KeepRite Furnace warranty guide in Greater Vancouver
Your furnace quits on a wet January night in Coquitlam and the technician says the inducer motor is done. First question out of your mouth: is this under warranty? Second question, about ten seconds later: does that mean it’s free?
Those are two different questions, and the gap between them catches most homeowners. A parts warranty covers the part. It does not cover the diagnostic time, the labour to pull and swap the component, or the trip out to your house.
What follows is how KeepRite furnace coverage typically works, what registration actually does, what happens when you sell the house, and the quiet mistakes that shrink coverage in Lower Mainland homes. Anything specific to your unit, term lengths, eligible models, exclusions, you verify against KeepRite’s own warranty document for your serial number. Nobody should be guessing at that, us included.
Three separate warranties are riding on one furnace
Homeowners say “my warranty” like it’s one thing. It’s usually three.
The first is the manufacturer’s parts warranty. It covers functional parts that fail, motors, boards, valves, switches, blowers, and it covers the part itself, supplied to your contractor. The second is the heat exchanger warranty, which manufacturers typically write as a separate, longer term because the exchanger is the expensive, safety critical steel at the core of the furnace. On many residential lines that term runs longer than everything else, and on some premium models it is written differently again. The third is labour, and this one does not come from the factory at all. It comes from the company that installed the equipment, in whatever form they sold it to you.
So a covered part failure in year six can still produce an invoice: the board arrives free, and you pay for diagnosis and installation labour. That is normal, not a scam.
There is often a fourth layer too, an extended service agreement or labour plan purchased at install. Those are contracts with terms of their own, and they can lapse if payments stop or if the plan required annual service you never booked.
Before you argue with anyone, find out which of the three or four layers you actually hold. Ask for it in writing. KeepRite publishes a warranty certificate for each model, and your installer’s paperwork should state the labour term plainly.
Registration: the window that quietly decides your term length
Manufacturers routinely write two term lengths into the same document: a shorter default that applies automatically, and a longer term that applies only if the equipment is registered within a stated number of days after installation. Miss the window and you fall back to the default. There is no appeal for forgetting.
Registration itself is quick. You need the model number, the serial number, the installation date and the property address. Some registrations also ask for the installing contractor’s name or licence number. Many good installers register on your behalf and hand you the confirmation. Plenty do not, and quietly assume you did it.
That assumption is where coverage gets lost. If your furnace went in during a busy Fraser Valley cold snap and nobody mentioned registration, check now. If you are still inside the window, register today. If you are outside it, register anyway, because the default term still applies and having the unit on file makes any future claim cleaner.
Confirm the current window length and the registration method on KeepRite’s own site rather than trusting a number you read on a forum. Programs change, and the terms that matter are the ones in force on your purchase date.
Save the confirmation as a PDF, not just as an email sitting in an inbox. Email accounts get abandoned. Warranty terms outlive them by a decade or more.
Find the model and serial before you call anyone
Every warranty conversation starts with two numbers, and you can get both in about ninety seconds.
Open the furnace’s front panel, the removable one on the burner compartment, not anything screwed into ductwork. Inside you will find a rating plate listing model number, serial number, gas input rating, electrical requirements and certification marks. Take a clear photo with your phone. Take a second photo of the whole cabinet interior while the panel is off, including any installer stickers and the wiring diagram.
Many serials encode a manufacture date, but the manufacture date is not the installation date, and warranty terms usually run from installation or purchase. A furnace that sat in a distributor’s warehouse for eight months is completely ordinary.
Which is why the second half of this job matters more: prove when it went in. Dig out the original invoice. If it is gone, your municipality’s gas permit record often shows the installation date, and in Metro Vancouver a gas furnace replacement should have been permitted. Strata owners can sometimes retrieve it from building records if the work went through council.
Put the photos, invoice and permit number in one folder in cloud storage, not a kitchen drawer. Homes here change hands often, and the next owner will thank you. So will the technician standing in your crawlspace at seven in the morning trying to read a corroded label by flashlight.
What parts covered actually costs on a Vancouver service call
Here is the real shape of a covered repair, because the surprise always sits in the middle of it.
A technician arrives, confirms the fault and identifies the failed component. That diagnostic time is billable, because the manufacturer is not paying anyone to work out what broke. The part is then claimed against your warranty through the local distribution channel, which in the Lower Mainland usually means next business day for a common item and longer for anything unusual. Stocking depth for control boards and specialty motors is thinner than for igniters and pressure switches. The technician returns, installs, then tests combustion and airflow and verifies the fault is genuinely cleared rather than just reset.
You pay labour for both visits unless you hold a labour warranty or a service plan that covers them. You may also pay for anything the manufacturer classifies as maintenance or consumable: filters, and in some cases items like a cracked drain fitting or a corroded flue component that failed from condition rather than defect.
Ask for the split up front. A plain question, what is the part, what is the labour, and what here is not covered, should produce a plain written answer before any work starts.
HeatLand quotes repairs in writing, and if your equipment still carries manufacturer coverage we tell you so even when the labour side is ours. Call (604) 330-3812 and we will walk through your paperwork before anyone books a truck.
Selling the house: how transfer usually works
Property here turns over fast, and the furnace warranty question tends to land right in the middle of a subject removal deadline.
Manufacturer residential warranties are generally written for the original owner at the original installation address. Many programs allow a transfer to a subsequent owner, but typically at a reduced term, sometimes requiring the transfer request within a set number of days after the sale closes, and sometimes carrying an administrative fee. Some coverage simply drops to a shorter standard period on change of ownership rather than transferring intact.
Because that varies by model and purchase date, the only defensible answer is to request the transfer terms from KeepRite in writing, referencing your serial number and the closing date, before anyone advertises transferable warranty in a listing.
Practical version for sellers: assemble the invoice, registration confirmation, permit number and every maintenance record into one PDF and hand it to the buyer’s agent. It answers inspection questions before they turn into price negotiations.
Practical version for buyers: do not accept still under warranty as a verbal claim. Get the serial number, check it yourself, and start the transfer clock the same week you take possession.
Rental and strata situations add a wrinkle. If the furnace serves a strata owned system rather than your unit alone, the coverage and the documentation may sit with the corporation, so ask the property manager who holds the original paperwork before you assume it is yours to transfer.
What quietly voids or shrinks coverage in Lower Mainland homes
Manufacturers exclude failures caused by things they did not build. Five of those show up constantly in this region.
Installation by someone without TSBC gas certification. Gas work in BC must be done by a licensed gas fitter under permit. An uncertified install is a warranty problem, a legal problem and a safety problem all at once.
Improper venting. Condensing furnaces are fussy about vent length, slope, termination clearance and material. A termination too close to a property line, later buried by a deck build, or dumping into the tight sideyard between two older homes causes recirculation, corrosion and nuisance lockouts. The resulting damage reads as installation error, not defect.
Airflow starvation. An undersized or partly blocked return, a filter left in for two years, or ductwork nobody resized after a basement renovation cooks the heat exchanger and burns out blower motors. It is the most common self inflicted failure we see.
Water. Crawlspaces and unfinished basements on the coast get damp. Standing water, a plugged condensate drain backing into the burner box, or a humidifier leaking above the cabinet will rust components, and corrosion damage is generally excluded.
Unauthorized modification. Bypassed safety switches, non approved substitute parts, altered gas piping. If a lockout keeps tripping, the answer is diagnosis. Never a jumper wire.
Maintenance records are evidence, not ritual
Most warranty documents require the equipment to be properly maintained. Few homeowners realise that means a claim can turn on paperwork.
An annual service on a gas furnace is not a filter change and a sticker. A proper visit includes inspecting the heat exchanger for cracking or rust through, cleaning the burners and flame sensor, checking igniter condition, verifying manifold gas pressure against the rating plate, testing the pressure switch and limit circuits, confirming vent integrity and slope, checking the condensate trap and drain, measuring temperature rise across the exchanger, and checking blower amp draw.
That list is also why maintenance prevents claims rather than just documenting them. Temperature rise drifting above spec tells you airflow is failing months before the limit switch starts short cycling the furnace on a cold night.
What you want from every visit is a written report: date, technician name, gas fitter licence, model and serial, readings taken, parts replaced. Not a handwritten serviced, OK. If a manufacturer ever asks for maintenance history, that report is your entire argument.
In this climate, book it in early fall before the first real cold snap, when technicians can actually reach you and a discovered fault does not leave the house without heat for a week. HeatLand has serviced furnaces across Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley since 1999, and every maintenance visit leaves you with a documented report you can file.
Running a claim, and staying safe while you wait
The sequence is predictable once you have watched it a few times.
A licensed technician diagnoses the failure and documents it. The contractor submits the parts claim to the manufacturer’s distributor with your model, serial and proof of installation date. The distributor authorises and supplies the part. The contractor installs it and invoices you for whatever is not covered. If the claim is denied, ask for the stated reason in writing, not registered, outside term, excluded cause, because each of those calls for a different response and the first two are sometimes fixable with documents already in your folder.
Heat exchanger claims run longer. Manufacturers usually want photographic evidence, occasionally the failed component returned, and the unit stays locked out in the meantime.
While you wait, safety is not negotiable. If you smell gas, or a carbon monoxide alarm sounds, get everyone out of the house first, then call the gas utility and a licensed technician from outside the home. Never bypass a safety lockout to force heat. Those switches shut the furnace down because something upstream is wrong, and defeating one can vent combustion products into your living space. Working CO alarms on every level, tested, are the baseline in any home with gas appliances.
For a written diagnosis and a clear breakdown of what your coverage includes, call HeatLand at (604) 330-3812.
Quick Checklist
- Photograph the rating plate inside the furnace cabinet, model number and serial number both.
- Find the original installation invoice and the municipal gas permit that proves the install date.
- Register the unit with KeepRite inside the stated window and save the confirmation as a PDF.
- Confirm term lengths, exclusions and transfer rules directly with KeepRite for your serial number.
- Ask your installer in writing how long their labour coverage runs and what it excludes.
- Book annual maintenance and keep the written report, including the technician’s gas fitter licence.
- Check vent terminations are clear of decks, fences and new landscaping every year.
- Test CO alarms on every level and never bypass a furnace safety lockout.
| Coverage layer | Who provides it | What to verify yourself |
|---|---|---|
| Functional parts | KeepRite (manufacturer) | Term length and whether registration extended it |
| Heat exchanger | KeepRite, usually a separate longer term | Whether your model’s term differs from the parts term |
| Labour | Your installing contractor | Length, exclusions, and whether it survives a sale |
| Extended service plan | Contractor or third party provider | Renewal status and any required annual service |
| Transfer to a new owner | KeepRite, on request | Deadline after closing, fee, and any reduced term |
| Maintenance and consumables | Homeowner | Filters, cleaning, drain clearing, normally never covered |
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a KeepRite furnace warranty cover labour?
Generally no. Manufacturer warranties on residential furnaces cover parts, with the heat exchanger usually written as a separate longer term. The labour to diagnose, remove and install a replacement part comes from your installing contractor’s own coverage or an extended service plan you bought. Ask your installer in writing how long their labour term runs, and confirm the parts terms with KeepRite using your serial number.
I never registered my furnace. Am I out of coverage?
Usually not entirely. Manufacturers typically apply a shorter default term automatically when registration is missed rather than voiding coverage outright. If you are still inside the registration window, do it today. If you are past it, register anyway so the unit is on file, then confirm with KeepRite which term now applies to your serial number and installation date.
How do I prove when my furnace was installed?
The original contractor invoice is best. If it is lost, your municipality’s gas permit record for the address usually shows the installation date, since a gas furnace replacement in Metro Vancouver should have been permitted. Installer stickers inside the cabinet and old strata or renovation records also help. The serial number’s manufacture date is not the same thing, because equipment often sits in distribution first.
Does the warranty transfer if I sell my home?
Sometimes, and usually on conditions. Many manufacturer programs allow transfer to a subsequent owner at a reduced term, often requiring the request within a set number of days after closing and sometimes charging a fee. Because details vary by model and purchase date, request the transfer terms from KeepRite in writing before anyone advertises remaining coverage in a listing.
Can skipping annual maintenance void my warranty?
It can weaken or defeat a claim. Most warranty documents require proper maintenance, and failures traced to neglect, starved airflow from a clogged filter, a plugged condensate drain rusting the burner box, blocked venting, are typically excluded as condition or installation problems rather than defects. Keep a written service report from each visit showing the readings taken and the technician’s gas fitter licence.
Reviewed by the HeatLand Heating & Cooling team — licensed, insured, TSBC-certified HVAC contractor serving Metro Vancouver & the Fraser Valley since 1999. Error codes, specifications, pricing and rebate programs vary by model and change over time; confirm details against your unit’s own manual, a written quote, and the manufacturer or CleanBC/FortisBC. If you smell gas or your CO alarm sounds, leave the home and call the gas utility and a licensed technician from outside.