24/7 Emergency Heating Repair in Austin, TX

If your heat is out, call Lantz Home Services at 512-710-1032. We provide 24/7 emergency heating and furnace repair across Austin, the Highland Lakes, and the surrounding Central Texas communities. A technician diagnoses the problem, explains your options before any work starts, and restores safe heat to your home.

No heat is not always an emergency. It becomes one when indoor temperatures are dropping fast, when anyone in the home is elderly, very young, or medically vulnerable, or when you smell gas or your carbon monoxide alarm is sounding. Those situations need same-night attention.

Leave it to Lantz.

Is Your No-Heat Situation an Emergency?

Use this before you decide whether to call tonight or in the morning.

If you are not sure, call. Talking through what the system is doing takes two minutes and costs nothing.

What to Check Before You Call

Four things cause a meaningful share of no-heat calls, and you can rule all four out in five minutes.

1. Thermostat. Confirm it is set to Heat, the target temperature is above the room temperature, and the batteries are not dead. A blank screen usually means dead batteries or a tripped float switch.
2. Breaker. Check the breaker panel for a tripped HVAC breaker, and check the switch on or near the air handler. It looks like a light switch and gets flipped by accident, especially in attics and garages.
3. Air filter. A filter clogged with cedar pollen and dust restricts airflow, overheats the heat exchanger, and trips the high-limit switch. The system then shuts itself off to protect itself. This is a real and common cause here in December and January.
4. Gas or propane supply. If you have propane, check the tank gauge. If you have natural gas and the stove will not light either, the problem is the gas supply, not your furnace.

If all four check out, the problem is inside the system. That is when you call.

Emergency Heating Repairs We Handle

Furnace Will Not Turn On

Common causes include a failed igniter, a faulty flame sensor, a tripped high-limit switch, a bad control board, a blown transformer, or a thermostat fault. A technician traces the sequence of operation rather than swapping the most likely part, because guessing costs you twice.

Heat Pump Running but the House Stays Cold

In Central Texas this is the most common winter call, and it is not always a fault. Heat pumps lose capacity as outdoor temperatures drop. Below roughly 35 to 40 degrees, most systems bring on auxiliary electric heat. If the auxiliary strips have failed, the system keeps running and the house never warms up. See our heat pump repair service.

Furnace Blowing Cold Air

Usually a flame sensor that has stopped proving the flame, an ignition failure, or a limit switch shutting the burners down while the blower keeps running. Airflow restriction is the underlying cause more often than people expect.

System Short-Cycling

Turning on and off every few minutes points to overheating, a dirty filter, a failing flame sensor, an oversized system, or a thermostat placed in a bad spot. Short-cycling shortens the life of the equipment, so it is worth fixing quickly.

Strange Noises

Banging on startup can mean delayed ignition, which is a safety concern. Squealing points to a blower motor or bearing. Grinding means something metal is contacting something it should not. Rattling is often a loose panel or duct.

Frozen Heat Pump

A thin layer of frost that clears during the defrost cycle is normal. A unit encased in ice that never clears means a defrost board, sensor, reversing valve, or refrigerant problem.

Thermostat Not Calling for Heat

Dead batteries, a tripped condensate float switch, failed wiring, or a smart thermostat mis-wired during a DIY install. Smart thermostat installs that skipped the C-wire are a frequent cause.

No Heat Anywhere in the House

Points to the furnace, air handler, electrical supply, gas or propane supply, or the thermostat. A technician works from the power and fuel supply inward.

Gas Smell or Carbon Monoxide? Do This First

If you smell gas, see smoke, or your carbon monoxide detector sounds:

1. Get everyone out of the house, including pets.
2. Do not flip switches, unplug anything, or use your phone inside. A spark is a spark.
3. From outside, call 911 or your gas utility. Texas Gas Service serves much of Austin. If you have propane, call your propane supplier.
4. Do not go back inside until emergency responders clear the home.

Once the home is safe, Lantz can evaluate the heating system, test the heat exchanger, and check combustion and venting.

Carbon monoxide risk rises when a heat exchanger cracks or a flue is blocked. Both are more likely in older equipment and in attic installations where flue connections can separate. If your home has a gas furnace and no working CO alarm, install one before winter.

DIY vs Professional

Texas requires a state HVAC license for most mechanical work. Insurance claims and equipment warranties are routinely denied when unlicensed work is found.

What Emergency Heating Repair Costs in Central Texas

Answer first: most emergency heating repairs are a diagnostic fee plus parts and labor, and the diagnostic fee is often applied to the repair if you move forward.

What drives the number:

• Time of day. After-hours, overnight, weekend, and holiday calls cost more than a weekday appointment.
• The part that failed. An igniter or flame sensor sits at the low end. A blower motor, control board, or inducer motor sits well above it. A heat exchanger is usually the point where replacement becomes the better conversation.
• Access. Attic installations take longer than garage or closet installations, and most Central Texas systems are in the attic.
• Parts availability. Common parts are stocked. Obsolete parts for a twenty-year-old system may not be.
• Fuel type. Heat pump auxiliary heat strips and gas furnace components are different repairs at different price points.

Ask any company for the diagnostic fee, whether it applies to the repair, whether the price is flat-rate or hourly, and what the warranty on parts and labor is. A company that will not answer those on the phone is telling you something.

Note for the Lantz team: insert your actual diagnostic fee, after-hours policy, and parts and labor warranty here. Homeowners search for cost, and a page that names real numbers outranks one that dodges the question.

Repair or Replace?

Not every no-heat call means a new system.

Repair usually makes sense when:

• The system is under 10 to 12 years old
• The failed part is not the heat exchanger or compressor
• The repair costs a fraction of replacement
• The system has been maintained and has not needed repeated repairs

Replacement usually makes more sense when:

• The system is 15 years or older
• The heat exchanger is cracked
• The compressor has failed on a heat pump
• You have paid for repairs two or more winters running
• The repair cost approaches half the cost of a new system
• Parts are obsolete

A useful rule: multiply the repair cost by the system's age in years. If that number exceeds the cost of new equipment, replacement is the better spend.

Lantz can walk you through both paths. See heating installation and replacement or heat pump installation and replacement.

Central Texas Heating, and Why It Fails Here

Heating systems in this region have a different failure profile than systems up north, and it explains a lot of what homeowners experience.

Systems sit idle for eight or nine months. An Austin furnace might run a few dozen hours a year. Parts seize, rodents nest in attic equipment, and dust settles on the flame sensor. The failure does not happen during the freeze. It happened months ago, and the freeze is when you find out.

The first cold snap creates a call surge. When a front drops temperatures 30 degrees overnight, every dormant fault surfaces at once across the metro. That is the night everyone calls. Homeowners who ran a fall check-up are not on that list.

Attic installations change the equation. Most Central Texas air handlers and furnaces are in the attic. Access is harder, condensate lines drain differently, and a failed float switch shuts the system down entirely. Attic heat also ages components faster than a conditioned basement would.

Cedar season overlaps heating season. Mountain cedar peaks from late December through February, right when the heat runs most. Filters load up fast. A restricted filter overheats the system and trips the limit switch, which reads to a homeowner as "my heat randomly shuts off." Changing the filter monthly during cedar season prevents a real percentage of no-heat calls. Our indoor air quality services address the filtration side.

Hard freezes are not hypothetical here. February 2021 and January 2024 both put multi-day freezes on a grid and a housing stock built for heat, not cold. During a sustained freeze, heat pumps run on auxiliary heat almost continuously, electric demand spikes, and marginal equipment fails. Getting ahead of it in October is worth more than any emergency call in January.

Insulation does more work than people think. A lot of Central Texas attics are underinsulated for winter because the homes were designed around summer. A system that cannot keep up may not be failing. It may be losing the heat as fast as it makes it. See blown-in insulation.

H2: Common Mistakes Homeowners Make

1. Cranking the thermostat to 85. It does not heat faster. On a heat pump it forces auxiliary heat on and spikes the bill.
2. Using "Emergency Heat" as a shortcut. That setting locks out the heat pump and runs expensive electric strips only. Use it when the heat pump has actually failed, not to warm up faster.
3. Ignoring a new noise. Small mechanical problems become large ones, usually on the coldest night.
4. Skipping the filter during cedar season. One of the cheapest preventable causes of a no-heat call.
5. Resetting a tripping breaker over and over. The breaker is doing its job. Something is drawing more current than it should.
6. Assuming no heat means the furnace. In a lake community without natural gas, there may be no furnace to fix.
7. Waiting until the first freeze to book maintenance. That is the week every company in Austin is booked solid.

Preventing the Next Heating Emergency

Book a heating check-up in October or early November, before the first front. A pre-season inspection typically covers:

• Igniter, flame sensor, and burner condition
• Heat exchanger inspection for cracks
• Combustion and venting checks on gas systems
• Refrigerant charge and defrost operation on heat pumps
• Auxiliary heat strip function
• Blower motor and amp draw
• Thermostat calibration and staging
• Condensate drain and float switch
• Filter condition and airflow

Prioritize it if your system is over ten years old, made a new noise last winter, struggled to hold temperature, or has not been serviced in more than a year.

The Ultimate Home Care Plan covers scheduled HVAC maintenance along with plumbing and electrical, which is the practical way to keep this from being a January phone call.

Emergency Heating Repair Across Central Texas

We answer no-heat calls throughout Austin and the surrounding communities. Fuel type and system design vary a lot across this footprint, and our technicians work on all of it.

Austin and the urban core: Austin. Older central neighborhoods commonly run gas furnaces, often in the attic.

North and northwest suburbs: Cedar Park, Leander, Round Rock, Georgetown, Pflugerville. Newer construction, heavy on heat pumps and dual-fuel systems.

Lake Travis and the Highland Lakes: Lago Vista, Jonestown, Point Venture, Spicewood, Lakeway. Many of these homes have no natural gas service and run electric heat pumps or propane.

West Austin: Westlake, Bee Cave. A mix of large custom homes with multiple zoned systems, where one failed zone can leave half a house cold.

No heat in your home? Leave it to Lantz.

What to Expect When You Call

1. Tell us what the system is doing. What changed, when, and what you have already checked.
2. We diagnose. A technician traces the sequence of operation to find the actual cause, not the first symptom.
3. We explain the options. You get the findings and the choices before any work begins.
4. We restore heat. Where the repair can be completed on the visit, we complete it and confirm the system is running safely.

Complete HVAC Services for Central Texas Homeowners

Emergency repair is one piece of keeping a home comfortable.

• Heating Repair
• Heating Installation and Replacement
• Heat Pump Repair
• Heat Pump Installation and Replacement
• Blown-In Insulation
• Air Conditioning Repair
• AC Installation and Replacement
• AC Maintenance
• Indoor Air Quality
• All HVAC Services

Lantz Home Services has served Central Texas homeowners since 1972 with plumbing, heating, air conditioning, and electrical work. One licensed company for the whole house.

No Heat? Leave It to Lantz.

Call 512-710-1032 for 24/7 emergency heating repair in Austin and across Central Texas, or request service online. Tell us what your system is doing and we will get a technician headed your way.