A/C Mechanical Sol Inc

We need to have some repairs done for the sale of our house. Someone came out right away & took care of some of the items, but they needed to order a part to complete the rest. I sent 2 emails & left 2 voicemails and didn't get a response. I reached someone yesterday & told her how disappointed I was in their lack of response & she brushed me off & asked for my phone number again. She said she would get back to me, but hasn't. Very disappointed after reading all the great reviews, especially when I didn't even get a simple apology.

My friend recommended them. His name is Mel. I have a warranty and he has been great about coming by and taking care of things when needed. He's really good, fair with his prices.

Mel did great job on couple of occasions for us. There were couple of smaller fixes (replaced transformer, gas regulator on old furnace in my previous home) and finally installed new furnace and ducts in my new home. 
He is super efficient, knowledgeable and affordable. 

I called Mel to review my situation and replace the condensed moisture pump since the A/C unit in the house was leaking water.  He showed up on time, and had a new pump in hand, based on my model - information he got from me during our initial phone call.  He checked the situation and determined the problem was not the pump but the gerry-rigged pipes that the previous owner had installed, helped me fix the problem and re-confirmed that the current pump was working properly. I tried to pay him, at least for the service call, or the 20 minutes he spent with me, but he refused. 
I plan to renew my system in the near future and will weigh his bid higher than others I plan to take based on Mel's demeanor, professionalism and honorable business philosophy. 

On Thursday, 1/3/13. the gas flame in our furnace would not come on. The motor would run but no flame; hence, no heat. Called Mel in the very late afternoon and he said he'd call the next day and schedule a time. We did speak the next day; he said he could be here between 12:00 and 2:00 p.m.  He arrived at 12:15. His timeliness was important to us because our house was very cold and uncomfortable.
He quickly diagnosed the problem (see above)
We were very pleased with Mel's timeliness, his professional attitude, and, most importantly, his knowledge of our HVAC system and ability to get it up and running properly.
We definitely would call on A/C Mechanical again should we have any further problems. In fact, Mel said to keep the invoice and if the same problem occurred again, he would come out and there would be no service charge.

Our central air had gone out over the weekend.  When everyone else was busy until the following week they were able to give me a Wednesday AM appointment.  Tuesday morning they called and indicated that the could fit me in between 3:00 and 5:00 that afternoon if I was interested, and I was.  They arrived around 4:00 and had the air conditioner working inside of thirty minutes.  The culprit was a broken capacitor.  He gave me friendly advice on maintaining the system to avoid issues in the future.  I was very happy with his promptness, performance and his demeanor.  I'll definitely use them again.

Mel was able to work within my budget which I thought was great. He didn't fiddle around with non-essential work. He was very nice and accomodating. Mel was concerned that the nights had been cold, so he worked extra hard to get my furnace running as soon as he could. I couldn't be any more pleased.

Came on second day after I had to cancel his first planned visit.  Arrived at designated time.  Evaluated and cleaned condensation tubes.  Advised on future care.  Examined igniter recommended waiting to replace.  Didn't waste time or money.  Straight up, great service.

Technician (Mel) responded to my angie's list e-mail on a Sunday night and promised to show up Monday morning at 0900 which I found above and beyond. He got here about 0915 (after I called him). My A/C fan in the attic was not turning on. After he inspected it he said the starter capacitor on the motor was bad. He had one in his truck and replaced it. It did not fix the problem. He then re-inspected and decided the control board was bad. He found one in Chula Vista and came back at 1600 to install it. It initially seemed to fix the problem, but then the fan overheated and turned off again (thermal control).After the fan motor cooled off, and he set the thermostat to off (cool/off/heat) it seemed to be working and he left. I turned the controller to cool and the overheating condition returned. I called Mel and he said he was at a loss. Then he started talking about replacing the fan motor. I questioned how this could be the problem since the fan would actually work until it overheated, and he said he would have to think about it and would call me back. After about an hour I tried to call him with no answer. I called several more times with no response after leaving messages. I finally went up in the attic with the schematics and traced all the wires on the control board he replaced. He had rewired it incorrectly by putting 1 wire on 1 incorrect terminal. I put the wire on the correct terminal and the problem went away and the fan has worked ever since. I never did get a call back from Mel. While I think the price and response were good, once he got stumped, he wouldn't respond or call me back. Horrible breach of customer service. Also, he walked on my white carpet without putting on booties or asking if it was OK. (Minor point but annoying.)

In the last heat wave my air conditioner was blowing room temperature air - not good.  I called Mel on Friday afternoon and he promised to come out Saturday morning. He arrived as scheduled-added refrigerant, advised me on future costs (R-22 Freon is being phased out and the cost is climbing so the unit will have to be replaced in a few years) and had me back in service in about 20 minutes.

There was a heat wave, so it took a few calls to find anyone who could come soon.  They came out when promised, and diagnosed the problem, a burned out compressor.  The part had to be ordered, so it was a couple days before they were able to return and complete the repair.  While testing the repair, Mel pointed out a blocked intake vent, which may have contributed to the compressor burning out.  I have no idea if the price was good or not, but I'm certainly satisfied with the way the work was done.  By the way, the price I listed includes an Angie's List coupon discount.

I thought that they were very professional.  They were timely and thorough.  I spent $50 on that work. 

Our AC compressor kept running after the thermostat switched off when reaching the desired temperature.  I did a few experiments to understand what was going on - was it an electronic problem with the thermostat or an electrical problem with the compressor? (To eliminate the thermostat, I just disconnected the unit on the wall - the problem persistet, so it had to be at the AC compressor). I searched Angie's List and liked what I read about AC Mechanical in terms of honest repairs.  Contacted the company, got a call back from Mel and described the problem and symptoms. Mel asked a few key questions and diagnosed on the phone that it was probably a switch at the compressor.  He agreed to stop by on Saturday morning to fix it.

The repair was done on time and took 30 minutes (Mel had already purchased the necessary part even before seeing the problem first hand!).  During the repair I asked some broad questions about our AC system and whether it would be necessary or advantageous to replace the whole system. Mel gave me a very detailed, knowledgeable and objective view of my options,  took a closer look at my unit and basically concluded that it should last at least another 5-6 years and there was not need to replace it unless I absolutely wanted to.  I've never experienced such an honest, objective feedback from a service company!  The price he quoted for a replacement system was also significantly lower than anything I've heard or read in the past (I had been thinking about replacing the AC during the rebate program in 2009/2010).

If I ever need to replace my AC, I know that AC Mechanical will be my partner.

Our air conditioner stopped working in the midst of a heat wave, so I called 3 HVAC repair companies to see if they could check it out.   One didn't reply, one said they were booked for 10 days, and then I called AC Mechanical.  The repairman, named Mel, said he had another job in the area and would come at the end of the day.  It was "after hours", which was fine for us.  He quickly determined we had a burned out capacitator.  It didn't have that specific one on his truck, but returned the following day as promised to replace the part.  He told he his wife was about to give birth...he was awaiting "the call" at any time.  I thanked him for his professionalism and gave him a bottle of champagne.   First time I felt a HVAC company earned a tip!

I first sought  routine "check-up"service for our AC unit thru a Home Depot in store solicitation.  The company technician came to my home and identified numerous problems, claiming that the entire system needed to be replaced.  This would cost nearly $10,000 for a new furnace and compressor.  Since the system seems to be working just fine - both heating and cooling, I was surprised and turned to Angie's List for a second opinion.  The most consistent "A" grade was given to AC Mechanical so I emailed them through the Angie's List web site.  The next morning, Mel called and I arranged an evaluation.  Mel spent nearly 40 minutes testing amperage, inspecting all contacts, drains and components.  He reassured me that simple components could be replaced and the system did not need replacement.  All communication was clear and work performed efficiently.  I wholeheartedly  recommend Mel at AC Mechanical.  

I was happy with the work.

Called on Friday and scheduled appt for Saturday. Repairman showed up on time and called about 20-30 minutes before arriving. Our furnace had an was cutting out on us during the middle of the night but would start working again after being off for a few hours. As luck would have it the furnance was working fine when the repairman arrived. After first checking it out he retruned to discuss in detail what was happening then continued to work until he reproduced the malfunction. Turned out to be a malfunctioning flame sensor and a 65.00 repair bill. Two days later it is still working fine. My hat's off to them for listening to the customer when the problem wasn't obvious and then digging in to figure it out. Thanks!

We are selling out home so one of the "Requests for Repair" was to take care of the services Mel performed while he was here. Since it was a 3" vent pipe that had an exposed end wrapped with duct tape and was considered a special order item Mel was able to totally remove the the useless vent arm and then fashioned a piece of tin to cover the hole and used aluminum self tapping screws to secure it to the exhaust vent. Mel was very adept at using caulking to seal the furnace around the base. He also was able to shoot enough caulk into a couple of holes so no exhaust fumes will mix with the combustible gas furnace when it is running. I was very impressed on how timely they were with getting back to me and setting up a time to get over here to do this. As you can see from the low price it wouldn't normally be put high on a list of priorities but they sure acted like it was and took care of me and these two problems in less than two days after calling them. They don't have many reports and I lucked on to them by doing a search by "miles" rather than normally just picking the first couple of companies that come up when you do a search. I called the top rated one and they wanted $65 just to come out. Glad I found AC Mechanical by doing a search a bit differently.

Technician/Business Owner was polite, informative and able to schedule an early evening appointment within 2 days despite high demand during an unexpected heat wave. Recharged the system, got it working again for a reasonable fee which included materials. Telephoned after completing work.

During the bidding process, I was immediately impressed with Mel and Alex's calm and thorough approach. We are novices at HVAC and from what we could learn in advance, the quality of installation is the most important factor in long-term performance of the system. So we had decided that cost was not the primary thing and made our decision based on our assessment of which company we trusted to communicate well with us and do a thorough job. The ironic thing was that A/C was the lowest bid. Because our house is old, there were special challenges with the installation, which they identified and handled. The job took longer than estimated (there were some unexpected problems with getting equipment into tight spaces in the attic) but they did not complain or try to charge more. The crew of four was hard-working and professional. We worked out the small things that came up without a problem. Mel and Alex were diligent about making things right, making sure the physical installation was correct, and then testing and tweaking settings to make sure the electronic controls were optimal and the equiment was performing to its specs. We'd recommend them highly.