No heat in winter right now? What to do first
- Smell gas or hear a carbon monoxide alarm? Leave the house and call the gas utility or 911 before anything else.
- Check the thermostat is set to heat and above room temperature, and that the boiler switch and breaker are on.
- Read the pressure gauge. A reading near zero means the system has lost water. Do not keep feeding it, because that hides a leak.
- If water is dripping from the relief valve or pooling at the boiler, shut off the cold fill line to the boiler and call.
- If the house is dropping toward freezing, tell us on the call. Pipes become the second problem, and a burst pipe is a separate emergency.
Signs your boiler is asking for help
Falling pressure
The gauge sinks over days. Water is going somewhere, through a leak (leak detection can find it) or a failed expansion tank.
Banging or kettling
Air, scale or sludge in the boiler makes it knock, rumble or whistle as it heats.
One cold zone
If the others are warm, suspect a zone valve or thermostat. If all are cold, suspect the circulator pump.
Cold tops on radiators
A radiator hot at the bottom and cold at the top usually has air trapped in it.
Dripping relief valve
It is opening from overpressure. A failed expansion tank or a bad fill valve is often behind it.
Pumps, zone valves, radiators and baseboard
Hot water heat moves in a loop. A circulator pump pushes water from the boiler through radiators or baseboard and back. Zone valves open and close each area on thermostat command. When the boiler is hot but the house is cold, the fault is usually the pump, a stuck zone valve or air locked in the loop.
Bleeding a radiator vent can fix cold tops, but the water inside is hot, so be careful and have a rag ready. Baseboard loops trap air differently and are harder to clear. If bleeding does not help, or the pressure drops again afterward, call us instead of repeating it.
Where we stop, and where we step in
We are plumbers, so we are honest about limits. Gas burner and combustion problems may need a heating specialist. If only the hot water failed, see water heater repair.
Stop and call 911 or the gas utility
- You smell gas near the boiler or anywhere in the house
- A carbon monoxide alarm is sounding
- There is soot, scorching or flames outside the burner
- The flue is disconnected or fumes are in the room
We handle
- No heat with the boiler running, pumps and zone valves
- Low pressure, fill valve and expansion tank trouble
- A leaking relief valve or leaking piping at the boiler
- Air in loops, noisy pipes, radiators and baseboard
Allendale cold: why a winter boiler problem cannot wait
The National Weather Service recorded minus 19 F at a station one mile south-southwest of Allendale on 15 January 2024, and minus 13 F at Allendale on 24 January 2026. Those are temperature readings, not reports of damage. The point is simple: cold like that arrives, and a heat outage at that moment is serious.
The Grand Rapids airport, about 16 miles east, averages 133 days a year with a low at or below 32 F, and those normals are not Allendale's own. If your boiler shows warning signs in autumn, call before the cold arrives instead of during it.
Census counts show 5,900 township households heating with utility gas and 1,651 with electricity, but they do not separate boilers from furnaces. Boilers are a smaller part of the local housing mix and tend to turn up in older houses and farmhouses. If you have one, know who services it and where the shutoffs are. We cover Coopersville and the other towns around Allendale for the same cold.
Sources: NWS Grand Rapids storm summaries, NOAA 1991-2020 normals, ACS 2020-2024 estimates.
What happens on a no-heat call
Safety questions
Gas smell and carbon monoxide first, then the thermostat, the boiler lights and the pressure gauge reading.
Find the break
We work out whether the problem is heat, the pump, a zone or air in the loop, instead of swapping parts.
Price first
You hear a clear price before work starts. If a repair is a poor buy, we say so.
Fix and test
We repair or replace the part, restore pressure, bleed the air and check every zone heats.
No heat tonight?
Call the 24/7 line. We handle after-hours boiler calls and will tell you what to protect while we work out a visit.
Call (855) 575-2890What affects the cost of a boiler repair
We quote a clear price before work starts, and keep dollar figures off this page. A same-day or after-hours visit is priced as we tell you on the call.
A fill valve or air vent is a smaller repair than a circulator pump or zone valve.
More zones means more valves, thermostats and loops to test.
Cast iron radiators and baseboard behave differently and bleed differently.
Older boilers may need hard-to-find parts, which affects repair or replace advice.
If pressure keeps dropping, finding the leak can add work before the boiler is fixed.