Seasonal & emergency HVAC help in Minnesota

Most no-heat or no-cooling calls can be scheduled. A few can't. Treat these as emergencies:

• Any smell of gas, a rotten-egg or sulfur odor near a furnace, water heater, or anywhere in the home.
• A carbon-monoxide alarm sounding, or symptoms like headache, dizziness, nausea, or confusion that ease when you leave the house.
• No heat during sub-zero cold, in a Minnesota cold snap this risks frozen, burst pipes and is dangerous for infants, older adults, and pets.

The first two are life-safety situations. Your first job is to get to safety; the HVAC repair comes after.

A gas smell is never something to wait on. If you smell gas:

• Leave the house immediately, get everyone, including pets, outside to fresh air.
• Don't flip switches or use electronics. No light switches, no garage door, no phones inside, a spark can ignite gas. Don't light a match or flame.
• Don't try to find the leak yourself or relight a pilot.
• From outside, call your natural-gas utility's emergency line or 911. Stay out until they say it's safe.

Once the gas company has made the home safe, call us to diagnose and repair the heating equipment that caused it.

Carbon monoxide is invisible and odorless, so the alarm is your warning, never ignore it or assume it's false. If a CO alarm sounds:

• Get everyone and your pets outside to fresh air right away.
• Call 911 from outside once you're safe.
• Do not go back inside until emergency responders or the fire department say it's safe.
• Watch for symptoms, headache, dizziness, nausea, weakness, or confusion need immediate medical attention.

CO often traces back to a cracked heat exchanger or a venting problem on a gas appliance. After the home is cleared, we'll inspect the system before it runs again , and regular maintenance is the best way to catch these risks early.

When the furnace quits during a Minnesota cold snap, the clock starts on frozen pipes. While you arrange service:

• Keep the warmth in. Close off unused rooms, layer up, and use blankets; a properly used, well-ventilated space heater can hold one room, never leave it unattended.
• Never use a stove, oven, or grill for heat. Indoors they are a serious carbon-monoxide risk.
• Protect your pipes. Let faucets drip slightly and open the cabinet doors under sinks so warm air reaches the plumbing along exterior walls.
• Check on the vulnerable. Infants, older adults, and pets feel the cold fastest.

Then call for heating service, a no-heat call in deep cold is exactly when same-day help matters most.

Not every problem is a 2 a.m. crisis. A mild-weather AC outage or a furnace that's still limping along can usually be scheduled. But no heat in the cold, a system that won't run at all, or anything tied to a gas or CO concern (once you're safe) is when same-day service earns its keep.

The fastest way to reach Gray Duct is by phone, and you can also request service online. For exact after-hours and emergency availability, please confirm with us when you call. We'll always be straight with you about when we can be there rather than overpromise a time we can't keep.