It is very important to us that homeowners are buying something because they truly want or need it, and they understand the benefits and downfalls… and most importantly, have the time to think about it and make the best informed decision.
Every year, more and more local companies are being bought out by franchise companies and private equity. In our opinion, private equity are responsible for most things that people hate when dealing with business. Their goal is to profit and return their investment as quick as possible, and the means you have technicians who are glorified sales people, and their cheap tune-up is really just a guise to get into the door and push stuff on you.
That is not how we operate, and it will never be how we operate… and we will always campaign against this type of business. You have to be able to trust the people in your home and that they are looking out for you and your best interests. We are fortunate that in this area we have a lot of companies that do good for their customers, but there are some bad eggs, so be careful!
Tips for when buying a new Heating or Cooling system
Having second thoughts on why you need to replace? Get a second opinion!
If you are looking at replacing the unit due to problems that a technician found, but you don’t quite trust what they’re telling you… ABSOLUTELY GET A SECOND OPINION! Even if it’s something we did, other companies typically offer this too. Whether it is verified or it turns out they made a mistake, you will rest easier knowing you have confirmation one way or another. We offer no charge second opinions to verify other company’s diagnoses. Most of the time we will verify what they said, but sometimes they made a mistake or error.
Don’t let a salesman force you into a YES or NO.
Closing a sale is important to us, but it needs to be on your terms… not ours. If a company is trying to make you commit to a purchase by doing a “if you buy today” special, run. A business should be able to win you over based off their presentation, their product, and their price.
There are companies in this area that change their pricing based off of what they think they can get from you, or base it off of how busy the industry is. Our pricing is algorithmically set based off of our cash flow, cost of materials, and expenses. The price changes only when our cost changes or we update our report to determine multipliers. Proof of our consistent price is the fact that you can shop online with our system builder and see the same pricing that our estimators would give (unless there is a very unique case that could change the price a little bit)
Warranties Matter
A lot of the quotes that we have seen from other companies do not include extended warranties. While I know a lot of people hear “Extended Warranty” and think scam, adding it on is something we have been strong believers in, especially on furnaces.
Where companies may offer a 10 year part, 1 year labor warranty… most of the furnaces we sell have a 10 year parts and labor warranty. While the brands we sell we have very high confidence in, things can still break, and we can tell you that a bill for $0 is better than a bill for hundreds of dollars.
Efficiencies over 95% is just splitting hairs.
There are furnaces that are 95% or 96% or 97% or even 98% efficient. This is not all the time, it is “up to”. When you are comparing furnaces, don’t expect that a “97% efficient” is going to save you 2% over a “95% efficient” furnace, because that is not the case. The design of high efficiency gas furnaces are all the same for the most part. In a test environment, some perform better because their engineering wants a good rating to advertise. Furnaces are rated at full fire rate efficiency. Most furnaces we put in operates at two stages, and very rarely does the furnace run in second stage. Once you are getting above 95% you have nothing to worry about, they are essentially the same.
If you are comparing quotes, do not use 1-3% difference as a determining factor, because frankly it doesn’t matter. Pick the company and product you are feeling better about.
When comparing the options of furnace, it really comes down to comfort.
There are so many different types of furnaces, but we have to be realistic of what they do and what they don’t do. We can group all gas furnaces into three types:
Single Stage:
This furnace is designed to be simple. When your thermostat tells the furnace to come on, it comes on at 100% capacity, blowing heat out until the thermostat says everything is good. There are benefits to the single stage furnace, including lower cost parts… but a single stage also means that your temperatures are going to vary more, and the classic problems of rooms being poorly ducted will not be conditioned as well.
Two Stage:
This furnace is designed to start in first stage (about half capacity) to try to heat your home, if a certain amount of minutes pass and it’s still running, it will jump into the full speed. The idea here is that it will run for a longer time and get more air pushed around the house while heating. This will help keep temperatures more consistent. These furnaces are also available in a variable speed motor configuration, which means you can have the furnace circulating in a low speed when it’s not running to further mix and keep your home balanced.
Modulating:
This furnace is driven by an algorithm, and it’s goal is to run as long as possible while also still keeping your house comfortable. The longer the run time the more heat is going to be mixed evenly around the home. It will adjust up and down as needed. These furnaces are combined with a variable speed motor standard, and we also encourage you to keep the fan on all the time in a slow circulate speed to constantly mix and keep your home temperature consistent (and to utilize your filter to clean the air).
Tips when pricing tune-ups.
Every single company does their tune-ups differently. The single answer is don’t. Every company will offer their tune-ups at a competitive price, but what they do varies a lot. We have a list of items we require be done at the time of the tune-up, and it is comprehensive. There are several companies that we would trust to do a tune-up, but the one thing in common is they aren’t “cheap”. When you start chasing the lowest cost for tune-ups you typically get what you pay for.
For what it’s worth, quite a few new customers have said “Oh you’re still here?” because they aren’t used to the tune-ups taking that long.
Costs have exploded for repair parts.
From 2020 to 2025 we have seen sharp increases on repair parts. It is very frustrating because what we get hit with we have to push onto our customers. What were once $400 repairs are now $950+ due to the part cost increasing. We have seen manufacturers raising prices on repair parts, and we believe this could be done to drive replacement. To combat this we lowered our multipliers a little to help ease the burden on customers. More than ever it is important to look at the age of the equipment when doing repairs.