American Vintage Home Heating Cooling & Plumbing

They are very neat & professional & respectful. The job took two days & two different installers worked on it. Both were great.

This company always calls first when the technician is on the way, and so far, they've always arrived near the beginning of the 4 hour window appointment. The techs are always polite and low-key. We have a large old (150 year) oak in our front yard and need the sewer line cleared periodically. The camera inspection allowed me to see the roots in the line. The routing took about half an hour, the tech needed access to power and asked me to run a bathtub while he was working to flush the debris out. He cleaned up afterward and there was no sign that he was there. On another day, the AC inspector showed me some faults in the way the drainage line was originally plumbed (not by AVH) and recommended a full cleaning next spring before AC season starts again. He checked the coolant levels, but did not need to top it up. He hosed off the exterior of the compressor. He used shoe covers while in the house.

Vendor was very responsive and generous. I asked for an additional service beyond the Big Deal service and they could not do it and volunteered a refund.

We have a 1950's split-level ranch with hot water heat...no forced air ductwork. After living with multiple roll-around and window A/C units for 18 years we finally decided to install central air. We had 6 companies bid...some who specialize in high velocity systems, some who are name brands you hear on radio & TV ads. American Vintage Home was easily the most professional during the proposal process...educating us and setting proper expectations. Their bid was competitive...and things got better from there :) The installers were in the house about 6 days from start to finish...there are two work-from-home adults in the house and at no time did the installation process interfere with work! No noise, no mess...very professional! It has been about 40 days since the install and we couldn't be happier...believe it when they tell you these systems are quiet, unobtrusive and reduce humidity in a house much faster than traditional systems. We are 100% delighted with American Vintage Home and recommend them!

I received three estimates for installation of central AC at an income property (three total units). American Vintage was not the cheapest estimate, but they provided the most detailed information on the proposal and seemed more thorough in their approach. They included some rerouting of questionable drainage that had been done previously, and the estimator, Mike, explained everything very clearly and patiently. Scheduling the work was easy and communication was professional and prompt (including coordinating with the electrician and the tenants) throughout the process. The work was completed on schedule with excellent results. Several weeks after the work was complete I sent an email asking for photos of the work for insurance. I received a prompt response with photos. I have a number of buildings and am almost always renovating something. It's rare to have a 100% positive experience as I did with American Vintage. I will definitely use them again.

Our new basement flooded during a recent storm 7/1/14. We let the furnace/AC dry out for a few days and in the process of cleaning up the basement we noticed a small hole in the pipe exiting the furnace. The temp was starting to rise and we wanted to turn our AC back on but wanted someone to confirm that everything was in working order. We called them in the morning and asked for a technician to come out. They explained that a tech would get in touch with us as soon as possible. Well, three weeks later we are still waiting. We called three different times for a status update and were told each time that "we put it out through dispatch." Whether it was poor customer service or just a lack of communication between different parts of the company, they had no answers for us. Needless to say we will not be trying to contact them again for any other service we may need.

I could not have had a better experience, both with overall customer service and plumbing. Their dispatcher was extremely responsive and capable. He went out of his way to accommodate my scheduling needs and to help me with my Angie's List coupon. He also immediately sent me an e-mail with a picture of the plumber and his bio to introduce him before he arrived. I felt immediately comfortable and confident with Lester, the plumber, whose expertise, years of experience, professional demeanor and ability to communicate with me were impressive. With the coupon, the work seemed like a good value to me. Plumbing is the Achilles heel of my 107-year-old house, and since my good plumber retired many years ago, I have had some really bad experiences. I have a few big plumbing and HVAC issues that will sooner or later need attention, and I have really been afraid about them...until now! I would trust American Vintage Home to do the work on my pride-and-joy old house.

As usual in working with this company the visit went well. If was easy to set up the time within a 2 hour window. The technician called about half an hour before arriving to give me a heads up. He arrived wearing booties to spare my light colored carpeting. He went to work quickly, was very careful and efficient and explained what he was doing, including getting on the roof to check the condenser. He looked at the filter and there was no hard sell to replace it since it was fairly clean-although I opted to do so. As he left he gave me a couple of suggestions for improvements if I was interested (cell phone app, de-humidifier, etc.) and a list of what he had accomplished. No problems and it went well as is usual with this company.

Arrived promptly. Very professional. Advised we still had good life on our a/c unit. Advised we replace the 25 year old water heater. We will be using them for this service. Estimate reasonable and quick. Did not try to sell us something we did not need. Cleaned up any dust stirred up. Very knowledgable.

I made a mess of things on my own on the day before Thanksgiving. I tried to bleed the bathroom radiator and the water shot out forcefully into the bucket. Unbeknownst to me at the time, the pin in the valve (that holds back the water) shot into the bucket with the water and I didn't notice it. I flushed the water with the pin down the toilet. Water kept pouring out of the radiator and I didn't know how to stop it. I was able to hook up a hose which drained the water into the bathtub so I didn't have a flood, but I still had to contend with the underlying main problem. Went to the hardware store to buy a new pin (which you can't do without buying a new valve). Bought the valve (which was cheap) and took out the pin to use with my radiator. Unfortunately, it was too short for the ancient style radiator. I had never used a plumber before, but I knew I needed a professional's help. I called American Vintage Home because they were relatively close to home and the radiator is very "vintage." I was hoping that they might have the right size pin and could do an easy fix, but I understood that they might have to replace the valve if they didn't have the correct vintage pin. Robert the technician from American Vintage Home was prompt and very courteous. He covered his shoes with plastic covers before entering my home which was a very nice thing to do (even though it was not required with my hardwood floors). He went to the basement to turn off the water and check the system and then returned upstairs and replaced the valve. After replacing the valve, he waited and made sure that heat was coming through the radiator. He also inspected the basement furnace system and made some written suggestions for replacement with the costs. I found him to be very thorough and professional. Robert honored the American Vintage Home discount coupon for Angie's List members with no fuss. American Vintage Home saved the day and most certainly the following Thanksgiving Day for us!

After a rough start with an employee who only lasted a short time and who had given us a low bid for plumbing on a kitchen renovation, we worked things out and used American Vintage Home for our home renovation and since for general HVAC maintenance. It was expensive, but I am confident that the work was done right. Our home was built in 1947 and had not had any major improvements to plumbing, so we replaced old pipes with copper, renovated the kitchen and changed some air ducts.

In addition to good service, they take care of protecting the work areas and places they navigate through for long-term projects. They use shoe covers whenever they come to the house, even if it is just to give an estimate for a repair. They clean up their work areas when they are finished. In the case of the shower stall repair, they set up the floor covers and the paths they used to get to the bathroom with fresh disposable "tarps" daily and cleaned up daily, .

Great! American Vintage has been managing my heating and coolings systems for the past 13 years. We have been so happy with the service provided.

Wore the shoe covers, checked the outside venting, taught me about the furnace, cleaned the burners and the inside of the furnace, diagnosed the issue, discussed being on a maintenance plan.

American Vintage Home is amazing. The plumber, Lester, knows everything there is to know about old houses and gives advice like an expert. He arrived on time with all the necessary parts (a prior visit had determined what was needed) and repaired the broken stopper promptly, giving me lessons on the way about how to do it myself next time. He even went the extra mile to ensure the drain pipe was clean. The toilet gasket was replaced, and he gave ideas about how to keep the plumbing in the rarely-used coach house running smoothly. He checked the hot water heater and gave practical advice about replacing it with various alternatives. All around a terrific experience - I will use these guys again and again.

We called the company because we had just moved into an old home and there was something going on with the duct work that wasn't really allowing the house to be cooled properly. We knew that the AC and Furnace were old (20 years), but they were working, so our bigger concern was the lack or return and supply from existing vents. We told them this and they said they could send out an engineer to look at what was going on with a camera, but it was probably best to send someone to take an external look and possibly get a sense for what was going on with the added cost. A guy showed up, he "serviced" our units by doing the typical annual maintenance and then took me to the side to sell me some kind of package. He assured me that if I signed up for it that I would not only save money in the future, but for todays visit as well. I agreed to it, but I'm not sure why. He then left. The unit was not functioning well, so I have no idea what I paid $250 for and he didn't even take a look at the duct work or give me an idea of what was happening. I had air flow issues in one bedroom in particular and he didn't even check it out. We were never contacted by the company for follow. 2 weeks later we decided to replace the units for brand new ones (which we knew was in our near future) as well as changing the configuration of a lot of the duct work. American Vintage could have had this $15k+ project, but instead wouldn't take the time to help us with our issue and seemed more concerned with selling me on some annual maintenance package. I love finding a great company on Angie's List, and I didn't have that kind of experience here.

I had a pair of estimates and chose the American Vintage Homes, though they were by far not the lowest price. I felt I would get a higher quality job as well as honesty and professionalism and I was not disappointed. There were several challenges - the plumbing is original and the house is 80+ years old. All disasters were avoided. The water flow is outstanding and I believe the value of the house has been improved significantly.

You can trust JR and his crew to fix what is needed without taking you to the cleaners.

They did a great job installing the equipment. Everything is working well. The technicians who came were incredibly nice, patient, and made me feel very at ease with the work being done. There was some confusion about the scope of work - I had requested to have our thermostats replaced as well, but the guys who came weren't made aware of that, so it wasn't done. Also some confusion during the job itself about whether certain equipment that I thought was part of the boiler system was getting replaced or was being left as-is (an air vent of some variety). I understand that the ultimate outcome there was that they replaced a faulty part on part of pre-existing piece, but it took some back-and-forth to get there. I think they just need to do a better job with internal communication (meaning, between themselves) and external communication (making sure the customer is fully up to speed on the scope of work, especially if there are parts they plan to leave as-is.) I've also had some trouble with last minute scheduling changes - it would be better to have more advance notice if the initial day planned for work was going to change (rather than getting notified the day of after I've called, which has happened a couple of times). But those issues in no way relate to the high quality of work that was done by the technicians. Their pricing was also very good, we compared it to other companies. And Dimitri was very thorough in walking me through the equipment during the final walk through and checking to make sure everything was performing well.

I called when my boiler was no longer working--when I turned it on for the season. Not unexpectedly, they were backlogged with other people who found this out as the weather was turning colder. But they were able to squeeze me in within several days. The technician was punctual, they called when they were on their way, and they were very professional and thorough. The part had to be ordered, and it was available within a day and the technician was able to come back as soon as the part became available to install it. They were professional throughout.

American Vintage came within a day for the emergency repair and spent 30 minutes taking apart the boiler and found the issue as the draft blower electric motor needs to be repair. First, I was charged $146.00 for this diagnosis. Seems high to me. Was given option to repair it for $739.00 or can consider new boiler. I then asked for new boiler quote and the American Vintage office sent someone in within 1 hour to quote me for new boiler. Within another 2.5 hours, I received the quote of 3 options: Option 1: $13,554.00!!???? (high efficiency) + optional 1,480 buffer tank + 925.00 10-year extended warranty Option 2: $13,594.00!!???? (high efficiency) + optional 1,480 buffer tank + 925.00 10-year extended warranty Option 3: $5260 + optional $425.00 10-yr extended warranty $15K for a new boiler to heat up my 2200 SQ FT home? Close to $10K delta between high emergency efficient & baseline model? Something is not right here. Basically I was left in a very bad situation with no heat and either paying $739.00 to replace the draft motor (cost about $100.00 to $150.00 on eBay) or getting new boiler with unreasonable quotes. Paying almost $600.00 for labor to replace a broken motor???? I am really not happy of these options and even though the personnel are very professional and courteous but their pricing strategy is just not right. I felt I was upsaled a lot! Kind of feeling they are trying to take advantages of customer without heat in winter. To confirm my suspicion, I called another well known HVAC company in the Chicago land that has a lot of good review on Angie's list to come in for a second opinion. I was quoted the same unit as American Vintage Option 3 with exactly the same options but $600.00 cheaper. Even though I have been using American Vintage for the past few years on C&C for my HVAC and miscellaneous plumbing services. This time they simply lost my trust and it is time to go with other more reasonable HVAC company.

They were very honest, and the pricing was great. The original person I spoke with asked a lot of questions to get the best details for the quote. The repair was made correctly, and inline with the price I was quoted. The worker even recommended a website I could use to order replacement vintage parts. He even went as far as to tell me the specific part I neededfor the faucet handle.

I saw six different guys because they specialize. Scheduling was easy and all done in one call. Every person was on time, service was very good, they provided education on maintenance as well as doing the service they were called in for. They seem expensive, but the guys made sure I was aware of all the different ways to reduce the overall price, including their online coupon.

We love our Space Pak. Our house has radiator heating, which we wanted to keep, and we looked into several options for cooling, including mini-split units (which we have on the 2nd floor), Unico and Space Pak. We got several quotes for the work and ended up selecting American Vintage based on the plan they presented (they were not the lowest cost, but were in the same range as the other bids). We were very pleased with the installation process and the system works really well. We have since used them to fix a plumbing issue in our bathroom. We will definitely use them in the future.

We obtained 4 bids for installation of a small duct high velocity air conditioning system, including SpacePak and Unico systems. We give American Vintage "A's" on Price, Responsiveness, and Punctuality. For Price, they were the most competitive by far. American Vintage come in as the cheapest by $2,000-8,000. Three of the bids, including American Vintage, priced out a 3.5 ton system, and were closest in price; the Unico bid from Unique Indoor and Comfort came in as the most costly due to pricing out a 5-ton system. Given that most installers indicated a 3.5 ton system, and because American Vintage was the only one to try to go through the walls rather than the closets for the installation, we went with them. As for Responsiveness and Punctuality, American Vintage were very prompt and responsive. The project manager and installer were very responsive, and we especially like our installer, Mike; great guy! The installation lasted about a week, which is what they predicted given the size of the house and going through the walls and such. They scheduled us before the beginning of the hot summer season, and I believe we got a discount for that, but it also made it perfect for using the system. We also give American Vintage an "A" for quality. They system is great, and the install was great. They did have to go through one closet, but given the structure of our house, it was inevitable. That said, it was a small closet, with only a few pipes, and Mike tucked it in the corner so you actually have to look for it to notice it. Otherwise, they saved us from having pipes running through all the closets, which the other companies had planned to do. Also, they install in the attic was very neat and clean. We had other companies ask if it was okay for ducts to be running back and forth across the attic; American Vintage tucked everything into the corners and preserved our precious storage space. Finally, they were great with getting the permit and working with our village. We give American Vintage a "B" on Professionalism. This is because the installed resulted in minor damage to our newly refinished hardwood floors. The finish of the floors by the pulldown attic stairs was worn away by going up and down so much. This is somewhat understandable, but I wish they has used something to protect the floors other than cardboard. The friction of the cardboard was too much, and I wish they had used a softer mat. Second, they tore up some of our floor in another room, which we didn't know until after the install was over and we discovered it. They did come back and do a cosmetic repair, but the floor in that section is now rough and clearly now original. It is a small section and not in the direct path of vision, so it isn't horrible, but it isn't great either. We expected that they would have notified us of this, which is why I am rating them low in Professionalism. Also, they should have warned us about the possibility of floor damage. We expected some wall damage and repair (which they spackled and such), but not floor damage. For anyone considering SpacePak, we are very pleased with the system. After spending last summer without A/C, it was great to walk into our house this summer when it was 95+ outside and come into a house in the 70s. The system is also very efficient; my highest bill this summer was $110 from ComEd! I believe it is even cheaper than the 3 window units we used last summer! The high velocity is a little loud if you are close to the ducts, but it isn't that much different from regular AC blowers. All-in-all, we are very happy with the purchase, and mostly happy with American Vintage. We would consider them again.