The thermostat is calling for heat, you can hear the furnace trying, and then it gives up and goes quiet. Pilot light and ignition failure is one of the most common heating calls Novus Mechanical takes across Freehold and Monmouth County, and it is usually a part worth a few hundred dollars rather than a new furnace. A furnace that will not light is almost always a safety device doing its job, so the repair depends entirely on which safety tripped and why. Our diagnostic visit is $150 and can reach $200 on a harder call, and you get the repair price before any work starts.
On a modern furnace the usual causes are a cracked hot surface ignitor, a flame sensor coated in oxide, a blocked condensate drain that trips the pressure switch, or a gas valve that has stopped responding. On the older standing pilot systems still running in plenty of Freehold Borough homes, it is almost always the thermocouple.
Every gas furnace runs a safety sequence before it commits to burning anything. The inducer motor proves airflow, the pressure switch confirms it, the ignitor heats, the gas valve opens, and the flame sensor has to confirm a flame within a few seconds. If any step fails to confirm, the control board locks the furnace out. That is the equipment protecting your house, not the equipment failing.
Which is why the fix depends on which step failed. A flame sensor that cannot see a flame and an ignitor that never heated look identical from your hallway, and they are different repairs at different prices.
We watch the furnace attempt a full ignition cycle and measure at each step, rather than reading the blink code and stopping there. Blink codes tell you which safety tripped. They do not tell you why it tripped, and those are different questions.
The pass takes about an hour on a typical call and covers:
That last one matters more than it sounds. A furnace short cycling on a tripped pressure switch is often telling you the condensate drain is blocked, and replacing the switch would leave the real problem in place to fail again in three weeks.
The diagnostic visit is $150 and can reach $200 on a harder call. Most ignition repairs start at $350, and you approve the number before we touch anything. Here is roughly where the common failures land, cheapest first.
| Failure | Where it sits |
|---|---|
| Flame sensor cleaning or replacement | Lowest cost repair on this list, and often the whole fix |
| Thermocouple, standing pilot systems | Inexpensive part, quick replacement |
| Hot surface ignitor | Common past about eight years, a wear part |
| Pressure switch or condensate blockage | Clear the real cause, not just the switch |
| Gas valve | Highest of the common ignition repairs |
If the inspection turns up a cracked heat exchanger, we stop and tell you. We do not patch around one, because it can leak combustion gases into your home. That is the finding that turns a repair conversation into a replacement conversation, and you will hear it straight.
One reset is reasonable. Repeated resets are not, and this is worth being blunt about. A furnace that has locked itself out is refusing to open the gas valve for a reason. Forcing it back through that sequence over and over can push unburned gas into the heat exchanger before the ignitor is ready.
If you smell gas, leave the house first and call New Jersey Natural Gas from outside. That call comes before ours, and their emergency line runs at any hour. Once the gas side is confirmed safe, we can look at the furnace.
Short of that, two things are worth checking yourself before you book anyone. Whether the furnace switch on the wall or the side of the unit got knocked off, and whether the filter is loaded enough that the furnace is overheating and shutting down on its limit. Both are free to rule out and both are more common than people expect.
The first hard freeze in Monmouth County usually lands in late November, and that is when the phone starts. A furnace that sat idle since March gets asked for full output on the coldest night of the year, and any weak ignitor or dirty flame sensor picks that moment to quit.
The pattern is worst in the 1960s and 1970s ranches and split levels around Freehold Township and Howell, where the original furnace has often been replaced once and the replacement is now fifteen years old itself. The 55+ communities in Manalapan see a different version, where furnaces run gently for years and the flame sensor slowly glazes over without anyone noticing until it stops.
None of that is bad luck. It is a wear part reaching the end of its life at the moment of highest demand, which is exactly what a fall check-up is for.
We work out of Freehold and cover the surrounding parts of Monmouth County: Marlboro, Manalapan, Colts Neck, Holmdel and Howell. Residential homes only.
Repairs and installs are scheduled Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 6 PM, and the phone is answered any time day or night so you can get on the schedule when it happens. We do not advertise overnight emergency dispatch, because a furnace ignition fault deserves a real diagnosis rather than a patch at 2 AM in the dark. If your house is cold tonight, call and we will get you the earliest slot and talk you through staying safe until then.
We measure your home, explain what we find, and hand you one clear price. Book a consultation in Freehold or Monmouth County.
Updated August 2026 by Novus Mechanical, Freehold, NJ
