No heat on a January night in Elizabethtown is not a scheduling problem — it is a race against freezing pipes, especially in older brick rowhouses and twins that cool fast. This page is the triage guide: what counts as a true emergency, what you can safely check in the first fifteen minutes, and what happens when you call the 24/7 line. If you smell gas, leave the building and call your gas utility or 911 first — then call us.
General inquiries: 7 AM–7 PM · Emergency calls: 24/7 · (888) 766-1474
Call the 24/7 line for these — do not wait for morning.
No heat with outdoor temperatures near or below freezing is the clearest emergency: water in pipes and in the boiler itself can freeze, and frozen pipes burst. In Elizabethtown’s older downtown stock — drafty rowhouses, uninsulated basement runs — that clock runs faster than in a tight new subdivision.
Also emergencies: water actively leaking from the boiler or piping (shut the feed and call), a strong oil smell or visible fuel leak at the tank, and any gas odor — for gas odor, get everyone out and call the utility or 911 before calling anyone else. A boiler that runs but underheats, or a lockout you cleared successfully, is urgent but usually not a middle-of-the-night call.
Safe checks you can do before the pro arrives.
Small-town housing, big January nights.
Downtown rowhouses and twins lose heat quickly once the boiler stops — shared walls help in normal weather but exposed fronts, old windows, and uninsulated basement piping mean pipes can freeze within hours on a single-digit night. If the heat is out, open cabinet doors under sinks on exterior walls and let faucets drip slightly.
The township edges produce a different emergency: the oil run-out. Will-call customers on Mount Joy Township roads get caught by cold snaps, and a dry tank means a prime-and-bleed restart — not just a delivery. Calling at the first sputter, before the tank is bone dry, keeps the restart simple.
Triage questions, then a plan.
The 24/7 line starts with five questions: your ZIP (coverage check for 17022 and the township edges), your fuel (oil, gas, or propane — the triage differs completely), the symptom (no heat, leaking, lockout, smell), the boiler’s age and type if you know it, and what you have already tried. From that, the call routes to a local pro with the right parts mindset — a burner tech for oil, an ignition tech for gas.
You will get a straight answer about what happens next. True no-heat emergencies in freezing weather jump the queue; everything else gets honest timing. If you are unsure whether it is an emergency, call anyway — you can call to describe the problem and the questions take two minutes.
Straight answers before you call.
Check the thermostat, the breaker, and the tank gauge if you burn oil or propane: township-edge will-call customers get caught by cold snaps every year. Do not keep resetting a locked-out burner. Then call (888) 766-1474: emergency triage runs 24/7 and true no-heats jump the queue.
Yes. A no-heat call at midnight in freezing weather is exactly what 24/7 emergency telephone line exists for. Call (888) 766-1474, report your fuel type, your ZIP, and how many times the burner has locked out. Do not keep hitting reset while you wait, especially on oil.
Leave the house first, then call your gas utility from outside: gas odor is a utility emergency. Do not touch the boiler or any switches. Once the utility clears the leak, call (888) 766-1474 for the boiler-side repair.
Call your oil company for an emergency delivery first. After the fill, the fuel lines need bleeding and the burner needs repriming and a combustion check: running dry stirs sludge and the burner rarely restarts clean on its own. Call (888) 766-1474 once delivery is lined up so the restart is scheduled.
The boiler running means the zone is not delivering heat there: a stuck valve, air, or a loop that froze at an exterior wall. Do not crank the thermostat to maximum; it will not thaw a frozen loop and can overheat the rest. Call (888) 766-1474 and say a zone may be frozen; that gets priority routing.
Related pages for Elizabethtown homeowners.
Once heat is restored, the diagnosis and repair page explains what the underlying fault likely was and what follow-up work prevents a repeat. If the failure was fuel-specific, read oil burner service for tank and burner habits that stop run-outs, or gas boiler repair for ignition faults that cause winter lockouts. Nationally, emergency boiler repair covers the triage standard, and signs your boiler needs repair helps you catch the next failure before it becomes a midnight call. Our how it works page explains the connection process.
Call (888) 766-1474 now — the emergency triage line is open 24/7.
