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What's wrong with my HVAC?

Four questions: what's not working, what kind of system you have, what you've already checked, and whether any safety sign is present right now. You'll get back what's consistent with your answers, what's safe to check yourself, and where the line to a licensed technician actually sits.

This tool will never tell you how to handle refrigerant, open a capacitor, or work on a gas line — and if you answer that you smell gas or hear a carbon monoxide alarm, it stops immediately and tells you to leave the house. Those are the fixed limits of what it does, on every single path through it.

The one setting to answer honestly

The safety question at the end is not a formality. If you notice a gas smell, a sounding carbon monoxide alarm, smoke, sparks. Or a burning smell, say so even if you were only expecting to ask about a noisy blower. The answer changes everything else the tool tells you, and it changes it before anything about filters or thermostats matters at all.

Check it

What's not working?

Pick the closest match. The next questions narrow it down from here.

What this tool will never tell you

It carries no prices and no tax-credit or rebate figures, because both vary by region and change year to year in ways a fixed page cannot track. It will not walk you through handling refrigerant, which is federally regulated and requires EPA Section 608 certification to purchase or touch.

It will not tell you to open a capacitor, which can hold a dangerous charge even when a system is unplugged. And it carries no instructions for gas line or burner work. That is combustion equipment, and it is a licensed technician's job.

Sources

What this page explains is based on these official sources. If you check one and it does not match what you read here, send it to us and the article gets corrected.