Midland Heating & Air Conditioning

DO NOT USE midland heating and air! They have been nothing but trouble since the beginning between sloppy install (pvc cement dripped everywhere, including the floor, condensation pump, and my water softener). They tried blaming my electrician for hooking up the electrical wrong....the unit never worked after electrical was connected, they had their installed guys come out and yea no it doesn't work (no kidding I told them that multiple times on the phone). They then sent me a 480$ bill with out even a phone call saying that my furnace wasnt hooked up write. I had my electrician come out multiple times to prove them wrong, finally they sent out a repair tech and found that the circuit board was wired wrong from the factory, he had to swapped some wires around and add 2 wires to make it work. Then after few days of it running it started to sound like a box of rocks rolling around inside of it. I called them out and they said there is nothing wrong with it and charged me 148$, since it was just my wife home she just payed it and did know what else to do. So now i have a noisy furnace and a company that doesnt care about their customers. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!

A new furnace was installed along with a central air. Everything was installed and the first service call we had they found the manual was left in down by the furnace blower. just had service person out to look at the air and was charged a 150.00 for a service call which was not stated at time of call for service we were told we had a 10 year warranty on both furnace and air Service people were great

I sent an email on Sunday nite & received a call early Monday morning. Scheduled an appointment for Wed 2-5 time frame. Jeff showed up early,had the part on the truck & the heat was up & working within 1/2 hr. It was a great service!!

Pricing seemed fair and the guys who did the installation were friendly. Response time via phone and email was quite slow so everything took much longer than expected. They left a big hole in the exterior of the house (we could see plants and sunlight from our basement) which they returned to repair. They did not level the ground appropriately so the AC sits quite low and puddles form around the bottom (I'm not sure if leveling the "pad" would be a reasonable expectation, but it seems to me to be a part of ensuring the function of the unit).

Excellent!

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They did a great job. They have a great website where you can pick what you want to install and they will give you an estimate right there without having to send a request and have someone call. Brian came out and looked at property and the estimate was exactly the same.  They did quality work and it looks really nice with the ductwork and system. I would use Midland and Brian again for future jobs.

Midland was involved in the certification of a boiler during a real estate transaction that I was a part of (My clients were purchasing the property).  Prior to the closing, Midland was hired to Certify the boiler at the property (which consists of performing visual and technical tests to determine whether it's safe).  They certified the boiler, and my clients moved in.  Less than 2 months later (during summer months, when the boiler wasn't being used), the gas company came to the property for an unrelated issue, and upon seeing the boiler, put a "red-tag" on it (which basically means that it's unfit for use and hazardous). Midland came back out to re-assess, and the tech admitted that he'd made a mistake during the original certification process, and stated that in hindsight, a certification should not have been granted.  The owner of Midland admitted to my clients on the phone that a mistake had been made, yet when he came out to see the issue himself there was (in the opinion of my clients) some backpedalling (even stating that I, as the real estate agent, have seen more boilers than he has and I should have probably been more in-the-know).  His attempt to fix the error was a modest discount (13% of the total cost) on a new boiler installation.







The issue here is twofold---- first and foremost, a mistake like this could have had dire consequences if it hadn't been caught by the gas company. Of course, no one is perfect, and my clients and I understand that.  However, the cost of a new boiler (including required asbestos abatement) is approximately $9200, the cost of which should have been addressed by the sellers of the home prior to my clients' purchase.  We relied on Midland's expertise during the certification process, and there error is costing my clients almost $10,000.

Midland was one of the only companies that would install equipment that I purchased somewhere else.  It's been 6 months and everything seems to work well.  I wanted to wait to write a review until I had a chance to test the furnace.   The guy doing the install was timely and courteous.    I will definitely use them again.

It did not go well at all. We spent thousands of dollars and they failed to design a system that heats the house, so we've had to spend many more thousands of dollars to add radiators to the house.

There were multiple missteps by Midland that could not be addressed by simply adding a larger boiler. I have spoken with Unico Systems technical support, and we (Unico and myself) have concluded Midland Heating & Air Conditioning failed to perform because of the following reasons:

1. Midland did not design a heating system. The result? A woefully undersized heating system, poorly balanced, that failed to meet the heating needs for each room. The most critical part of the process is the upfront design, which is very specific to ones house. 

Unico technical bulletins talk about this at great length. For example, "Quite often in multiple story homes and buildings it is difficult to design a system that will evenly heat and cool each floor. It is normal that the upper floors require less heat in the Winter but proportionally more cooling in the Summer."

2. Midland did not perform a heat loss calculation for this install. After three months of living in a cold house and trying to get them to figure out why the system didn't work, I eventually educated myself enough to prod them to produce a heat loss calculation. I was told their software was expired and they'd have to renew it. They sent me a heat loss calculation that failed to include the number and size of the windows, the sizes of the rooms, the square footage of the house, the insulation values of the attic and walls, etc. In other words, they'd never performed a heat loss calculation. I made revisions to the heat loss form and sent it back. This was well into Winter and we actually had to stay in a hotel one weekend the house was so cold. My wife was pregnant and home all day in a cold house with our 3 year old and 1 year old.

3. Midland did not follow the manufactures specifications for installing the appropriate number of outlets for each room. Unico has an installer document titled, Bulletin 40-10 Quik-Sizer. This technical bulletin is used to guide installers during the design phase. For example, the document provides guidance for putting in the required number of outlets based on room size, ceiling height, windows, etc. The bigger the room, the more outlets it needs. We have large downstairs rooms 16 x 16 ft and one room 16 x 32 ft, with 10 ft ceilings. Midland only put two outlets in each room, regardless of room size.  The technical bulletin recommends 4 outlets and 6 outlets respectively. Midland only put two outlets in each room, without regard to the size of the room.

4. Midland installed undersized equipment. The boiler was undersized, the Unico heating module was undersized. The Unico heating module, as installed, was only able to produce 60,000 to 70,000 btu's, which was not nearly enough to heat our house. Not only was the equipment too small, they did not even maximize the capacity of what they installed. Why? See #5 and #6.

5. Midland installed 3/4 inch Pex from the boiler to the heating module hotwater coil. 3/4 inch pex will only permit 4.6 gallons of water per minute to move through the hot water coil. What that means is, the small pipe diameter restricts the flow of water, and therefore restricts the amount of heat the air handler can produce. It's right in the technical bulletins (Bulletin 20-20.4 heating module technical specifications) and confirmed by Unico technical support.

6. Midland only installed 27 outlets. None of the downstairs rooms had enough outlets to meet the heating needs. (Bulletin 20-20.4 heating module technical specifications)

7. Midland did not realize they had installed the Unico control board with a jumper set to low instead of high. This restricted the air speed of the air handler. So we spent the first part of Winter with the system running at half it's capacity. Unico technical support walked them through the control board.

8. Midland set the water supply temperature at the boiler so high, the air handler blower motor was overheating. The system would turn on, run for 5 minutes, and shut down. According to Unico technical support, if the boiler water temperature is set too high, it could damage the air handler blower, so the system has a self-protection mechanism and shuts down. The system equipment was actually overheating and shutting down.

9. Midland did not install the boiler circulator on the supply side of the boiler. This is industry best practice. they left the circulator on the return side. See Dan Holohan's (hydronics expert) book Pumping Away.

10. Midland used the wrong Pex material to supply the Unico hot water coil. As a result, the pipes are constantly making noise and as they expand and contract - the pipes are actually rubbing against the wood framing of the house. This can be avoided by using a different Pex material that has an aluminum layer, and it's what should have been used.

11. Midland did not follow the installation documentation for wiring the boiler to the Unico control board. I went through the wiring with Unico technical support, and their exact words were, "I don't know what the heck they (Midland) did. You need to provide us with pictures and document your install so we can help you sort this out."

In addition, Midland installed a non-programmable thermostat, yet they invoiced us for a programmable thermostat.

We eventually had Midland put in a larger boiler - not to fix the installation; the installation was not fixable. The larger boiler was to ensure we had enough capacity for when we spent thousands more dollars adding radiators to the house to supplement the Unico heating system.

It turned out very well. We were very pleased with our work. They told me how to maintain it and that if I maintenance it properly that I would not need anything for them, which is nice.

They did the job. It was good. There was a bid. They did it to the bid. There was nothing changed. There were no up charges. They showed up when they said they were going to and got it done in the allotted time. I always appreciate that.

It went well. We used the all the time for any service we needed in that particular house. We will not use them anymore because we use the company that installed the unit in our current home.

It turned out fine.

They did a good job. The air conditioner is holding up well. I haven’t used them since. I am not sure why.

It was fine. We have not had any trouble with it. They also installed our furnace which was a long time ago.

The experience was excellent. They came and installed it on New Year's Eve day and they made sure it was working before they left. They came later to do the paperwork. They had a good bid and explained it properly. They didn't say bad things about the other companies, which some of the other companies that I got estimates from did. They were straightforward and confident. They cleaned up. They hadn't been scheduled to work on that day, but they came to do me anyway because my furnace was broken. I found the whole experience to be very good. Their price was good.

Brian is a great service technician. He answered all our questions and got the work done quickly and professionally. The AC system is working great and we are ready for whatever summer brings in the way of high temps.

I have learned my lesson with this contractor. It was a nightmare working with Tom Snuggerud. Mr. Snuggerud called me at anytime during the week and/or weekend trying to get me to sign contracts with him. I really should have known better. Throughout all the work he did for me he was argumentative and rude. He left me with work undone and overcharged me. When I told him that the gas vent to the gas meter was too close to the combustion air intake he said "instead of calling around and finding out who is responsible for moving it, why don't you just fix it yourself."

My g/f and I purchased an old home to remodel by ourselves. I had the HVAC project bid by 4 contractors and Midland was the lowest, yet seemed to be installing a reputable brand for the furnace and a/c (Lennox). When Tom bid the project he seemed knowledgeable and judging by his early actions represented Midland well. The biggest problem I had with Midland was their inability to show up when scheduled and poor communication. I was told they would start the project the Monday before Thanksgiving. When they didn't show up I called and was told they'd be there Wednesday. No show, be there following Mon. No show, finally arrived on Tuesday. They finished the duct work in a couple days and did a nice job keeping the venting high in the ceiling or as high as possible for soffitting. When they had the furnace working in December I said I wanted to wait to set the A/C until spring when the frost was out of the ground. They agreed. When I began calling to have the a/c set it was like the beginning again. They would tell me they'd be there and then not show. This happened 3 more times for the a/c. It is now in and works well. So far so good with the equipment. Other things. 1. I did the electric work as it was agreed to be an optional item, but it was never removed from the invoice. They also never installed a humidifier that was bid, but kept it on the invoice. I just short paid the invoice which I was fine with. 2. Except for the final, I met inspectors for the inspections which got old. 3. Midland did not get me a Lennox rebate form in time to qualify for the $200 rebate. Tom agreed to remove $200 from the bid. 4. I'm installing the register covers. 5. Installers were knowledgeable and friendly, but usually did not cleanup after themselves. The house was messy to begin with from other demo, so they just added to the mess. 6. I requested they drop off our register covers and thermostat many times before it finally happened. I'm sure the fact that we were doing all the other work in the house affected the HVAC contractor, but we felt they could have been more punctual and managed this project better.