale, Phoenix, Ahwatukee, Queen Creek and San Tan Valley.