Research before you buy
Even if your furnace is running great and is well maintained it doesn’t hurt to research a heating systems now in case your furnace dies out on a freezing cold night. Read More
Aprilaire Model 5000
The Aprilaire Model 5000 Whole-Home Electronic Air Cleaner has been rated #1 three years running by a leading products ratings magazine for some very good reasons: It electronically charges particles and traps them like a magnet better than any other air cleaner – using 72 square feet of Aprilaire-branded filtering media. The Model 5000 is tried, true, and tested – delivering the highest efficiency possible. Read More
Be a Smart Consumer
Chicago has over 6,000 heating and cooling contractors! How do you choose the right one and how can you be sure it is honest and reputable?
There are a lot of honest hard-working heating and cooling contractors in Chicago and that it’s just a handful of crooks that give our industry a black eye. That being said, that handful can do a lot of damage if you don’t catch them early on.
If you use the phone book or internet you need to look deeper then just looking at an ad. Take the time to look in the phone book and use the internet to research them. If you have an older phone book as well as a new phone book, look to see if the company you are considering had an ad in the old book as well as the new one. This will give you some idea that they are not a brand new business.
On the internet, check handy resources such as angieslist.com, Better Business Bureau, yellowpages.com, and yelp.com. These sites all have ratings from consumers who have used these companies in the past. Yelp and Yellow Pages use the star rating and AngiesList and BBB use a grade rating; A+ to F-.
While on the internet, look up the company’s address and plug it into Google maps. You can often use this to see there building with out driving there. You will be surprised how many of these companies work out of their homes; but have a professional looking website. If they never seem to be available for an appointment at there location, you probably don’t want to do business with them.
It’s a lot of work, but in the long run, what other options do you have for an investment that will last as long?
Home Owners Help, Home Owners, Heating Systems, Cooling Systems, Air Purification, Duct Cleaning, Resources, Advertising, About Home Owners Help
Bryant
Bryant is a subsidiary of Carrier. I found a list of recalls on an HVAC companies web site. For the full list of recalls. Click here to check it out.
HVAC Companies out there
OK, so I like this company. I stumbled across the company a bit ago but dig into it to much. Now that I am digging some I keep finding useful information on there web site. Everything from savings on Energy Star Thermostats to simple every day ideas like the 2 degree pledge as they called it along with information on how to reduce your gas bill. Read More
Heating and Cooling resources
There are many great resources out on the web when it come to the HVAC industry. A site with a similar name put together some good ones I wanted to share. So hats off and thanks to 24hrheatingcooling.com for many of these links. You can surf over to their resource section. (Hoping a little flatter while borrowing info will helps, back links usually help more so I give both)
This is intended to target some good HVAC related resources to help people out. There are a lot, but strangely enough, finding them can some times be a chore. Read More
HVAC in the News
In a world where most HVAC providers are small mom and pop shops, how do these guys get so much publicity? I’ve linked to them in the past because they have a good informative web site. However it blows my mind when I see their company show up in US Business review! Here are some exerts that I found interesting from the article on Four Seasons.
Four Seasons Heating and Air Conditioning’s name makes sense not only because the HVAC provider works year-round…
Kind of cheesy, however this seemed more interesting and to the point.
“By the time I was about 22, I had about 15 guys working for me,” Musial says. Eventually his father retired, leaving Musial in charge by himself but armed with the knowledge and teachings handed down to him. “I’m glad I was able to have all those years of training with my dad because it really taught me the right way to do things,” Musial says.
Also of interest…
The company’s devotion to quality has earned it numerous awards, including the Super Service Award from Angieslist.com for the past five years. Four Seasons also has received the Dave Lennox Circle of Excellence Award from Lennox, making it one of only 25 out of 7,000 dealers nationwide to receive that honor. The company also has an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau, the highest rating possible. Musial says the company’s stellar reputation is even more impressive when one takes into account the sheer number of customers the company services in a given year. He adds that unlike some other service providers, Four Seasons’ growth has not made the company sluggish or less responsive to customers.
Chicago Heating and Cooling, Heating, Air Conditioning, HVAC, About Chicago Heating and Cooling
Choosing a contractor
You may be putting your family and home at risk and not even know it if you hire an unlicensed HVAC contractor. Unfortunately the heating and cooling industry has unlicensed, uninsured freelancers working out of their homes. While some of these people mean well, there is nothing stopping them from disappearing over night, either for a job gone wrong, or just because they decide to move which puts your investment at risk. How do you identify risky contractors that appear to be legitimate HVAC contractors? Read More