American Vintage Home Heating Cooling & Plumbing

The company, as it has done in the past (for example, repairing a broken sewer line in the dead of winter two years ago), did a first class job--quick, efficient, and clean. Great work.

We are unfamiliar with the AC in our new home and its seems not to run efficiently and not properly controlled by the thermostat. We scheduled an appt with AVH to come check our system, diagnose if there is a problem and quote a repair if needed. When the technician showed up, I showed him the unit in the attic and explained that it was not working efficiently. He immediately stated that what I wanted was "servicing" and this could be performed only under their annual service contract. He said the $79 quoted the day before was solely to come to the door, but did not include any work, even a diagnosis. I pointed out that his own paperwork stated that $70 covered initial diagnosis. He continued to state that he could only look at it if I purchased the service contract. I promptly ask him leave my house and will be disputed the charge as the technician was in my home not to look at my AC unit, but in a salesman capacity. No one should have to pay for a salesman to come to their door who refuses to provide services actually requested and quoted.

This review is a tough one for me because this company has done previous work for me that I was pleased with. This particular job, however, was a complete and utter disaster from start to finish. This job started with a regular HVAC call for one non-working radiator. The technician came out and quoted me several different options to attempt to get the radiator working. I chose the most expensive option to split my system into an upstairs and downstairs zone with two separate thermostats, with the assurance that my non-working radiator would be fully functional. The full job was quoted at $3600 for a one-day job. After a full day of significant work, I had two thermostats, but they did not function as an upstairs and downstairs zone as promised. On top of that, I now had an additional radiator that was not functioning. Knowing that the job was not completed properly, the tech didn’t even ask for payment. He told me to call their office in the morning. It took them 10 days to send out the next technician. He took a look at the work and said they’d be in touch. 5 days later, I had to call the office again to find out what was going on. They then sent out an engineer. The engineer surveyed my situation and came to the conclusion that the original technician had quoted the job erroneously and to do the job properly would cost an additional $2000. They also gave me the option to just switch everything back to my original single thermostat (which wasn’t even really an option because I now had 2 non-functioning radiators). So I had no real choice but to accept the new proposal, which also included numerous cuts in the ceiling and drywall, something the original project I agreed to did not include. The installers came out and completed this job in 3 days. The installation work was done well. About a week later, I discovered a leak in one of my boiler lines (it turned out to be one of my original lines and not one of the newly installed lines). A plumber came out to inspect. He immediately told me that they should have sent an HVAC tech and not a plumber, as he didn’t have the expertise to handle my issue. So he called for another technician to be sent out. In the meantime, without the proper expertise to service a boiler system, the plumber’s negligence ended up turning a tiny leak in one boiler line into a completely flooded basement. By the time the second technician left and my issue was “solved,” I had an additional $2500 in drywall and flooring damage. This job start to finish took nearly 5 months, two of which were in the dead of winter with no heat in my basement. During this time, 7 different technicians came through my house to evaluate my system or perform work. All told, a one-day job that was quoted at $3600 cost me $5500, plus an additional $2200 in drywall and paintwork, plus $2500 in water damage and repairs. Sadly, had they offered even the smallest gesture of accountability for the damage their technician caused, I probably would have stayed with this company. However, their management just told me to call my insurance company. This is a tale of two companies. Their installation people are solid. If you are looking for a large-scale SpacePak installation, they will probably do a good job. If you are looking for day-to-day plumbing or HVAC work, I would AVOID this company. There are too many companies out there to deal with this type of work.

They were excellent from initial sales visit to quote all the way to final inspection. They were easy to schedule our visit and installation. The process they have to calculate how much cooling in each room is excellent and they were able to get hoses in places we didn't think would be easy when we talked to other providers. Most importantly, the product and installation went well and we have a cool home now!

Fast, very professional, safety-minded work. Have invited them to bid on replacing both furnaces.

This service was promoted as a discount by Angie's List. We were told to wait 3 days before being contacted. After 5 days, we gave up and asked for a refund. To Angie's List's credit, they gave us one, but why are they promoting such unreliable service in the first place?

This is truly the worst service I've ever received. I called last Thursday (6/02/2016) to schedule a morning appointment for a tune-up of our two air conditioning systems. My wife had urged me to ask if the coupon in the Angie's List advertisement booklet - offering a tune-up for $79 would apply to both air conditioning systems - so on the phone I went into elaborate detail explaining that we have two a/c systems, and asking if the coupon would apply to both. The scheduler - Mollie - confirmed for me that yes, it would apply to both systems. I asked if I could have a morning appointment on Monday. The scheduler said yes, and then asked for my email so that she could send me a profile of the technician. I never received the email. She also told me that the technician would arrive on Monday between 8am - 12pm, and that the dispatcher would call in the morning to give me a more specific time estimate. This morning, I called at 9:21am to see if the dispatcher could tell me roughly what time the technician would arrive. I was put on hold, and when the scheduler returned she explained that the dispatcher had "just been about to call me to ask if my appointment could be rescheduled" explaining that one of their technicians had called in sick. I told her firmly that no, I had taken the day off to have this work done and it could NOT be rescheduled. I offered instead to have them come in the afternoon. She thanked me and told me that they could come between 12pm - 4pm, most likely in the middle of that time frame, and that a dispatcher would call me when the technician was on his way. Great! I thought, this will be done by 4pm! Well, at 4:04pm, the dispatcher called and said the tech would be there in 20 minutes. Better late than never. The technician finally arrived at 4:30pm. He walked into my home and the first thing he asked about was my two air conditioning systems, saying that the "Groupon" coupon would only apply to one system. I explained that I did not have a Groupon, and showed him the ad in the Angie's List booklet. I also told him that when I called on Thursday I had specifically asked about this. He asked to whom I had spoken and I said Mollie. So, he called Mollie and apparently Mollie told him that I was wrong, the coupon only applied to one system, and I'd have to pay full-price or the second system - $169! Mind you - neither the dispatcher nor the technician apologized for being so late. The technician also did not apologize for the misunderstanding regarding the price. I believe this is what is called a "bait and switch" fraud, and I refused to be scammed. I sincerely hope that Angie's List will re-evaluate their ranking, and I hope that my fellow consumers will look elsewhere for services.

From start to finish, everything went well. My husband always has a lot of questions and the guys took the time to answer every one of them with patience. Greg and Sarge made a great team - the project took five days and after every day it didn't look like we were getting any work done. They cleaned up very well. They were both very professional and nice. We were able to use the unit the day they finished installing and it worked very well. I have pulmonary fibrosis and had a lung transplant and having the air conditioning on cuts down on the humidity and makes it easier to breathe. Demetri came out today and gave it a few tweaks and we are ready for summer. As an added bonus, on the first day of work, Sarge noticed there was a gas smell in the house. We found a leak! We had had a new stove put in and apparently they had not tightened the line properly. Thank you Sarge! We highly recommend American Vintage Home.

It went well, they did gave us a discount since they could not complete the work. But the were professional and polite.

Very professional. Responsive. Gave me a list of options with varying cost, so I could pick what was most appropriate for my needs. Installers were profession, punctual, and neat. Final cost was exactly as estimated.

The service technician, Anthony P., was very professional. He called when he was on his way and arrived on time. Once I explained our issues, he explained how the system worked and what was likely wrong. He confirmed my suspicions that the old expansion tank was likely part of the reason why our system was air-locked. He didn't have one on his truck (he explained that they carry "normal" parts with them, but that a radiant system expansion tank wasn't normally something they needed to carry). However, he called the main office and arranged to have one delivered to the house while he was working on the other parts of the system. Since part of the work would involve sweating new copper pipes, Anthony made sure he temporarily removed the smoke detector in our boiler room. Once he was done, he put it back in place. With the installation of the expansion tank, the job took longer than Anthony had planned. However, he never seemed rushed, cleaned up after himself, and remained professional and upbeat throughout the whole process. I also talked with Anthony about our ancient water heater. Actually, he brought it to my attention that it was well past the normal life (it was 23 years old, and he said they normally last 12-15 years). It was a shorter/squatter 75 gallon unit, so they would have to special order it. The next business day, American Vintage Home followed up with an email and a call to discuss options. While we didn't end up going with American Vintage Home for the water heater (due to their quoted price being relatively high compared to another highly-reviewed service provider), they were very responsive.

Our kitchen sink was badly clogged. I saw the Angie's list coupon for exactly what I needed! I called the phone number and the receptionist was very helpful, scheduled us for the afternoon. The actual plumber called us to say he could come earlier "in a half hour." He showed up after about 70 minutes but it was still earlier than what had been scheduled. He examined the sink and the drain pipes in our basement; got out the snaking device, laid a clean tarpin down and was done in about 40 minutes. Explained everything to me; honored the coupon; was very nice. I asked what we would have paid w/o the coupon and he told me 350. That means the Angie's list coupon saved us $251.00 So grateful for that! He offered us an ongoing service contract and left that information. Very professional.

Excellent. They were on time and thoroughly professional. The service was thorough as always and our system will see us through another Chicago winter. They identified several recommended updates and simple improvements for updating our 1960's furnace and radiant heating system, and also provided quotes for replacing the system completely. We chose not to do anything at this time but American Vintage will be first on the list when we choose to do so.

It worked out great. I cannot say anything negative about them. I came home and everything was cleaned up.

Sean was terrific. Knowledgeable, courteous, very good to work with. He was on time for the appointment, worked quickly. Proof is in the results. Happy!

Sales guy came to our house, was nice enough. Final price was $680 for installation of a bottom-of-the-line humidifier--outrageous! I can buy the unit for $120, so I assume they pay less than that. I figured it should take them three hours (he confirmed less than half a day.) If so, that works out to over $180/hr! Tried sell me a more expensive steam humidifier (plus these cost significantly more annually to run--on the order of $2/day vs pennies a day for evaporative models.) He told me that the square footage capabilities listed by the manufacturer were overstated. I didn't find this reported this to be the case in online reviews of the models. Furthermore I was disappointed that he mentioned they'd install a saddle valve. They're also a plumbing company and I would have expected they know about the likelihood of leaks with those vs. tee valve.

This was a big project and took almost a full week. They did what they promised to do at the agreed to price at the agreed to time and met the agreed to schedule. They were courteous, professional, knowledgeable, and hard working. They took time to answer our questions and make sure we were comfortable with everything they did. They also cleaned up nicely and left our basement in good shape. I can easily recommend them.

Everything went very well. Sylvester, the technician who came over, spotted the problem right away. He was very knowledgeable, nice and courteous. Everything was done efficiently, neatly, cleanly and professionally. I was very happy with the service and glad that I called this company. Before the problem was fixed, I had a small leak under my kitchen sink which I did not notice until the area in the basement right beneath the kitchen was full of water. Thanks to Sylvester and American Vintage Home, everything is back to normal now.

I went through a few plumbers before finally calling these guys. They did a great job on explaining what the problems were and the cost of everything. They walked me through the process as I was very cost and time sensitive (having wasted time and money on other plumbers to fix my problem)

They were responsive and clean. Also helpful.

I had to change the original appointment because the technician was ill. This has happened more than once. They sometimes also delay appointments already scheduled because of "meetings" they have in the office before the technicians leave. AC. The technician said to replace the thermal couples for about $100 each for a total of about $200. I showed him the receipts that showed I had had this done last year for half that amount so he contacted the supervisor and they lowered the price to $99 total. One boiler needed a new gas valve so the price was about $50. The other work was done later. When I called the supervisor later on an unrelated matter, he told me the previous technician who only charged $99 for two made a billing error. When I pointed out that all of the technicians for the last several years had made the same error - different technicians, he did not respond. This pricing made no sense to me. I have the documents showing they basically doubled the price on this item. I like pricing to be clearly explained and any price changes justified. Its hard to believe that three different technicians made the same pricing error. My experiences with AVH is that they do good work, but their scheduling is not always reliable. I will continue to use their services because they are good. But I won't get new thermal couples every year if they are $100 each. The technicians are always very polite and seem very competent. Pricing is my only concern. I have a contract with them to do my work every year for heating and for AC.

The original installation went well. They did an ezcellent job of figuring out how to install the system. Afterward came the problems. The system worked fine the first year. Second year, a thermostat relay gave out on the rooftop shstem and had to be replaced. That was last year. In april of this year, American vintage cLled and said they had to remove a h connector to the humidifier sustem because it might fail. They sent a worker to remove the part. The humidifier was no longer usable. In october, I called them to find out if they had any intentions of fixing this. They sent someone out, not to fix it, but to take pictures of it so that they could figuree out how to fix it. Apparently it never occurred to them, when removing the part, to figure out how to replace it. The humidifier i paid for is still not fixed, still not working. Now they say they will send a plumber. So.....two visits so far, one to remove a part, one to take a picture of what the first guy did. This is a very inefficient way to runa business, and someone has to pay for it......their customers. Be careful doing business with these people. If you wchedule a service call, be sure they intend to fix the problem, and not simply come to gather information.

American Vintage Home Heating, Cooling and Plumbing performed a maintenance check on my furnace and a/c units. The gentleman that came out was very courteous and thorough in looking through all of the units. He was very informative during the whole process and not too pushy about getting extra Freon (sp?) put into my a/c units. He informed me that they were 60 or 70% and could use some extra but that they didn't absolutely need any. I very much appreciated the honesty and passed on the extra Freon. On a second call regarding plumbing I called American Vintage Home Heating, Cooling and Plumbing after I had cleaned out my hot water heater and a faucet in my kitchen was not producing water. They could have very easily sent a plumber out and charged me for a service call but they instead were very generous with providing helpful hints on common problems associated with my situation and I was able to work with them to get the faucet working.

Work completed as expected

It was time for our annual boiler/heating system review and American Vintage Home sent Andrew B to check our boiler and heating system prior to the start of the Chicago winter season. Andrew arrived around 5:15 PM at our home and immediately began work. He completed the system check, including replacing the Thermo couple on our boiler system. We reviewed an imbalance in the system pressure which indicated a reading of 2.0 lbs instead of 12.0 lbs for the upstairs. He explained that this suggests a possible blockage in water flow to the upstairs heating system pipes and radiators. He suggested that AVH could dispatch an engineer to provide an estimate to replace the 100 year old galvanized pipes leading from the boiler to the upstairs living quarters. He pointed out that replacing the pipes might fix the pressure imbalance between the first and second floors of our home, resulting in better heat levels for the second floor. Andrew was thorough and very professional. The boiler system was completely replaced in 1986 when we purchased the property and appears to be in good shape; however, many galvanized pipes that move water through the heating system may be clogged. We will determine the next step upon reviewing the cost of replacement pipes (estimate). Andrew has been with AVH for nine years. He was very professional and appears to be very knowledgeable about heating systems.