COMMONWEALTH HEATING & CONTRACTORS

They do a good job and they're reasonable. If I ever got a leak and I had to crawl into the crawl space and I have 10-foot black snakes in my crawl space and I don't like to go in there. They never bite me and they're all hibernating in the winter. Anyhow, I said I can't stand crawling in the crawl space. So, they went in the crawl space and put a shut off a valve in my basement, so I don't have to keep crawling in the crawl space to shut off the main line. I can't recall the price, but it was fair. I don't know anybody that wants to party with snakes I remember thinking it was pretty reasonable with what they charged me. They're just courteous, timely and conscientious, reasonable and just incredibly pleasant.

They charged me for the three A/C's and the heating systems. I guess because I have a big house. They come promptly. They're extremely flexible. They help in any way they can even if it is not locked into the price. They're very conscientious.

He spent about two hours on it. They had to well new copper on the water heater and weld it. Other people told me I needed a new water heater.  They were checking my heating system for the year and then they said you know you got a leak. I said I know I had a couple of people come by and tell me I need a new water heater. He goes you don't need a new water heater!  Theres no rust or nothing, it's in outstanding shape, you just need a new spigot. They saved me $7,900.

One thing, they noticed is that I had a leak inside my hot water heater. They said really you just have to fix this spigot. They came back and soldered it, welded it and fixed it. They said even though the warranty is out and you had it since 2004, it still has a heck of a lot of life in it. I thought I needed a new hot water heater, I had someone come out and they said, you need a new water heater. These people said, no the tank is in excellent shape you just need a new spigot, so it saved me $8,000. They're very ethical. They take time to evaluate it and fix it.

I have a service plan with them and their service plan is about $150 cheaper than every body else too. They come and they change the filters once a year for my A/C and they check my heating. I pay them, I think maybe, $300 a years. I have three air conditioners. My house is like a 6000 square foot house and most of them want to charge about $450 where they check your heating and air. They come in the spring and they come in the fall. These guys charge me $300 a year and they're phenomenal. Again, I have three air conditioners and it's probably cheaper for someone who has one or two air conditioners.

It was very quick. The old furnace was cracked and used heating oil. It was a danger. They took out the old unit and disposed of everything. They brought in a new unit and also a new pad and heat pump unit for outdoors. It is attractive, well installed, and works excellently. (We have not used the heater yet, of course.) But the Ac is way better and much more energy efficient then the 40 y/o unit that was there. Our house is pretty comfortable. They were fast, efficient, answered all of our questions and we were able to make an informed decision about whether we needed two units, or one bigger one, and how it would be configured. We were able to make our own decision and the work was quickly and efficiently performed. I would recommend them to anyone who needs AC service, replacement, or repair.

Our Home Warranty Company had left us hot and weary with a non working air conditioning system. The repairs/replacement of our Heat Pump, the continual dysfunction and ultimate breakdown as well as the lack of responsibility taken by our Home Warranty Company was a horrible experience. Knowing the hot summer months were coming, I contacted Commonwealth Heating (the company had a previous relationship with our home, the installation of the Gas furnace 13 yrs. prior for the previous owners.) I was pleasantly surprised at the immediate attention to our problem. With Commonwealth Heating, purchase and installation went smoothly. Walt gave individual attention to our needs from initial visit/quote to completion of the job. To us, excellent Customer Service is extremely important and that is exactly what we got. We went on vacation a couple of days after installation and it was a treat to come home to a cool home. We would recommend Commonwealth Heating and Contractors for your Heating/Cooling needs.

The “Carrier” system purchased from
and installed by Commonwealth Heating, is actually about half “York”.



Our signed contract was for a new
Carrier Performance Series Energy Star heat pump system. It specified a Carrier
outside condenser, a Carrier inside evaporator coil – plus, a 5-year labor and
10-year parts warranty.



The system was the size recommended by Commonwealth Heating, but the system performed
poorly from the start, failing to cool in Richmond, VA weather. Our 2,145 sq.
ft. house was hot – above 80 degrees, and damp. We complained several times and
the company owner told us that no unit can be expected to cool below 80 degrees
when it is approaching 100 degrees outside. This was untrue; even our old
system performed better than the new one. We knew that something was wrong.
After more than six phone calls, they returned and improved performance but the
system was disappointing.



Last summer, the TXV broke. Our new HVAC technician told us that the TXV and
inside evaporator coil (the half of the system not seen) was a York
model, not the Carrier we contracted with Commonwealth to buy, not what we
paid for, and obviously, York parts are not covered by our 10-year Carrier
warranty. The warranty was the primary reason we decided to contract with
Commonwealth. Our contract called for a Carrier inside evaporator coil, and Commonwealth
broke it and the Carrier warranty by putting in a York.



We were unaware that the two halves of the system were mismatched until this
TXV breakdown. The coil is the interior half of a heat pump system, large in
size but not easily visible, so while we could see that the unit in our yard was
a Carrier, it was not easy to see that the interior half was a mismatched York.



Commonwealth admits installing York (contrary to our signed contract) but
insists that the TXV was under warranty, and he said the York coil replaced the
smaller Carrier coil to improve performance.



Our new Angie’s A-rated HVAC technician disputes this. We got a second opinion
from another HVAC company, and the results were the same. Here is what two HVAC
professionals are saying:



Advice by pro #1: Industry standards require inside and outside components to
have an AHRI match (Air-conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute).
The York interior half and Carrier exterior half of the system sold and
installed by Commonwealth do not match.



Advice by pro #2: Improperly-matched indoor and outdoor units create great stress
on the system, resulting in unnecessary, premature failure. Condenser model #
indicates the York coil is not only mismatched but too small. Mismatching causes
the components – both inside and outside -- to fail prematurely.



Therefore, to fix the broken TXV, both diagnostic HVAC contractors told us that
in order to warranty their own repair, we must replace the smaller mismatched 13-SEER
York coil with a properly-matched Carrier evaporator coil model to fit the
outside component rather than replace just the broken TXV and keep the York
coil.



Our technician replaced the mismatched York interior evaporator coil that Commonwealth
had installed. Now, the Carrier system no longer has mismatched indoor and
outdoor units and works like a charm! Naturally the oddball York component was
NOT covered under the awesome 10-year Carrier warranty we contracted for with
Commonwealth. Fixing their mistakes cost us an additional $1,700.00.



Anyone want a free indoor York coil with broken TXV?

This is a wonderful company to work with. Very professional, quick response, prompt service.

Ovrall, the work was done. The lack of tactfulness and apparent lack of professionalism by their company caller was quite ignorant, disgusting,, and totally unnecessary. We'd NEVERR recommend them again. We couldn't help but wonder if RACISM PLAYED A PART IN THE COMPANY CALLER'S ATTITUDE TOWARD US!!!!!!We were called and hasselled, implying that the 30 days info at the bottom of the page did DID NOT apply to us GO FIGURE!!!!!

First, I did not want them to start work until July, but they delivered the Carrier equipment over the course of a few days, and then started work, which surprised me.

The installation crew, for the most part, were very unprofessional. Two of the men argued with each other the whole time, which took much longer than the 3 or four days that was estimated...more like two weeks. One of the men would just sit on a step ladder and boss the other around. He was obese, had gout, and could barely walk. (I learned later that both were fired.) The one man who seemed to know his trade told me that he would be the person coming to perform my semi-annual inspections, but when I called for the first inspection, I learned that he had gone to work for someone else. Instead, I was sent a person whom I learned was an independent contractor and the charge was close to $300, as opposed to the $60-75 the original man quoted. I was not a happy camper. I called the owner, and he knocked off $30, which still left me in the red. So the next time I wanted an inspection, I called another HVAC company who charged $49 per system. (I went to the parts store and bought the filters myself.) This last man found the source of a leak I pointed out to him. A pvc pipe had been cut too short at installation, and would not reach the other pvc pipe that drained off the water! So, he fixed the problem for me at no charge. Needless to say, I signed a contract with his company, and don't intend to do business with Commonwealth Heating and Air again!

The owner of the company, Walt Pierce, came out to our house for the initial estimate and thoroughly explained the process offering a number of innovative solutions that nobody else thought of. The price was very similar to the other estimates we had but we were struck by Mr. Pierce's honesty and the fact that he didn't rely on trash-talking other companies to sell his services. Instead of taking our time to calculate estimates and pull numbers out of nowhere, Mr. Pierce emailed us a thorough estimate detailing all of the services to be rendered in writing. He then returned to discuss payment and get signatures and his team was out early the next week to complete the job. Although the Commonwealth team took a little longer than other companies claimed they would (4 days rather than 2), you could tell that the people at our house were accustomed to working together and made sure the job was done well. Mr. Pierce came out twice during the installation to check on quality and progress and to answer any concerns we may have. I was home while a good amount of the work was being done and the Commonwealth employees were always courteous and respectful of our dog and our home. The system seems to be very efficient and our electric bill is still under $60.

I like that this company was timely and that they called ahead to let us know what was happening. Our unit is pretty old and he did the best job that he could with such an old unit. They showed up within their time frame and were prompt about finishing the work.

Last year, they installed my new boiler, and I was very happy with their work. Mr. Pierce was very safety conscious and walked me through everything they were going to do for the install. The technician who actually installed it was equally safety conscious and knowledgeable. Recently, this same new boiler ended up half under water when my sump pump died, and my basement flooded. As I am totally ignorant about these things, they could easily have told me that I needed to replace it. (In fact, they DID tell me that this was a possibility when I called them to tell them about the flood and to ask them to come and look at it.) However, after the technician got there, serviced and inspected it thoroughly, he told me that there were no signs of major damage and took the time to explain to me why I did NOT have to be afraid to run it. For safety sake, however, he did tell me things to keep my eyes open just in case. I was charged a reasonable fee for the service and am very satisfied.

The technicians did a great job with the installation of the new heating and air conditioning unit in our home. The unit was up to date with the codes and the quality was superior and it comes with a great warranty. We are very pleased with it and the fact it is energy efficient which will save us a lot of money on heating cost.