AIR-TECH HEATING & AIR CONDITIONING INC

The short of it: Air-Tech (Matt in particular) is excellent. He wasn't nearly as schmoozey as the other guy, but vastly more professional. The long of it: Our AC had been slowly losing its ability to adequately cool since we first moved in 3 years earlier. Our house inspector had told us that we had "a Cadillac" of HVAC systems when we were considering the purchase. This past summer, though, it ran almost all of the time to keep the house marginally comfortable. I was sure that if we had typical a Indiana August, we would be really uncomfortable when the sun was up. I called 6 of the most highly-rated HVAC repair businesses and all but two them were unable to make an appointment within a week. The others wouldn't be able to make a house call for months. The first of the two showed up the next day. The technician (he professed to be) was convincing in his diagnosis and professed years of experience. I debated calling Air-Tech to cancel their appointment because I didn't want to waste the company's time or service technician's time. I decided to leave the appointment in place because it just made sense to get at least one more evaluation before I shelled out the 5 or 6 hours of labor the 1st technician estimated the fix would cost (IF he was able to get the major part that he was pretty sure had been recalled and would be "free" to us). The 1st technician had immediately ruled out low refrigerant as the cause. He also said the HVAC was undersized for our living space. When the Air-Tech technician (Matt) showed up for our appointment a weekend and 2 business days later, he asked me if anyone else had evaluated our problem. I lied and said, "No". He immediately identified that the refrigerant was low by about a third and said that that was probably the problem. He then crawled into the ceiling and disappeared for at least 15 minutes before climbing back down. He then took off an access panel of the HVAC and got loose a component of the valve that the 1st technician had vowed needed to be replaced. He asked me to get a glass of ice water and asked me to submerge the component while he went to retrieve a meter from his truck. He took a reading and then asked me squeeze the component in my palm. After a few minutes, he took another reading and pronounced that the valve was working properly. He reported that the insulation around the return ducts was a little inadequate and that summer heat would warm the cool return air in the summer and cool the warm return air in the winter, causing more energy consumption. I had researched HVAC between his visit and the 1st technician's and was not sure how many tons of cooling capacity our system had. I guessed that the model number had the capacity imbedded in it. He confirmed my guess and also confirmed that our system was in the right range for our region of the country. He also confirmed that our unit was not a Cadillac, but more like the Versa we actually have (my words,not his). He didn't seem to mind when I confessed to him that I had lied that there had been no other technician. I told him that I was impressed by his diagnostics and professionalism, especially the ice water/warm hand thing. The 1st technician had indicated that identifying a valve malfunction was more-or-less professional intuition. He said he'd be back in a week or so to check the refrigerant and find out if it was leaking. He had speculated that it might be leaking since tubing that carried the refrigerant between the condenser and exchange unit was two lengths that had been brazed together and that one long, continuous piece was best practice and what he would have done if he had installed the system. The sniffer he had used to try to detect a leak at the condenser was inconclusive. He returned ten days later for the appointment that had been arranged during the interim. After he used the sniffer and the gauge, he concluded that the refrigerant probably was not leaking . When we have any problems with HVAC, Air-Tech will be the only company I call.