The independent heating and cooling company across the Willamette Valley and northwest Oregon
CO Alarm Sounding
Your carbon monoxide alarm is going off and you are standing in the hallway trying to decide if it is real. Treat it as real. Get everyone outside, call 911 or your gas utility from outside, and do not go back in until someone with a meter says the air is clear. Then call us to find out why it happened.
Call (888) 365-6280- You reach a person, not a menu
- Open every day
- The quote comes first, in writing
Taking calls until 5:00 PM PT
By our service team · vetted by the techs who do this daily
The First Five Minutes, In Order
1. Get every person and pet out of the house and into fresh air. Do not stop to gather things. 2. Once you are outside, call 911 or your gas utility emergency line. Both will send someone with a meter. 3. Leave the door you came out of open if you can do it without going back inside. 4. Count heads. If anyone is dizzy, nauseated, confused, has a headache, or passed out, tell the dispatcher that first. Carbon monoxide symptoms look like the flu, and people who feel fine still need checking. 5. Wait outside. Do not go back in for a phone, a charger, or a pet you think is fine.
What Not To Do
Do not open every window and call it handled. Airing out the house hides the reading the fire department needs to find the source, and the source is still running. Do not silence the alarm and go back to bed, which is where most of the bad outcomes start. Do not try to inspect a furnace, water heater, or gas line yourself, and do not relight anything. Do not run a generator, grill, or pressure washer in a garage or near an open window, ever. Do not assume a low reading means a false alarm. If you smell gas on top of the alarm, leave immediately and call 911 or the gas utility from outside.
Where The Carbon Monoxide Usually Comes From
Anything in the house that burns fuel can produce it. In homes across Oregon and Washington, the common sources are a cracked heat exchanger in a gas furnace, a blocked or disconnected flue, a water heater that is backdrafting, a gas range used for heat, an idling car in an attached garage, and generators run too close to the house during a storm outage. Wet weather matters here. Water in a chimney or a vent cap crushed by a branch can push combustion gases back into the living space. Electric heat pumps and electric furnaces do not make carbon monoxide, though a gas water heater in the same house still can.
When To Call Us
Call us after the emergency responders have cleared the building and told you it is safe to be inside. That is the point where the question changes from "is this dangerous right now" to "what failed and can it be fixed." We work on gas furnaces, heat pumps, and the venting attached to them for homeowners in Oregon and Washington. On a carbon monoxide call we test the combustion, inspect the heat exchanger, check draft and vent connections, and look at the return side for anything pulling flue gas back in. If the equipment is unsafe, we tell you plainly and we do not put it back in service. Furnace repair, heating repair, or replacement, you get the findings first.
Keeping It From Happening Again
Put a carbon monoxide alarm on every level and outside sleeping areas, and replace the whole unit at the age printed on the back. Sensors wear out even when the light is green. Test them monthly. Have gas heating equipment and gas water heaters checked before each heating season, because a flue problem is much easier to catch in October than at 2 a.m. in January. Change your filter on schedule so the blower is not straining. Keep vent terminations clear of leaves, snow, and shrubs, and never store anything against a water heater. If you own a generator, run it well away from doors, windows, and the garage.
CO Alarm Sounding — fast answers
My alarm chirped once and stopped. Is that carbon monoxide?
A single chirp on a repeating cycle usually means a low battery or an expired sensor. A loud, continuous four-beep pattern means carbon monoxide. If you are not sure which you heard, treat it as real, go outside, and call the gas utility.
Can my heat pump give off carbon monoxide?
No. Heat pumps run on electricity and burn nothing. If your alarm sounds in a heat pump home, look at other fuel-burning sources such as a gas water heater, fireplace, range, attached garage, or a generator running too close to the house.
Do I need a new furnace if the heat exchanger is cracked?
Usually yes. A cracked heat exchanger cannot be safely repaired, and on older equipment the part often costs more than it is worth. We show you what we found, explain the options, and let you decide without pressure.
How it works
- Step 1
Tell us the symptom
Call or fill in the quote form. Describe the noise, the smell, the temperature, and when it started. That detail helps us bring the right parts and gives you an honest idea of the visit ahead.
- Step 2
We diagnose on site
A technician checks the thermostat, airflow, electrical connections, refrigerant behaviour and the outdoor unit. We tell you what failed and why, in plain language, before anyone reaches for a part or a price.
- Step 3
You choose the repair
We lay out the fix, any parts on order, and what happens if you wait. Once you agree, we do the work and confirm the system holds temperature before we pack up and leave.
- A real person answers
- Open 7 days
- Written quote before work starts
Why homeowners call us
- Heat pumps are our normalIn this region heat pumps outnumber furnaces, so defrost boards, reversing valves and short cycling in wet weather are everyday work for us. We know how these systems behave in a cold December rain, not just on a test bench.
- Wet winter defrost problemsIce on the outdoor coil, a unit that runs and runs without warming the house, puddles that refreeze under the pad. We trace whether it is a sensor, a stuck valve, drainage, or airflow, then fix the actual cause.
- Filtration after smoke seasonWildfire smoke turned indoor air quality into a real conversation here. We look at filter fit, return sizing and IAQ options that your blower can actually push air through, rather than choking the system with the wrong media.
- We explain before we chargeYou get the diagnosis, the options and the trade-offs before work starts. If a repair is not worth it on an old system, we say so. No pressure, no jargon dumped on you at the door.
- All major brands, gas & electricOne independent crew for Carrier, Trane, Lennox, Goodman, Rheem and more.
- Straight answersNot worth fixing? We say that out loud, and often it saves you the visit fee.
About this guide
If the safe checks didn't fix it, the fault is real
Tell us what you tried and what it did. The booking itself takes a minute.
- A real person answers
- Open 7 days
- Written quotes
- All major brands
- Gas & electric
Rather not call? Get a free quote →