Cracked Heat Exchanger: Symptoms, How It's Confirmed and What to Ask For
Signs of a cracked furnace heat exchanger, how a technician confirms one, what to ask for if your furnace is red-tagged, and when to repair or replace it.
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Hugo furnace repair starts with a $79 trip charge, which we drop once you go ahead with the repair, and you'll have the flat-rate price on paper before we begin. We run calls 7am–9pm daily. Most Hugo furnaces date from the 2000s boom, so worn inducers, pressure switches and igniters top the list.
A typical Hugo furnace call is a condensing furnace installed with the house sometime between 2000 and 2010, now old enough for its first real failures. The inducer motor starts to whine or rattle. The condensate trap or its hose plugs, the pressure switch won't close, and the furnace tries to light, stops and tries again until the board locks it out. Hot surface igniters crack, flame sensors coat over, and blower motors that have run every winter for twenty years start to drag.
In a townhome, the furnace may sit in a closet with barely room to slide the blower out, so access takes longer than the part itself. Out in the rural east half, a propane furnace gets its manifold pressure checked against the rating plate, because LP runs at a different pressure than natural gas. Everywhere else in town, the gas comes from Xcel Energy.
Updated September 26, 2026
Every furnace repair call in Hugo starts with a $79 trip charge, waived when you approve the repair, and a written price before any work. Same prices in Hugo as in every town we serve. National averages (HomeGuide, 2026), not our prices: an igniter $100–$250, a flame sensor $80–$250, a pressure switch $150–$400. More in the furnace repair cost guide.

More detail on our furnace repair page.
Symptom guides: Blowing cold air · Won't ignite · Short cycling · Blinking light codes · Pressure switch trips · Strange noises · Leaking water · Burning smell · Red tag · Carbon monoxide
On a condensing furnace that age, the usual causes are a plugged condensate trap or drain hose that keeps the pressure switch from closing, a weak inducer, or a dirty flame sensor that can't prove the flame. After a few failed tries, the control board locks out. We check the trap, the switch's vacuum reading and the sensor signal before replacing anything, and clean what's clogged first.
Only in a few places. The igniter, inducer, board and blower are the same parts a natural gas furnace uses. What differs is the gas side: an LP furnace needs its conversion kit, smaller burner orifices and a higher manifold pressure, so we confirm the setup and measure pressure at the valve. Getting that right keeps the burners clean and the heat exchanger from running too hot.
Signs of a cracked furnace heat exchanger, how a technician confirms one, what to ask for if your furnace is red-tagged, and when to repair or replace it.
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