Brian's Heating & Cooling

unknown

I called Brian because my A/C didn't seem to be cooling as efficiently as it had before. He came out quickly, evaluated the system, and let me know what needed to be done. Essentially it needed some freon as well as a check valve that had gone bad. He ordered the check valve and came back a couple of days later to install it. He is very knowledgeable and stands behind his work, doesn't overcharge, and will not talk you into fixing something you don't need to fix.

Let me summarize:  Brian is helping me baby an old AC unit through a hot summer so I can save up for a new unit at a future date.  He fixed something in 15 minutes that the big boys (including the "brothers") said couldn't be fixed.  This guy stands behind his work.

The details:

I have a 12 year old downstairs Amana central AC unit. (Separate central unit upstairs.)  It went out in during Summer 2013 when I was working out-of-state.  Two "big name" companies here in town, on service calls I PAID for, told my 20-something son it couldn't be fixed and tried to hustle him into buying a new unit.

When I got back this spring and was taking replacement bids, I tried some smaller companies as well as the big names.  Brian was one of the small ones.  He said "let me take a look at it" and got out his tools.  He had it running within 15 minutes for only $165.  That was in May.  He saved me $9K, at least for now, and got me cold air. Understand this - he made a small repair, thus passing up a chance at a big job, at least for now.  That's honesty, which I don't see a lot of in the AC business here in Austin. 

I realized I needed to have the unit really cleaned up, so I called him in July about an overhaul.  His workers did that 2 weeks ago removing the inner coil, taking it out of the house and cleaning out about 5 years of dog hair out of it. (They didn't call before coming over on a Saturday, like they said they would, so I gave them a B on punctuality, since we were still in our pajamas.)

It cooled even better after that.  (Yes, I should have had service done on a regular basis while I was out of town.)  $400, plus he honored a 10% off coupon he had sent in the mail, so it only cost $360.

But after about a week, it didn't cool so well, so I called Brian.  He came right out the same day, started right in on it and found a leak in the line which he fixed with his blow torch, put in more refrigerant and it's cooling fast and fine again.  Of course, no charge for the work.  He said they should have spotted it the week before.

Eventually, I'll have to buy a new unit.  This old one won't last forever; but, I am able to take my time and do some research, save up some and maybe avoid having to finance so much and hopefully get the work done in the off-season when the hassle will be less.