Reliable Heating & Air Inc

This happened in 2009 and yet the lousy and disrespectful attitude of the technician named James still lingers in our minds almost 7 years later. How they are still in business is beyond me. To make a long story short, wife and I were first time home buyers and unfortunately we didn't do our homework going into the buying process. We ended up purchasing a huge lemon. One week after moving in, our AC freezes up. Being completely green to home ownership, it felt like the end of the world having an AC system fail in the middle of the summer. The purchase of our home came with a "home warranty." Little did we know that home warranties are nothing more than scams to make unsuspecting homeowners feel secure that their warranty covers quality repairs/services. When we called our home warranty service rep, they sent in a technician from Reliable Heating & Air. I explained that my unit had iced over and that I noticed that when I leave my windows cracked for fresh air- it speeds up the process of our system icing over. At the time, I was naive to the science of HVAC. His response to me was, "If your system ices up, then close your window." It was a very disparaging and matter of fact response. When the truth of the matter is that my old system was leaking freon and it had a very low psi. It was as though he didn't want to give me any service at all. When we walked down our hallway towards our air handler- his response was simply, "Ohhh this is just wrong, just wrong, it's for one just old, it's a Goodman, and you can't put an air handler in a closet, your return needs to go in the ceiling, your thermostat is in the wrong location- it needs to be somewhere closer to the middle of the house...etc" Again, he was very negative and seemed like making me feel bad was something he thrived on. I later immersed myself in the world of HVAC by educating myself on the principles and theories so that I wouldn't be taken advantage of by dishonest and unreliable contractors. I now understand that having air handlers in closets was actually very common in the past. In fact, it is not uncommon to find air handlers in closets, especially in older homes because a closet was a more insulated location for an air handler to not overly condensate in an attic location. Today's air handlers are better designed and can handle extreme attic temperatures. Whether an attic is conditioned or not, air handlers can be installed in a variety of locations- put most commonly are found in attics today. He was wrong in stating that the return should be in the ceiling. Returns can be found in both locations but hot air rises and if not done properly could create a negative pressure in getting air to recirculate through the air handler. He said the thermostat was in the wrong location. He was wrong again. Thermostats are typically found near the return especially in a ranch home. Yet today, you can find thermostats such as the ecobee with multiple sensors throughout the home to keep temperatures throughout the house consistent. Also, if you live in a larger home, you might have 2 or 3 thermostats that are zoned. Our home is slightly under 1500 sq ft. It's a basic starter home built in 1988. His recommendation for us was to have a system change out but what he didn't do was give us an estimate on what we needed. He simply stated that with the tax credit, why not bump up our system and get a 3.5 ton unit. Knowing what I know now, I can't even believe how inconsiderate this technician was. First of all, he never did a manual J load calculation. Never looked at the duct work. Never asked questions about the house such as: where does the south sun face? do you have single or double panned windows? how old is your house? ...etc. This guy never even used the rule of thumb method for figuring out tonnage. If he did, he would have concluded that we old needed a 2.5 ton unit. If he did a manual J load, he might of came up with 3 tons due to the age of the home and other miscellaneous variables. Now keep in mind, I was very young and very trusting of people. We had a small conversation about my horrible experience with getting duped by the realtor's home inspector. It seemed like at every corner he was pointing out flaws of the house and stating that he wouldn't pay more than an X amount of dollars. While I thought he was sympathizing with me, it was actually the opposite. When he was finished looking around our home's system, he proceeded to walk towards his truck. That's when I asked the question, "Is that it? Is that all you are going to do for us??" Something in his head told him otherwise and he turned around with his yellowjacket gauge. He checked the system's low pressure side and found it to be extremely low. Yet, he never explained what was causing this- just that the system was "OLD." He did add r22 freon and brought the pressure up after a few cans. My guess was that he added about 3-4lbs of freon to the system. That's when he headed back to his truck and explained that I owed them $65 because "the home warranty people don't pay me enough to do this kind of work." Looking back at it now, I literally do not know what was so hard about what he had done. As a certified EPA specialist, I now see that this guy didn't do anything. He just added freon which in all matters is not fixing the problem. Explain to people what's going on and why you can't repair the system. Explain why finding the leak and trying to fix the leak on a copper evap coil is futile because of it being brittle. Help educate your customers and do not be so disparaging. It wasn't until my wife showed up from work that he decided she was worth the effort to go back into the house to make sure our home was cooling down. My wife was not impressed by his mannerisms. Now that I'm much more educated in the world of HVAC and after speaking to more than a dozen of reputable contractors- I laugh at how there are people in the industry that have enough moxy to act this way with people. The take home message is simple, STAY AWAY from Reliable Heating & Air. The only thing they are reliable for is cashing your check. Do your homework, educate yourself, look for contractors who are NATE certified, do a bevy of commercial work, have been in the business for more than 15 years, get more than 4 quotes, are certified dealers of one brand or another, stay away from guys that bash a brand- remember that it's not the brand but the contractor that installs your system that will determine the longevity of your HVAC. Good luck and again stay away from Reliable Heating & Air.

Great better than expected

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Since it was drug out over 2 years It is a long story so will just highlight. This company does know A/C systems but do NOT pay until 100% of work complete.  They did a POOR install, which they freely admitted, then spent 2 years of delays and changed stories trying to repair their own mistakes, to give us what was sold They were paid in full based on the owners promises.  Then the owner  came to me and claimed I accused them of stealing (which I never did, if they had, I would have called the police).  He said he would not finish work.  
I do not say to not use them but just be VERY aware and do not pay until totally satisfied.  Do not believe their promises. Get very detail in writing and a written confirmation from them of anything they say they will do.  This is true for many contractors and we should have known but we were trusting. We have dealt with many contractors in the area and this is the first time we have had a bad experience.   That trusting was our error.  We are having another another company finish the work.

It went well.  He was quick and finished in one day.

I have not found anyone as honest as him and he was very reasonably priced. He was very professional and very easy to deal with. I will use him again and recommend him to others.