First, I HIGHLY recommend Jeff Sarvis and Sunrise Heating & Air Conditioning. Jeff is extremely honest and a nice human being - in addition to an outstanding technician. Please use Jeff and tell others about him; we need honest people like Jeff to thrive.
I called Jeff late in the evening to find out if he could come out to give me a second opinion on an air conditioning problem that I was having at a property I own (it is currently leased, and I live about 1 hour and 45 minutes away. Fortunately, I had stumbled upon his website when doing some research following a diagnosis from the large HVAC company I initially called. The original company told me at about 5pm that evening that my entire outdoor unit was burned up, and I would need to replace the entire outside unit. Mind you the unit is only 6 years old. He also told me that the cost was going to be $3800, and I would have to let him know in the next few minutes if I wanted the unit installed the next day. The technician was not very helpful, and he seemed a little pushy. I was not impressed and thought he might be trying to take advantage of me. Fortunately, I have a terrific tenant, who was willing to forgo the air for the evening and let me get a second opinion.
I called Jeff at around 7pm, and he told me he could meet me at the unit at 10:30 am the next morning. I didn't tell him what the diagnosis was - only that he was giving me a second opinion.
Jeff called just before he arrived, and he was right on time. When I walked Jeff over to the unit, he asked me what the issue was, and I told him what the original diagnosis was. Jeff's comment to me was, "something seems fishy here." He said the unit looked very new, and he would be shocked if it was a complete loss. Jeff began working on the unit, and explained to me exactly what he was doing along the way. He first replaced the capacitor on the unit because neither the fan nor the compressor were working. With the new capacitor in the unit still did not work, but Jeff figured out that the fan and the compressor were overheated. He explained that the compressor has a thermal shutdown protection and will not start if it is too hot. He asked me for a garden hose and sprayed down the fan and compressor. The fan was trying to come on, but he showed me that it was burned up and needed to be replaced - I agreed. However, the compressor came on after cooling down, and was working fine.
Jeff pulled out his set pricing guide - showed me exactly what fan I needed, and told me exactly what it would cost. He didn't have the fan with him, but said he could get it from his shop and would not charge me a separate fee to come back out and install it - just the original quoted price. He also told me I could go inside the home, turn on the A/C, and he could install the fan and check the system from outside without me having to stick around. Jeff said to check with my tenant that night to see if the A/C was cooling, and then we could settle up with a CC over the phone.
Jeff got the A/C fixed, and my total cost was $500!! $3300 less than what the crooks at the big A/C service company tried to charge me.
I will definitely use Jeff and Sunrise Heating & Air Conditioning whenever I can. Please spread the word!