AIR & ENERGY SVC INC

After getting 3 bids, I hired Michael as he was priced in the middle and he appeared to be the most detailed. He carefully took down all the model numbers and we reviewed our specs. He scheduled the job to be one day and told me "We'll get it done right and won't leave until it's done". Since Michael wasn't familiar with our thermostat, I emailed him a link to the manual so he can make sure it will work with our heat pump. Day 1: They were punctual. In fact, they showed up 15 minutes ahead of the schedule. (Which is great but we were packing our kids to the day care so it was chaotic). Originally, we were going to snake the wire through the house. To save time, they suggested putting the wire on the outside. Since it was in the side that people did not see, I agreed to it. That probably save them a good couple of hours or more. Heat pumps on the outside installed quickly. We had to turn the heat pumps on but they were not familiar with our thermostat. It's made by radio thermostat, who makes majority of the inexpensive thermostat. So I read the online manual and enabled the heat pump. So far so good but this is where the problems started. As soon as one of the heat pumps turned on, they were trying to leave. I wasn't comfortable with this so I asked them to stick around. 30 minutes later, down stairs HVAC was pumping a cold air and heat pump had shut off. Michael thought that temperature was too cold outside (it was 30 degrees). He adjusted the outside thermostat but that didn't help. So he hooked up his gear to test the pressure and it was over 500. He called his tech at the manufacturer and they told him to 'let some coolant out'. This seemed wrong to me. Upstairs wasn't turning on but Michael again said it's too cold. I read the specs and I'm sure that these heat pumps will work down to -10 degrees to I argued with him. He said his techs have gone home already and he had to come back another day when it was warmer. (this was at 3pm). So he turned the compressors off, asked me to turn the heat on to make sure gas turned on and he went home. That night, our heating system was pushing out cold air and we were freezing. I called Michael but he did not respond. So I texted him as well. I still did not get a response. So I called the thermostat and had them walk me through how a thermostat works. The support person at Radio Thermostat (makes filtrate, 3m, etc) walked me through and explained how how heat pump and thermostats work in detail. I've installed another one of their units and I really like Radio Thermostat. Armed with that, I was able to set the thermostat to disengage it by enabling the emergency mode. (Eventually, I just disabled the heat pump all together on the thermostat). Day 2: Michael comes out with Paul and looks at the compressor. Wiring on the upstairs unit was apparently wrong so Paul fixes it. Double checking the specs that heat pumps operate at -10 from york (and talking to a friend), we fire up to the heat pump at 24 degrees. ( I set swing down to .5, bump the diff up to 6 degrees and set temp to 4 degrees). Heat pumps kick in but the pressure is at 500. (I read elsewhere in the forum that compressor cuts out when it exceeds 400). Michael speaks to the tech at York and is told that coil is not a match. Talking to Michael, he says "Sorry bud." "I did double check with the tech..." "We need to work something out.". So Michael and I agree that I would pay for the labor. He will work out something with the manufacturer for the coil. Which basically comes down to splitting the cost in half. Schedule another day for them to come back Day 3: Michael and Paul comes back. Both coils are replaced, heat pumps turns on and everything is finally running. All pressures look good and things have been running fine. Summary: - Price was higher then originally anticipated but I thought it still was OK so I gave him an 'A' - Quality of finished work was good but I saw lack of testing. Hadn't I insisted on them staying, I would've ended up struggling with the heat or worst off, damaged the outside unit as it was operating higher then it should've. (first day was running over 500. Final pressure after the matched coil was 250). Having something not running probably isn't as a big deal for AC but that's not the same with heating. It ended up taking 3 days for the entire install. So for I give (A for finished product and C for lack of testing and errors along the way) for the final figure of 'B'. - Responsiveness - When I called and texted at night when cold air was blowing, I got no response. Probably not a problem for AC but for middle of winter when it's 20's or lower, this is a problem. I have a very well insulated home but for a home owner with an old home, they need to pickup the phone right away. Maybe told us "Call me at this other number for emergency" or "Text me with EMERGENCY so I can respond". This is the biggest concert - C Michael and his team was always punctual and professional. They are nice guys and I enjoyed working with them. I know that they thought I was nosey but that's only because what they said didn't match up with what I read in the specs. Had I just listened to them, they would've sold me on the outside temp being too cold. Given all that, I give them a B. If I was a typical home user, I think the experience would have been horrible. For this experience, I ended up reading the installation guide of the heat pump, dual fuel kit, thermostat, and reading various HVAC contractor forums to get a better idea. Maybe they would've convince the customer to use a thermostat they would've been comfortable. But given today's market of smart thermostats, and I am using one of the big 2 thermostat manufacturer, I think they should've been able to figure it out. Even without the thermostat, they seemed too eager to pack and head home without testing the pressure. (This was probably the biggest mistake I observed). That said, I think these guys are learning. I'll shoot Michael with a feed back for what I experienced. With everything tuned properly, my heat pump is working great. Even in the mid-low 20's heat pumps are kicking in just fine and my house is cozy. Would I recommend him to my friends? Sure. His price was fair and he did get me what was needed. But he's going to hear from them "Please make sure that you allocate time for you and your staff to thoroughly test the system before you leave. We don't want to see your staff walking out at least 1 hour before it's pressure tested and I need to make sure you pickup you phone right away when I call you with an emergency". I have a lot of co-workers buying homes right now so good or bad, he should have few more opportunities. (And we write reviews because we work on web site that does reviews) Here's my take away. - Heat Pumps can operate easily below freezing point - Run the compressor at least an hour before HVAC people leave - When the heat is turned on, make sure that temp difference is less then the differential. (To test the heat pumps, I lowered the swing to .5, and increased the diff to 6 degrees and I set my thermostat to 4 degrees above the room temperature) - If the heat pump is called from radio thermostat and fails to tun on. Wait 5 minutes and try again. - Double check all wiring