Heights Plumbing, Heating & Cooling handles no-heat and no-cooling emergencies across Bergen and Essex Counties and the rest of Northern New Jersey — furnaces, boilers, heat pumps and central air. Our phones are answered live around the clock. Emergencies get the first available appointment, same day whenever possible, and after-hours calls are booked into the next open slot rather than left on a machine.
Every technician is background checked and drug tested, and we work under NJ HVAC Lic. #197400 and NJ Plumbing Lic. #1221100, so a leaking boiler or a frozen hydronic line is handled by one company. You get a firm price before work begins — that is No Worries Pricing — and Synchrony financing is available when the fix is bigger than a part.
When a Heating or Cooling Failure Is Actually an Emergency
Not every breakdown is urgent, but some are. A furnace or boiler that quits in January in an older Fair Lawn colonial with pipes in an uninsulated crawlspace can mean frozen and burst plumbing within a day. Central air that dies during a heat wave is a real hazard for infants, elderly family members and anyone with a heart or respiratory condition. Water pooling under a boiler, an air handler or a condensing furnace, a burning smell from a vent, or a system that trips the breaker every time it starts all need attention the same day.
Two situations should not wait for us at all. If you smell gas, leave the house, do not flip switches or light anything, and call your gas utility first from outside — then call us. If a carbon monoxide alarm sounds, get everyone outside and call 911 before anything else. Once the utility or fire department has made the house safe, we come in and find the cause.
What Our Emergency HVAC Service Includes
Before you call, a two-minute check can sometimes save you a service visit. Confirm the thermostat is set to heat or cool and has fresh batteries. Check the breaker panel and the service switch on the furnace or air handler, which looks like a light switch and gets bumped in basements. Look at the filter — a clogged one will shut a furnace down on high limit or freeze an AC coil solid. On a summer call, check whether the condensate safety switch on the drain pan has tripped because the drain is backed up. On a furnace or boiler, note whether the status light is flashing a lockout code and try one reset. If none of that brings it back, stop resetting and call.
On arrival the technician confirms the safety basics first — gas pressure and leaks, venting, CO at the flue and in the living space, electrical connections — then diagnoses the actual failure: ignitor, flame sensor, pressure switch, inducer motor, circulator, low-water cutoff, capacitor, contactor, blower, refrigerant loss, control board. You get a written price for the repair before work starts. We carry common parts on the truck; if a part has to be ordered, we tell you the timeline, get you a safe temporary heat or cooling plan, and return as soon as it lands.
Signs You Should Call Us Now
- No heat with outdoor temperatures below freezing
- No cooling during a heat wave with at-risk people at home
- Water leaking from a furnace, boiler or air handler
- A burning or electrical smell from vents or equipment
- The system trips the breaker every time it starts
- A boiler pressure gauge in the red or a relief valve discharging
- Loud banging, screeching or grinding on startup
- The system runs constantly but the house never reaches setpoint
Noticing any of these? Call (201) 245-7772 or request service online. Same-day appointments across North Jersey.
How an Emergency Call Works
Call and talk to a person
Our phones are answered live 24/7. Tell us what the system is doing, what you smell and who is in the house, and we will tell you whether to leave, shut something off or sit tight.
Get the first available slot
Emergencies are scheduled ahead of routine work, same day whenever possible. After-hours calls are booked for the next available appointment, and we tell you the window when you call.
Safety check and diagnosis
The technician checks for gas leaks, CO, venting and electrical hazards before diagnosing the failure, so nothing dangerous is left running while the repair is priced.
Firm price before repair
You get the repair cost in writing and approve it before work begins. Same pricing structure whether it is a Tuesday morning or a holiday weekend.
Repair, test and stabilize
We make the repair, run the system through a full cycle, verify temperatures and safeties, and leave you with a plan if a follow-up part or a replacement conversation is needed.
Emergency Situations We Handle
No-heat furnace calls
Ignition lockouts, cracked ignitors, dirty flame sensors, failed inducer motors, pressure switch faults and blower failures on gas furnaces of any age.
No-heat boiler calls
Dead circulators, stuck zone valves, low-water cutoff trips, frozen or air-bound lines, leaking relief valves and failed aquastats on steam and hot-water systems common in older Bergen and Essex homes.
No-cooling central air calls
Failed capacitors and contactors, condenser fan motors, frozen evaporator coils, tripped condensate switches, refrigerant loss and compressors that hum but never start.
Heat pump failures in either season
Systems stuck in defrost, reversing valves that will not shift, outdoor units iced solid, and backup heat that never engages when the temperature drops.
Water leaking from equipment
Cracked condensate pans, blocked drains, leaking boiler sections and failed pumps. We stop the water first, then deal with the cause, under both our HVAC and plumbing licenses.
Gas and combustion safety calls
After the utility has cleared the house, we find and fix the source of a gas odor, a CO reading or a soot problem — cracked heat exchangers, failed vents, bad regulators or loose fittings.
Why Choose Heights for 24/7 Emergency HVAC
- Family Owned & Operated: A family business means more personalized service than you get from big chain providers.
- 56 Years of Industry Experience: Over 56 years of combined industry experience across plumbing, heating and cooling.
- Licensed & Insured: NJ HVAC Lic. #197400 and NJ Plumbing Lic. #1221100. Fully insured for residential and commercial work.
- Engineers On Staff: Our own mechanical and electrical engineers design systems and handle wiring, so you don’t need a second contractor.
- Same-Day Service: Schedule with us and we’ll provide service within 24 hours, arriving on time as scheduled.
- No Worries Pricing: Straightforward pricing with no surprise fees or up-charges. You know what you’re paying before we start.
24/7 Emergency HVAC Across Bergen, Essex & North Jersey
We provide 24/7 emergency hvac from our offices in Fair Lawn and Hillsdale to every municipality in Bergen County and Essex County, including:
We also serve Sussex County, Passaic County, Warren County, Morris County, Hudson County, Union County, Hunterdon County, Somerset County, Middlesex County, Mercer County.
24/7 Emergency HVAC FAQs
Do you actually answer the phone at night?
Yes. Calls are answered live 24 hours a day. After-hours emergencies are booked into the first available appointment, and we tell you the expected window on the call. We do not promise a technician on site within a set number of minutes, because we would rather tell you the truth than miss a promise.
Is emergency pricing higher?
You get a firm price before any work starts, on every call. The price is confirmed before work begins and does not change after the fact. If you want a second opinion before approving, that is your call to make.
What should I do to stay warm until you arrive?
Close off unused rooms, keep interior doors open to rooms with plumbing, open cabinet doors under sinks on exterior walls, and let faucets drip if the house is dropping toward the 40s. Use portable electric heaters on their own outlets and never an oven or gas range for heat. If the house is going to sit empty and cold, shut off the main water and drain what you can.
What can I do about the heat until the AC is fixed?
Close blinds on sun-facing windows, run ceiling and box fans, and keep one room cool with a window unit if you have one. Anyone elderly, very young or medically fragile should move to an air-conditioned location for the day. Do not keep restarting a system that trips the breaker — that is how a fixable problem becomes a compressor replacement.
I smell gas. Should I call you first?
No. Leave the house without operating switches, phones or garage doors inside, and call your gas utility from outside. They will shut off and secure the supply at no charge. Once they have cleared the house, call us to find and repair the leak and get the equipment running again.
Will you push me to replace the system on an emergency call?
Our job on an emergency call is to restore heat or cooling safely. If the repair is minor, we make it. If the system has a cracked heat exchanger, a failed compressor or a leaking boiler section, we will explain why the repair is not a good use of money, get you through the immediate problem if it can be done safely, and quote a replacement you can consider without a space heater running.