Furnace Repair Cost: Printed Visit Fees Run $90 to $249

A furnace repair in the GTA starts with a visit fee. We checked the websites of 28 heating companies serving the GTA on September 28, 2026. Fourteen print a fee for a repair or diagnostic visit, and on a weekday the printed fee runs from $90 to $249. The middle of that mixed set is $139.50. Some drop it. Enercare is waiving its $99 until October 19 where its offer applies. Reliance and Airtronic charge nothing for the diagnosis if you go ahead with the repair, and Maple Air takes $100 off if you book online and proceed. Then you pay for the part. EcoFrost prices a hot surface igniter at about $250 installed, and Enercare says a furnace motor typically costs $915 plus HST.

What the repair visit costs

A company counts only when its own site prints a dollar figure it charges for a repair or diagnostic visit. Fourteen of the 28 do.

Reliance Home Comfort prints the fourteenth fee on its repair offer page: a $119 diagnosis and assessment fee, taxes extra, waived if you go ahead with the quoted work. The page's code still carries $199 in that line, and a script swaps in $119 once you scroll, tap or move the mouse.

Across all fourteen, the two middle figures are $129 and $150. Add them and halve the result: 129 + 150 = 279, and half of that is $139.50.

Treat it as a rough guide. Four are floors, printed as "starting at", "starts at" or "start at": AirPoint, Empower, Imperial and GTA ClimateCare. HVAC Trust's $99.00 is a sale price, with the regular $149.00 struck out beside it. Eight say tax is extra: AirPoint, Enercare, H&C, GTA ClimateCare, Furnace King, Maple Air, Reliance and Spring Home. The other six print a bare number, so ask before you book.

Enercare's $99 plus HST is its standard rate. It's waiving it under a "free furnace check" offer that ends October 19, 2026 and isn't available in all areas. Repairs stay extra.

What the fee buys you

Book Maple Air online and it waives $100 of its $189 if you go ahead with a repair or buy a unit. The diagnosis then costs 189 - 100 = $89 before HST. GTA ClimateCare says that "in many cases" its fee can go toward the repair. Furnace King's fee covers the diagnosis and an estimate. When no parts are needed, it says, the diagnosis charge can cover the repair. Tempasure's $249 covers the visit and a full diagnosis. It fixes a simple issue during that visit at no extra labour charge, with parts extra, and bills hourly labour for bigger jobs.

The 14 that don't print a visit fee

Fourteen of the 28 print no fee for a repair visit on the pages we read. Airtronic advertises a "$0 Diagnostic Fee with Completed Repair" but doesn't say what you pay if you decide not to repair. Laird and Son offers $75 off a diagnostic until October 31, 2026, without printing the price it comes off. Megacity, Aire One Peel and Cozy Comfort Plus print a range for the whole repair and no visit fee. City Home Comfort quotes a Trane estimate for a heat exchanger. HVAC-Group's cost article gives typical part ranges, and the other seven print no price for a furnace repair visit or part.

Nights and weekends

Four companies print a higher rate for off-hours calls:

• Enercare: $129 plus HST on weekends and statutory holidays, against $99 plus HST on weekdays. That's 129 - 99 = $30 more.
• Furnace King: $229 for after-hours, weekends and holidays, against $179 in regular hours, so 229 - 179 = $50 more. Both are plus HST.
• H&C: a note at the foot of its page says $179 plus HST on weekends and statutory holidays, against $150 plus HST on weekdays. That's 179 - 150 = $29 more. But the same page's FAQ says its "standard diagnostic fee applies regardless of when you call". Ask which one applies before you book.
• Spring Home: its plan chart lists a $189.99 diagnostic fee in emergency hours, against $159.99 in regular business hours. That's 189.99 - 159.99 = $30 more.

No other company prints an off-hours rate of its own. Four say they add nothing: EcoFrost, AtlasCare, Aire One Peel and Advantage Airtech ClimateCare. Imperial's page says "no overtime charges" in one place and "after-hours rate quoted upfront" in another, so ask. EcoFrost puts it plainly: "The $129 diagnostic and the flat-rate repair quote are the same at 2 AM on a Sunday as on a weekday afternoon."

Plan members skip it at Laird and Son ("no overtime fees") and Spring Home ("No overtime charge on all services", worth up to $100 a call in its text and $135 a visit in its chart). Enercare's protection plans cover after-hours calls too.

The part on top of the visit

Eight companies print a price for a named furnace part.

Most of these are ranges. Reliance's and Maple Air's single figures are the repair costs their plan pages say you'd avoid. Of the rest, only EcoFrost's igniter and Enercare's motor are single prices, and both are hedged ("about", "typically"). Enercare adds that its figure is its own estimate and "Actual costs may differ." HVAC-Group's rows are the ballpark its cost article gives for Mississauga.

A few terms, in plain words. The igniter lights the burner. The flame sensor is a safety device that checks for a flame when the burners are on. A dirty one makes the furnace shut the burner off. The blower motor moves warm air to your rooms, and the control board runs it. The heat exchanger is the metal wall that passes heat to your air while keeping the combustion gases out of it. A cracked one can leak carbon monoxide, and Aire One Peel says that "always means replacement". EcoFrost's pricing guide gives $400 to $900 as the typical GTA range for a major repair, heat exchanger or board. AirPoint's typical heat exchanger replacement is $1,000 to $2,500, so ask which job a quote describes.

No company in our set prints its own price for a thermocouple. Megacity counts thermocouple replacement among its cheaper jobs without giving a figure.

The "most repairs" range almost always starts at $150

Nine companies print a range they say most furnace repairs fall in. Eight of the nine start it at $150.

Protection plans, and what they leave out

A protection plan is a monthly fee for listed repairs. Enbridge Gas doesn't sell one: its FAQ says it "does not repair, replace or provide insurance for natural gas appliances or equipment".

Airtronic makes an eighth. Its Heating Maintenance and Protection Plan is $23.99 a month for "Unlimited services, repairs, and parts replacement", and terms may apply. Others sell discount memberships instead, such as Laird and Son's from $215 plus HST and GTA ClimateCare's WeCARE from $9.99 a month plus HST, each with 20% off repairs.

Reliance prints $16.99 with "(12-month term)" but no period. Its bundle with the $9.99 maintenance plan saves "$2.99/month", which only works monthly: 16.99 + 9.99 = 26.98, and 26.98 - 23.99 = 2.99. A year at Reliance is 16.99 x 12 = $203.88 before tax. A year at Enercare is 17.99 x 12 = $215.88 plus HST. Sign up before October 19, 2026, where the offer is available, and it gives three months free, so year one is 17.99 x 9 = $161.91 plus HST. Enercare's plan auto-renews each year, and you can cancel without penalty before the renewal date.

Enercare's $179 option suits a furnace that has already broken. It covers the first repair up to $500 including HST. If it costs more, you can join and pay the difference. Or you can decline and pay the standard $99 plus HST and normal repair charges. AirPoint works in a similar way: $149 on sign-up covers a repair of up to $600, then $23.99 a month. Year one is 149 + 287.88 = $436.88, because 23.99 x 12 = $287.88.

Both plans list the electric ignition system, gas control valve, fan motor, thermocouple and vent system pressure switch as covered. Enercare's own motor estimate of $915 plus HST is more than four years of its plan, since 215.88 x 4 = $863.52. But a plan only pays off if the part that breaks is on the list.

Repair or replace

H&C says to repair a furnace under 15 years old when the repair is under $500. Past 15 years with frequent breakdowns, "or a cracked heat exchanger", it's usually time to replace. EcoFrost recommends repair when the furnace is under 12 years old and the heat exchanger is solid. It suggests replacing when a repair costs more than about half the price of a new furnace. The same goes for a unit 15 or more years old that needs a major repair. AirPoint notes that at $1,000 to $2,500 for a heat exchanger, "furnace installation is often recommended".

For the other side of the sum, Furnace King puts a typical GTA furnace replacement at $3,000 to $8,500. What a new furnace costs installed, permit included, is its own question, and so is the price of a yearly tune-up.

Who is allowed to repair a gas furnace

Only a registered contractor, using a certified technician. Ontario's gas regulation, O. Reg. 212/01, defines a "contractor" as anyone in the business of "installing, removing, repairing, altering or servicing appliances". Section 21 then says: "No person shall act as a contractor unless the person is registered for the purpose." Under O. Reg. 215/01, the person doing the work needs a certificate too. A G.2 technician may repair gas appliances with an input of up to 400,000 Btuh (British thermal units an hour). A G.3 works under a G.1, G.2 or DA (domestic appliance) holder. It needs general supervision for a short list of tasks and direct supervision for anything else in that holder's scope.

The Technical Standards and Safety Authority's contractor lookup lists every registered fuels contractor and is updated at the start of each month. O. Reg. 212/01 (s. 21 (7)) also requires the contractor's name and registration number on its field vehicles. Enbridge Gas says your contractor should have a TSSA registration number and a licensed gas technician with a provincial certificate number.

If a certificate holder finds an "immediate hazard", they must shut off the gas, tell you in writing and put a notice on the furnace (s. 13 (3)). You may not use it again until it's fixed (s. 13 (4)).

Carbon monoxide alarms: the rule changed on January 1, 2026

The Fire Code requires carbon monoxide alarms in a home with a fuel-burning appliance, a fireplace or an attached garage. It also covers a home heated by air from an appliance outside it. The alarms go next to each sleeping area and, since January 1, 2026, on every storey, including storeys with no bedrooms. A home whose alarms were put in under the Building Code as it read on or after January 1, 2025 follows that code instead. Otherwise the Fire Code makes the owner responsible, and in a rental the landlord rather than the tenant.

A landlord must test the alarms every year and at each change of tenant. A tenant must tell the landlord as soon as they know an alarm is disconnected or not working, and no one may disable one. Ontario's guidance is plain: if the alarm sounds, get everyone out and call 9-1-1 from outside.

All 28 companies, side by side