A furnace warranty in Ontario is not one document. It is three, written by two different companies, and the one homeowners discover too late is the heat exchanger clause. On Carrier equipment that clause is worth the difference between lifetime cover and twenty years, and it is decided by a registration form in the first 90 days. If your question is really about who pays the technician rather than who supplies the part, start with HVAC labour warranty in Ontario.

What does a furnace warranty actually cover?

A furnace warranty covers three separate things written by two separate companies: the manufacturer supplies defective parts, the manufacturer supplies the heat exchanger under a longer term of its own, and the installing contractor supplies the labour for a period the contractor sets. Carrier states the split plainly on its Canadian homeowner FAQ: "Labor is provided by the dealer/contractor for a period of time as determined by them."

That single sentence is the source of most of the disappointment we see on service calls. A homeowner reads "10 year warranty" on a brochure, a control board fails in year six, and the part arrives free while the invoice still has a labour line on it. Nothing has gone wrong. The parts warranty did exactly what it says.

Table 1. Sources: Carrier Canada homeowner FAQ and the Performance 96 gas furnace 59TP6 product page, both read August 27, 2026. Terms differ by model and by contractor.

Why is the heat exchanger warranted separately?

The heat exchanger is warranted separately because it is the wall between combustion gases and the air you breathe, which makes it both the most expensive component in the furnace and the one with a safety consequence when it fails. Manufacturers give it its own term, usually far longer than the parts term.

Two practical things follow from that, and both matter more than the headline number.

First, a lifetime heat exchanger warranty is a parts warranty. It supplies the heat exchanger. It does not pay anyone to install it, and installing one is most of a day's work on a furnace that has to be largely dismantled to get at it. On a unit past a certain age we will usually price both paths honestly and let you choose. How long does a furnace last in Ontario? is the better starting point for that decision, and should I repair or replace my furnace? walks the arithmetic.

Second, the term is not the same on every furnace in a brand's range. A builder-grade unit and a top-tier unit from the same manufacturer can carry different heat exchanger terms. Read the certificate for the model you actually own rather than the number on a brochure for a different one.

What does registering within 90 days change?

On Carrier furnaces, registering within 90 days of installation doubles the parts term and turns a twenty year heat exchanger warranty into a lifetime one. Carrier's Canadian page for the Performance 96 gas furnace states it directly: the "parts limited warranty period is 5 years and heat exchanger warranty is reduced to 20-years if not registered within 90 days."

It is a form. It is free. It takes a few minutes and it needs three things: the model number, the serial number and the installation date. The model and serial are on the rating plate inside the furnace cabinet door, and the installation date is on your invoice.

Carrier's registration portal is at productregistration.carrier.com, linked from Carrier Canada's own warranty page. If you are not sure whether an existing furnace was ever registered, Carrier publishes a warranty lookup tool that answers it from the serial number.

Carrier does add one qualifier worth knowing: "Jurisdictions where warranty benefits cannot be conditioned on registration will receive the extended registered parts limited warranty and heat exchanger parts limited warranty period." Ontario is not named among those jurisdictions on the page, so the safe assumption here is that registration is required. Do not rely on being covered by an exception the manufacturer has not said applies to you.

What are Carrier's furnace warranty terms in Canada?

Carrier's published Canadian terms for the Performance 96 gas furnace are 10 years on parts and lifetime on the heat exchanger with timely registration, dropping to 5 years and 20 years without it, and coverage runs to the original owner in an owner-occupied residence.

Table 2. Source: Carrier Canada, Performance 96 gas furnace 59TP6 product page, read August 27, 2026. Terms differ between the Comfort, Performance and Infinity series and can change without notice.

Treat that table as the shape of the deal, not as your certificate. Terms vary by series and by model, and Carrier can change them. The document that binds is the warranty certificate that came with your furnace, and if you cannot find it, the serial number and the lookup tool will tell you what you have. We carry Carrier in the Comfort, Performance and Infinity series; you can see what we stock on our furnace page.

Does a furnace warranty cover labour?

No. The manufacturer's warranty supplies parts, and labour comes from the installing contractor's own warranty or from a protection plan. Carrier says so itself: labour is provided by the dealer for a period the dealer determines.

That distinction is worth more than a paragraph, so it has a page of its own. HVAC labour warranty in Ontario covers what a labour warranty typically runs, the nine questions to ask a contractor before you sign, and how to get the term in writing. We do not publish our own labour term here, because a number in an article is not a contract. Ask for it on your quote.

What voids a furnace warranty in Ontario?

The things that most often cost Ontario homeowners their furnace warranty are installation by someone not registered to do gas work, missed annual maintenance, and a change of ownership nobody thought to check. None of them is exotic, and all three are visible to a technician who opens the cabinet.

Table 3. Compiled from Carrier Canada's published terms and the Technical Standards and Safety Authority's guidance on registered fuels contractors, both read August 27, 2026. Your certificate's exclusion list governs.

Two of those deserve a sentence more. Sizing and venting are not defects, so a furnace that short-cycles itself to an early failure because it was oversized has no warranty claim; what furnace installation includes explains what a proper job looks like. And renting changes everything, because the rental agreement, not the manufacturer, decides who fixes what; see rent or buy a furnace.

Annual maintenance is the one you control most cheaply. How often should I get my furnace serviced? covers the interval; the point for warranty purposes is that you keep the invoices.

What does Ontario law add on top of the warranty?

Ontario adds two protections that sit above whatever the manufacturer wrote: a licensing rule about who may touch the appliance, and a consumer-contract rule about what your repair agreement must say.

On licensing, the Technical Standards and Safety Authority is explicit: "Under Ontario law, furnaces and fuels-fired appliances must be maintained by TSSA-registered contractors." TSSA adds that "all registered contractors are required to hire TSSA certified gas technicians who have extensive training and are qualified to perform fuels work safely." This is not a manufacturer preference, it is the law, and it is also the exclusion that most often kills a claim. TSSA's own advice is to "verify the contractor's registration status using the convenient and easy-to-use lookup tool" before you engage anyone. Aire One Peel's fuels contractor registration is FS R0076624709, and you are welcome to look it up.

On contracts, Consumer Protection Ontario sets out that a home repair contract worth more than $50 CAD must be in writing and must describe the warranties that come with the work, that the final bill cannot exceed a written estimate by more than 10 per cent, and that a contract signed in your home carries a 10 calendar day cooling-off period. In practice that means a contractor who will not put a labour warranty in writing is not just being informal, they are leaving out something the contract is supposed to contain.

One more that applies to newer homes: if your house is under Tarion's new home warranty, the two year coverage includes defects in work or materials in the heating delivery and distribution systems. That is worth knowing because several national advice pages tell Ontario homeowners the opposite. If the house is less than two years old, check Tarion before you assume the manufacturer's warranty is your only route.

What happens to the warranty when the house is sold?

Carrier's published terms run to the original owner in an owner-occupied residence, so buying a house with a furnace already in it usually means a shorter remaining term than the previous owner had, not the same one. Carrier notes on its FAQ that the length "varies based on if you are the original purchasing owner, subsequent owner, or if the product was installed in a single-family or multi-family home or commercial application."

The practical move when you buy a house in Peel Region: find the rating plate inside the furnace door, photograph the model and serial numbers, and run them through Carrier's warranty lookup before you need it. Five minutes on a Saturday beats finding out in January. If the furnace turns out to be older than you thought, how to compare furnace quotes in Ontario is the page to read before anyone quotes you.

Is a protection plan worth it on a furnace?

A protection plan is worth considering in the years when the parts warranty is still running but the labour warranty has expired, because that gap is exactly what the plan fills. On a registered Carrier furnace that gap can be eight years long.

Table 4. Source: aireonepeel.ca/protection-plans/, read August 27, 2026. Prices carry an asterisk on that page; confirm current terms before you sign.

The honest downside. A plan is a monthly payment for a repair that may never happen, and on a furnace still inside both its parts warranty and its labour warranty you are paying mainly for the annual maintenance and the waived diagnostic. Silver caps repair cover at $750 CAD a year, which is not a blank cheque: a major component plus several hours of labour can exceed it. If your furnace is new, well installed and registered, the case for a plan is weakest in exactly the first year or two when people are most often sold one.

Where it earns its keep is the middle years, and the annual inspection is doing double duty there because it is also the maintenance record your warranty exclusions ask for. The fuller case is in 5 perks of buying an HVAC maintenance protection plan, and the current tiers are on our protection plans page.

How do I make a furnace warranty claim?

You start with a contractor, not with the manufacturer. Carrier administers warranty through its dealer network and does not dispatch technicians to homes; its own FAQ tells homeowners to "contact your dealer or installer for detailed information." Your contractor diagnoses the fault, confirms it is a covered defect and orders the part through the distributor.

Table 5. Compiled from Carrier Canada's homeowner FAQ and warranty pages and Consumer Protection Ontario's home repair guidance, read August 27, 2026.

Have the model number, serial number, installation date and proof of purchase ready before you call. And keep the invoice for the repair itself, because a replacement part is normally warranted only for the remainder of the original term rather than starting a fresh one. If we did not install your furnace we can still handle warranty parts on the major brands; book furnace repair or call 905-564-8545.

Where does your furnace warranty stand?

Three questions place most Ontario furnaces on the table above. Every answer this gives already appears in the tables and prose on this page.

Frequently asked questions

How long is a furnace warranty in Ontario?

Typically 5 to 10 years on parts, 20 years to lifetime on the heat exchanger, and a labour term set by the installing contractor. Carrier's Canadian pages list 10 years on parts and a lifetime heat exchanger warranty with registration inside 90 days, dropping to 5 years and 20 years without it.

Is the furnace heat exchanger covered for life?

On many Carrier models the heat exchanger carries a lifetime limited warranty to the original owner in an owner-occupied residence, when the furnace was registered within 90 days. Unregistered, that term is 20 years. The labour to fit a replacement heat exchanger is separate and is usually not covered.

Does a furnace warranty cover labour?

The manufacturer's warranty does not. Carrier states that labour is provided by the dealer or contractor for a period they determine. Labour therefore comes from your installing contractor's own warranty or from a protection plan, and it should be written on your quote.

Do I have to register a Carrier furnace, and can I do it myself?

Yes, if you want the longer terms, and yes you can do it yourself at productregistration.carrier.com within 90 days of installation. You need the model number, the serial number and the installation date. Ask your contractor in writing whether they will register it for you rather than assuming it was done.

What if I bought the house with the furnace already installed?

Carrier's published coverage runs to the original owner in an owner-occupied residence, so a subsequent owner should expect different terms rather than the same ones. Find the model and serial numbers on the rating plate inside the furnace door and run them through Carrier's warranty lookup tool to see what remains.

Will skipping annual maintenance void my furnace warranty?

It can. Failures a manufacturer attributes to neglect are excluded, and protection plans commonly require proof of yearly service. The practical protection is not the service itself so much as the invoice, because that is the evidence you produce if a claim is questioned. Keep them.

Do I need a TSSA-registered contractor for furnace warranty work?

Yes. The Technical Standards and Safety Authority states that under Ontario law, furnaces and fuel-fired appliances must be maintained by TSSA-registered contractors, and those contractors must employ TSSA-certified gas technicians. Manufacturers can also deny a claim where work was done by someone unqualified.

Final verdict

The furnace warranty decision that matters most is made in the first 90 days and takes five minutes. Register the unit, and on Carrier equipment the parts term doubles and the heat exchanger term goes from twenty years to lifetime. Miss it and the window does not reopen.

After that, three habits protect what you have: use a TSSA-registered contractor for everything, service it once a year, and keep every invoice. The exclusions that actually get used against homeowners are not obscure legal traps, they are those three things going missing.

And be clear-eyed about what a warranty is not. It is not a service contract. Parts come free, technicians do not, and the years between the end of your labour warranty and the end of your parts warranty are the exposure. Whether you close that gap with a protection plan or by keeping a repair fund is a reasonable question either way, and anyone who tells you there is only one right answer is selling something.

Sources and references

All sources below were read on August 27, 2026.

• Carrier Canada, Performance 96 Gas Furnace 59TP6. Parts and heat exchanger terms, the 90 day registration condition, original owner wording, and the up to 96.7 per cent AFUE rating.
• Carrier Canada, homeowner FAQs. Labour is provided by the dealer or contractor, and coverage varies by owner type.
• Carrier Canada, warranty and registration. Registration and warranty lookup routes.
• Technical Standards and Safety Authority, hire registered and certified professionals. Ontario law on who may maintain fuel-fired appliances, and the contractor lookup advice.
• Consumer Protection Ontario, your rights when starting home renovations or repairs. Written contract above $50 CAD, the warranty description requirement, the 10 per cent estimate rule and the 10 day cooling-off period.
• Tarion, coverage for freehold, contract, condo units and condo conversions. The two year warranty "covers defects in work or materials in the electrical, plumbing and heating delivery and distribution systems".
• Aire One Peel protection plans. Tier names, monthly prices, annual repair limits and the 21-point inspection.