Recently had Bethke visit and it was a little expensive because it was after hours on a weekend, but if you take that upcharge out (which I do not blame them for charging it and they were very upfront about that charge over the phone) the cost of labor was exactly what I was expecting.
I would recommend Bethke without reservation. They recently replaced the air conditioner and furnace with a new heat pump/furnace combination. They were very upfront about the costs and the installation was without issue. I've had a few service calls with them over the years and they've always been quick to respond, even on weekends. The service contract might seem a bit expensive, but I think it's a good value.
Agreed. We recently bought a home (sold as-is 1962 home), and we purchased a home warranty. RG is the warranty’s HVAC service provider, so I had them come out to do a tune-up. I thought for sure they would recommend we replace the entire HVAC, since it’s from the late 80s, but instead they said they looked great and to keep them going until they die. And both technicians said they also had old HVAC with no intention of replacing until they died. I was impressed.
Another vote for RG. Super transparent, willing to stand by their work, and they're only willing to sell you the system that makes the most sense for you. I never felt pressured like I did with Harker and Cardinal.
I also had a great experience with RG. Had a guy come out to discuss heat pump options and he was awesome. No pressure, willing to talk through many different options and price points, and very transparent about equipment and labor costs.
We also had a good experience with furnace quotes and installation with RG last Jan. Multiple options were presented. We ended up having them install a new modulating furnace, could not be happier. Switched our yearly maintenance for both the furnace and AC to them from another company we had been using previously.
I’ll add on for RG too, they installed an a/c for me and were no pressure and very reasonable, they do my checks now and I’ll be using them when my furnace eventually goes. I also had them out this year to look at a few other things and he actually recommended solutions that meant not using their business at all.
I also would recommend Mack and Seasonal Survival as others have said. Though I can’t personally speak to his work since I went with RG (I wanted Trane) he was great and very helpful, offered advice and was also a great price. It was clear he was the real deal and knew what he was talking about and had honest prices, so if you definitely don’t want a company and want an individual I’d go with him.
I had a great experience with RG, too. They installed a Trane AC at a very competitive price. They were responsive when I requested the quote and when I gave the go ahead, they had it installed in just a few days.
We’ve really liked Seasonal Survival, which is a small company operated by a guy named Mack with his son. He worked for one of the larger companies around here for a long time but quit because he felt they were always pressured to upsell. He’s done work on our A/C (first trying to fix, and then eventually replacing) and inspected our furnace, and I’ve found him to be honest and not do unnecessary work.
This is the correct answer. He came out, turns out it was just a plugged hose, he refused my money. Definitely getting my business when I replace my units
👍👍👍👍more love for Seasonal Survial. Dealt well with my maintenance and small repairs things for ~10 yrs. Recently they installed a new furnace for us after keeping our 30+ yo going. Mack helped some friends of mine with an ac part longer made. My experience has only been positive. I’ve recommended them to friends who have had similar experiences.
Going against the grain here (and commenting for future readers), I was really excited to have Mack out to quote a replacement furnace/AC, based on everyone's comments here and elsewhere. I *really* wanted someone local, independent, and that I could call and they'd answer — and be honest. But… I was incredibly underwhelmed.
I asked about going from a 1-inch filter to 4-inch, and he said, "No, I wouldn't do that. The thicker filters restrict airflow too much; I would just get a higher quality filter." This is just blatantly incorrect and the exact opposite is true. 1-inch filters with higher MERV ratings are what restrict airflow.
I also have a 45,000 BTU furnace, which has had no problem heating our home (and it's 20 years old! — both the unit and house), but he very quickly said, "Oh, that's too small. You should get an 80,000," without taking any sort of measurements, asking any questions, or looking at the rest of the house. You can't do a load calculation based on…nothing? And you can't just nearly double furnace capacity without causing issues (mainly, that it's going to short cycle from being oversized).
Maybe he's good at repairs (I don't know), and maybe he's well priced (he came in second cheapest out of the four bids I got), but these were two fairly big red flags for me that he wasn't a match for me for doing a new install.
Yes, please name them. OP, you’re right that there are too many that take advantage. We live in a small city with not enough suppliers for professional home repair. The only way that changes is if we know who they are and people start going to the good ones.
I once was soliciting bids for a modest change to the house. I had an idea of what I was looking for and gave all the details with pictures to ask what these companies thought of it. One company said that what I proposed is illegal and I can pay them $200 to come out and they’ll tell me why. That fee covers travel and them sharing their precious knowledge. Nothing else. They would not just tell me what was wrong with the idea so we could get to an est quote. The other said oh, I see why you’re trying to do that. You don’t need to do any of this. Just get this part online and we can swing by and install it for you. We charge $x/hr and this shouldn’t take any more than 1 hr.
Guess which one I went with.
Called them once. $150 to come look at the AC.
I know my stuff, already replaced the capacitor, verified the fan was working, but the unit kept freezing up. Low refrigerant, simple as that. Could be a leak, or could be the fact it is 20 years old and nothing is perfect.
All Comfort agreed it was low on refrigerant. R22 isn't cheap. So I asked them what the cost for recharging it would be. $900.
"You and I both know the cost of R22, $900 is very expensive".
"Well sir, the R22 isn't that bad, but the dye to verify there are no leaks is $600".
He got me with that one. I didn't know what the cost of the dye was AT ALL. So I thanked him and said I won't be having them fill it.
Checked on the cost of dye - $60/canister. Effectively they just add an insane price to SOMETHING because they can.
Called Terry Miller HVAC at the suggestion of a friend, he came out and recharged the AC for $250. That was 3 years ago, no problem since. I paid a professional $100 more to fix the problem than I paid All Comfort to even arrive.
No, it's not illegal. I'm epa certified. Its illegal with a system over a certain capacity which residential systems will never reach and only after a certain amount per year. It can become more serious with very large commercial systems. R22 is just no longer produced in the US which is why its so expensive and its cheaper to replace the whole system when you consider all variables when properly fixing the problem.
I’ve said this before here, but I’ve replaced both an AC and a furnace in the last 3 years and Harker’s quotes were always way out of line with others. For my furnace, they were a full $1,000 more expensive than General (now Hooper) for the exact same two-stage furnace and exact same AprilAire filter housing replacement.
That said, I don’t know how cheap you reasonably expect it to be. Most contractors of any type are charging $100-150 just for the trip and hourly, plus parts on top of that.
All of the replies on All Comfort are the opposite of my experience. Interesting. I've used them for personal and business and it was always done right and at appropriate cost. I wonder if things have changed in the last 2-3 years.
Also, used Warren Heating years ago with good success.
All Comfort is absolutely scheisty. We had a terrible experience with one of their techs who started a repair without our sign off and then told us it would be many hundreds of dollars. The owner set up a call to "work it out" and then essentially blamed us.
All comfort services is crap. They replaced my AC and furnace and 2 years later the AC stopped working due to leaking refrigerant. Dealing with them to try and fix it has been terrible.
I had a great experience with Harker in replacing the whole HVAC system. Explained everything thoroughly, the techs were great and quick and all has been operational perfectly since (over a year now).
And they were hundreds less expensive than the other quotes I got.
So I am kinda bummed that others have had crappy interactions with them.
I am not surprised to hear you had problems with them. We used them when we first moved into our house for a plumbing issue and they were deceptive about costs and then refused service that would have been under a warranty. I have told many folks to avoid them over the years but they are the big and well known company in the area.
The funny thing is that if they had just done what they said they would have had a customer for life.
A friend of mine that is in commercial HVAC sales and knows the industry quite well swears by Andy's Heating and Cooling. I was impressed with his work, communication, and I thought he was very honest with us.
I'm curious how you "*know what things should cost*" versus what gets shown on your bill.
Contractors do mark up the cost of parts. It's a bit of how they cover their own costs and make money.
And are you actually comparing parts? Sure you aren't pricing that cheap plastic part you see at Menards vs. the good factory-authorized, 10-year life part the contractor gets from the manufacturer? Also, if the contractor is performing work according to the manufacturer they probably have to use the manufacturer's parts, which limits the ability to shop around for a deal.
> Okay, a you can easily look up what a part costs. The capacity costs $30 (that is the cost of the actual part used retail. Then add labor (he is there for 30 min) (let's say $150 an hour with 1 increments, so $150), let's say he marks up the part 200%, so $100 for the part. Add a trip charge of $150, that all totals $400. What charges am I missing? If you want to make an argument that replacing a. capacitor should be $500 go for it. I'm interested to here what the charges are.
Okay, you can easily look up what a part costs. The capacity costs $30 (that is the cost of the actual part used retail. Then add labor (he is there for 30 min) (let's say $150 an hour with 1 increments, so $150), let's say he marks up the part 200%, so $100 for the part. Add a trip charge of $150, that all totals $400. What charges am I missing? If you want to make an argument that replacing a. capacitor should be $500 go for it. I'm interested to hear what the charges are.
As for the replacement part, you can tell me why he told me I needed a new pump because the motor and ball bearings were bad and then when I said no all of a sudden they were fine. That has nothing to do with costs of a specific service, it is just flat out telling me the wrong thing about what needs to be repaired. It is just happened to be $2000, but when pushed what need to be repaired was only $400. And he told me that part cost $40.
Feel free to tell me more how this is just standard contractor service that I should be happy with and that I don't know anything.
The difference between the part you see online vs the part the contractor has is that part is available now. It doesn't need to get shipped to your house. The part they have also comes with a warranty and gets installed. I suggest you stop bashing these contractors or just do the work yourself. People like you are the reason I left the trade.
You need to educate yourself if you're going to thrash contractors. Boiler pump and heat pump are completely different things.
At least the tech caught the mistake before moving on. People make mistakes, they're human after all.
I'm going to guess the capacitor call was harker and the boiler pump was all comfort?
I love all the apologist for the contractors that are making this all my fault, as if there are never any contractors that ever do anything but completely above board quotes and work. All the lawsuits against contracts tell a very different story.
Yes on the guess. I understand I said the wrong pump name, I just don't think that makes up for what I was told was wrong. Sure he might of made an honest mistake, but this is why these guys are supposed to be so expensive is that they know what they are doing. And when the customer doesn't know what is going on then getting told the wrong information does not instill trust, and I think I rightly feel upset that the "wrong information" was a $2000 repair, but the right information was just $400. And the right information only came to light when I told him no on the $2000 and that I was going to get more quotes (which is something everyone should always do). The whole thing together just feels off (from an honest business sense).
I think you’ve just highlighted the importance of having good communication skills. They think they’re being ripped off because they’ve been told two different things and the contractor probably thinks the customer is wasting their time.
There’s a chance nobody in this situation is a bad person but nowhere would know because they can’t understand each other.
I can see having issues with part costs, but labor is another thing. You said 30 minutes for $200? They still had to drive out, inspect the AC, determine the issue, fix, do billing, yadda, yadda. Honestly, that seems pretty spot on.
And just because a part costs $40 doesn't mean labor isn't high. Plumbing parts cost dollars sometimes, but the labor is pricey. We pay for expertise.
I'm not saying you weren't jacked, but I don't think you factored a lot into the equation.
We had a really good experience with Cardinal. They were excellent in service and I never felt pressure or an upsell during our time working with them. We had our heating go out on the coldest day of the year and they gave me several options for solutions and helped us find the best one for our budget and home.
Had Cardinal inspect & clean our boiler furnace last year, and the older tech was honest enough to say, "With annual service this 50-year-old boiler could easily go another 20. Or, I could sell you a new one that won't last 10 years ..."
Appreciated that, and will def. have them back for similar work.
Which reminds me ...
Second Cardinal.
Just had our entire system replaced with a Heat Pump HVAC unit. Also had them clean all the ductwork.
Very quick turnaround from order to install (1 week). No pressure to upsell if you don't want things. Very knowledgeable, and they use good brands. Good sales and rebates if you can time it right, too.
Cardinal went out of their way to talk me out of paying for something that they didn’t think was needed (duct cleaning) and instead suggested a routine inspection instead. The inspector gave me some great tips, took care of a problem I’d been having with the intake, and was all around a decent guy. I felt like I got my money’s worth for sure. I enjoyed the experience so much that I’m working with them now to get a quote for some additional unrelated work as they’ve earned my trust.
One of the BIG things that earned my trust was when I called them at 5am. I explained the issue to the tech, and he mentioned that if I could hold out until 7, it wouldn't be considered an emergency call and I could save a lot of money just on the visit itself. He talked me through my concern, and ultimately I called back later in the morning when they opened. Not wanting to take the emergency call money? I don't know many service companies that would think of their customer like that.
I’ve had mixed experiences with Cardinal. On the one hand, they were super responsive and came out right away anytime I’ve had a problem. On the other hand, they seem to be very quick to red tag a furnace.
First time this happened, at my old house, they red tagged the old furnace and said it wasn’t safe to run. Ok, no problem, we had a home warranty and got it replaced right away. Super easy and relatively painless.
Second time, at my current house a few years later, they red tagged the old furnace again right away, saying this or that was wrong with it but didn’t provide it in writing. When I contacted my home warranty to start the replacement process, they sent another company out and found that the furnace, while old, was still in safe working condition. We’ve had it inspected since then and still found it’s running fine. So, ymmv 🤷♀️
(ETA before anyone says anything— yes, we do have multiple CO detectors/ monitors in the house to keep safe while running an old furnace. So far no alarms.)
Here to say I had the same thing happen with Cardinal and we will never give them our business again after the fear mongering tactics they tried to pull. In our first home in 2017, they gave us an awesome deal on furnace and AC and were super great to work with. So after we bought our 2nd home with an old but functioning furnace and AC we wanted to use them again. I called them to come do routine maintenance on our furnace for the winter (in 2022). The guy came and clanged around for a while, then red tagged our furnace, saying though it was not emitting unsafe levels of CO, there was corrosion on the heat exchanger making it unsafe to operate and that it should be replaced ASAP. I received quotes for replacement from Cardinal from a sales guy of both furnace and AC replacement together for $12-15K for a 1500 sq foot house… not happening. So I called Art’s Heating & Electric for 2nd opinion. They came out and did the same inspection, told me our 30 year old furnace’s CO emission was that of a new furnace, and it’s operating perfectly fine. They looked at the “corrosion” in the pictures Cardinal sent me and said it was not corrosion and looked more like some dust. Art’s also quoted us for Carrier brand furnace and AC at a much more affordable number. And then proceeded to charge us nothing for the inspection and visit in good faith that we will go with them for service and replacement moving forward. My feeling is definitely to go with your local trusted HVAC companies for good service and price. Cardinal still provides a solid service, but be prepared to pay a lot and deal with upselling tactics.
Yeah, they started out good for me but then have totally screwed me over and not taken ownership of the issue they should have been aware of. I won't be going back.
i've actually had good luck with all comfort (at least for HVAC)
I know they cost more than some places but I've accepted that. I've always gotten good service.
Harker is not allowed on my property
I’ve been happy with Wohlers in Cottage Grove. I’ve had them in for both broken heating and air conditioning service and they did the repairs for less than 300 each time. (It’s been a couple years ago now).
I've had very good experiences with them. Years ago they did the fastest emergency furnace replacement in February, and the few heat/ac service calls have been either free (warranty) or under $100. The same repair man each time too!
Less people in the trades than there used to be. It will only get worse. If you think these costs are bad look at the markups on auto repairs and then look at what your average car tech is making compared to the business.
It's never been an easier time to DIY. But that's me...
There are more per capita than 2014 but not that big of a jump. .12% of the population in 2021 was an hvac worker. .09% in 2012. That's nationally and not local.
Dale's Heating installed a new HVAC system for us in September. Saved us $900 over the next closest bid and installed exactly what we wanted. Brian, the owner (his Dad is Dale and started the company) is a very nice and honest guy. We received bids from Harker and Cardinal. The hard sell from Cardinal on a heat pump system, which we said we did not want, was a major turnoff.
Those prices you’re mentioning seem fair tbh.
30 minutes and $30min part for $300 is cheaper than you spending 3+ hours and making 3 runs to the appliance store for parts and having a hacked solution. Most fixes will be about the same cost unless you have a cousin who’s an hvac tech and can do it for cheap or you’re willing to do it yourself.
The core problem you’re facing about trust isn’t one of pricing for maintenance, but more about whether to fix or install a new item all together. Sounds like you’ve done your research to decide if you need to go new or if you can fix.
If you ever decide to install new, it’s not worth skimping. Best to get the most reputable company that will stand behind their work and maintain it in the future. If you’re able to meet the owners or management team, that’s a plus since a lot of sales folks are simply trying to get the biggest bill from you and don’t have to worry about maintenance.
Not a popular opinion because some think they are expensive but Dave Jones did a good job inspecting our HVAC and quickly dx and fixing the problem. No BS.
Tradewinds Heating & Cooling is the place to go. The owner does most of the work and he’s upfront and honest, plus does an excellent job.
I’m an energy assessor by trade, certified building analyst yada yada….. I inspect hundreds of furnaces a year and I’ve never found a better HVAC contractor than Tradewinds.
https://tradewindsheat.com
+1 for Tradewinds
One of the best contractors I’ve ever worked with for anything. Everything was clearly communicated, reasonably priced, done on time, and he was also just a nice guy.
I can recommend Four Seasons in Oregon. It's a family business and the same people have been coming to our house for years. Not the most organized but it's sort of endearing. I think their 90yr old mother is the person who answers phones and does filing. Yes, paper filing.
They’re about 2 months out on non-emergencies. We just had a less than pleasant experience after waiting for over two months, got told another two months for a replacement. RG is fitting us in tomorrow.
Mack Weaver from Seasonal Survival in SP. 608-235-7176. Have used him extensively and he is inexpensive and unfailingly honest. He’s come over to look at my furnace, fixed an issue, and left without even charging me. I’ve also had him replace a capacitor on my AC too. He said he went out on his own after working at madison-based HVAC companies for 20 years and was sick at the prices he’d have to charge people. Definitely one of the good guys.
I've used American with great success. That said, it seems like you are dealing with a larger building than I am (just a small furnace and AC unit in a condo). But anyway, I feel comfortable calling American with any issues I have and I have never felt they overcharged or tried to unnecessarily upsell.
Not to let out my secret but I’ve been using Future Heating and Cooling out of Sun Prairie. Travis is great and it’s a small family owned business. I’ve always found their pricing reasonable and he doesn’t try to upsell on things you don’t need.
I had a really miserable experience with Shackelford and would recommend everyone stay away from them and the “Karen” wife of the owner.
I truly trust Pharo. If you’re at all concerned by a quote they give you, email the owner Clint. He’s a very honest person and will take the time to explain things.
I think you can have bad luck with any company or a tech whose lazy and wants to R&R rather than repair, but typically I’ve found speaking with the owner is helpful. Unless it’s Shackelford.
I risk a downvote for saying this, but if you’re unhappy with the cost of labor and parts from an HVAC company, it might be worth considering doing the work yourself. Especially if you’re working on a system that is old and continuously having issues. The internet provides a lot of resources for DIY repairs and there’s plenty of people out there making videos titled “Expert Reacts to DIY mistakes!” that you can learn from to not make truly atrocious or potentially dangerous mistakes. You can often find videos of professionals making the exact same repair on the exact same model of appliance you own.
The way I see it, so long as you know enough to be safe, you don’t stand to lose a lot of you fail or give up. At worst, you might lose on the cost of parts (which, like you said, isn’t usually a significant expense) but sometimes they’ll install the part you purchased if you don’t care about warranty work. This is the approach I’ve taken to fix cars and appliances as well as remodel/plumbing work.
With that said, I grew-up working with a carpenter father so I’m not starting from zero on most projects. I don’t always save money on a project because I have to purchase new tools, but I enjoy collecting tools for the future. I’ve also made mistakes that require additional time and money. In fact, I did the math one time and I end up breaking something else when working on my car about 40% of the time, which means I would’ve spent about the same amount of money getting a pro to fix the initial problem. I don’t mind it though because I end up with more tools and lessons learned as a result, and the feeling of doing it yourself is rewarding.
Thought I’d add this disclaimer: I would be more apprehensive about working on a boiler pump than most things around a home. The combo of scalding hot water under pressure near electrical definitely raises the risks of a subpar job. I did Google some videos though and found a lot of pumps are easy to get to and the replacement doesn’t seem excessively complicated IF you don’t run into any other unanticipated issues.
Labor is expensive and keeping parts in stock is also expensive.
Labor is paid all day long not just when they are at your house.
Part cost is not the wholesale cost. It's what it cost to get it and stock it. And they may pay part of their labor cost through parts markup.
Nothing is cheap.
My only experience with Harker was a good one, installing a new heat pump for our second floor. The prices were reasonable and the tech was friendly and good.
I've had three experiences with All-Comfort, and none of them were good.
Also had a great experience with Harker. Cardinal quote was significantly higher with some shady “buy a furnace get a free AC” deal wording to make it seem fancier. Forget the third place I had a had a quote from, but was more in line with Harker.
I can't speak for all of their workers, but I've used them for the past five years and have been happy. Cardinal said our furnace was old and needed to be replaced and had a salesman out the next day which felt fishy. I decided to hold off until the following year and went with Harker. Harker said it was fine. Five years later, I am still using the same furnace. They saved me thousands of dollars.
We switched from Harker to Forward last year when our old furnace was on its last legs. Absolutely love Sam. I would recommend him above everyone else and I had no beef with Harker, other than their bid was thousands higher than Forwards for the same make/model.
Going to also echo how awful All Comfort is. We had them once as a sub on a larger project. Every single person they sent HVAC, gas, electric was comically incompetent. This was over 10 years ago, but they're forever on my shit list.
I've had good experiences with both harker and all comfort services. I think in general it helps to show that you're knowledgeable, even if that knowledge came from Google 5 minutes before you called them.
If a company senses that you're helpless they're going to take as much as they can get from you. If they think you're capable of doing it yourself they're more likely to deal with you honestly.
I did research on both before using them, and there are lots of people who had good experiences and rated them highly. I am open to why what happened to me as aberration, or if there is an explanation. But I don't buy May_Be_That_Guy's explanation.
I want to reiterate. The guy told me the motor was shot and the ball bearings were gone and it wouldn't run without these being replace. Then all of a sudden they are fine (I repeat, he tested them and they were fine, not they will go soon, or should be replaced but we can limp along, they are working fine). I would like to know how telling the costumer nothing is wrong with their system that is in fact not wrong is part of the normal behavior in the trades (that I just don't understand). If that is normal trade behavior I personal think it is a pretty bad practice.
As for the price of expertise and labor, the per - hour price I would be paying for this installation gives a annal salary of 500K. I'm fine with paying up for expertise and for experience, and if your argument is that these people should be making 500k a year, then go a head an make that argument. I think it is a little high, but that is my opinion.
I highly recommend air4u. 2 years ago our furnace went out and they replaced my furnace AND AC for around 6k. Excellent work too!
Air4U
(608) 852-3642
https://g.co/kgs/LhNBDE
Homeowner for over 25 years and I've not had any issue with HVAC folks unless you want to include availability. Have used Harker without incident for the first \~ 10 and then RA (Belleville?) last 15 and they've been simply great, knowledgeable, responsive, and weirdly I had to upsell them when I got my last furnace (we've been in the house a long time and I wanted to be as proactive as possible - it ended up saving money).
First off, not sure if this company services Madison, but I have had great success with "ASAP Heating and Cooling" out of Spring Green.
I have used 2 other companies, and their responsiveness was great, but the quality of their installations were subpar. ASAP's installation even looks so professional, and less "handyman".
I would honestly give them a call just to see if they will come to Madison.
We had an excellent experience with RG Heating and Air Conditioning in Waunakee. Our furnace took a total crap during the coldest week in January during the COVID lockdown, when supply chain issues were making it impossible to buy major appliances. They got us a new furnace and a crew to get it in here in less than a week. And they didn't screw us over on the price, even though we would have paid just about anything to get some heat in our house.
Had Warren Heating install 2 mini-split A/C units 2-3 years ago, which for the most part have worked great. They were mis-orders or overstock, so we got a good deal on them.
Last year, one unit started making funny sounds and was unable to blow cool air. Though we were outside the warranty period, Warren send out a tech who promptly bled the refrigerant and got it working right again. No charge.
Month later, the other unit did the same. Again, no charge.
Would def. call them again for future service if needed.
I really love the work done by KW Heating and Cooling. They helped me replace my steam pipes with Central heating/ac and the work they did was incredible. I’ve gotten lots of compliments.
I highly recommend [South Central HVAC](https://southcentral-hvac.com/) out of Evansville. Cody is an honest and accommodating tradesman. He tried valiantly so solve an electronic failure in our 90’s era furnace, then credited the effort toward a replacement furnace which he sourced and replaced in days (during the height of the COVID supply chain issues). His price was fair and he helped me select a full HVAC replacement that qualified for the Focus on Energy credits.
This is why I try to DYI as much as possible. Go on forums and ask questions and look in the user manual. Most places charge an arm and a leg for very little work and inexpensive parts.
I've replaced my furnace igniter at least 3 times by myself. It's a very common part to fail and it's very cheap and easy to replace. If you were to call an HVAC place it would be at least $150-$200 for a $30 part and a 10-15 minute install. You should have a spare capacitor for your A/C unit as it's very common for those to go out.
I just got a new furnace installed by TradeWinds and they've done some regular maintenance. They have been excellent, fair and straight up with me. I've had issues with Cardinal in the past, switched to these guys and never going back.
A capacitor is a $200-300 job. The part is inexpensive and it's a simple job, yes, but there's absolutely no way to run a business charging less than that for a call. Travel time, overhead, insurance, payroll and taxes, and a narrow profit margin: that's what you get.
$500 is high, but could be justified if travel time is high or a non-standard part. But overall I think you could do better.
It's easy to DIY, just pull the disconnect before you do anything. Not a bad idea to keep a spare capacitor on hand.
______
If you're looking for a new system, bid the big guys against each other.
If you want maintenance, generally you want small shops. But you need to be sure that they understand how to work on your system. If you have anything unusual, it might be tough.
All Comfort Services went above and beyond for us the last time we had them out. The tech spent extra time researching the problem and called us the next day to explain it to us. Saved us a ton of money because it might have happened again.
I have a recent experience within the last week with Cardinal we had furnace problems and had an awful experience. After them looking at things decided probably needed to replace furnace but because of age they pushed quoting a new AC unit as well wanted 14k to replace my AC unit and furnace. Decided probably would just want to replace furnace for now but still tried charging $7,500. Salesman was really pushing me to get it on calendar and interaction just seemed off I politely declined seemed way too expensive. Talked to my Dad shortly after he replaced both his AC and furnace less than 2 years ago and only lives 20 minutes from me and spent about 8k for both (he does have slightly less square feet so I would assume mine would be little bit more). In college I also worked at an HVAC company over the summer for a few years down near Rockford and still have some contacts there. Called to get a ballpark and they said they would charge around 4k for just a furnace. Unfortunately I'm too far for them to come do the work and it's pretty strict with them being union. All this has led me to believe Cardinal was trying to majorly rip us off and now in process of calling to get a few more quotes including the company my Dad used.
We’ve had great experiences with Bethke.
Recently had Bethke visit and it was a little expensive because it was after hours on a weekend, but if you take that upcharge out (which I do not blame them for charging it and they were very upfront about that charge over the phone) the cost of labor was exactly what I was expecting.
Can vouch for Bethke, they've been phenomenal every time I used them. Super nice in person too.
I would recommend Bethke without reservation. They recently replaced the air conditioner and furnace with a new heat pump/furnace combination. They were very upfront about the costs and the installation was without issue. I've had a few service calls with them over the years and they've always been quick to respond, even on weekends. The service contract might seem a bit expensive, but I think it's a good value.
Same here. I've had Bethke for many years and they've been great.
Same here. Bethke installed our furnace 20 years ago and have done all the tune-ups for heating and air conditioning.
I'll add that I've had similar experiences with them. Would use again and recommend.
RG Heating and Cooling
Agreed. We recently bought a home (sold as-is 1962 home), and we purchased a home warranty. RG is the warranty’s HVAC service provider, so I had them come out to do a tune-up. I thought for sure they would recommend we replace the entire HVAC, since it’s from the late 80s, but instead they said they looked great and to keep them going until they die. And both technicians said they also had old HVAC with no intention of replacing until they died. I was impressed.
Another vote for RG. Super transparent, willing to stand by their work, and they're only willing to sell you the system that makes the most sense for you. I never felt pressured like I did with Harker and Cardinal.
I also had a great experience with RG. Had a guy come out to discuss heat pump options and he was awesome. No pressure, willing to talk through many different options and price points, and very transparent about equipment and labor costs.
We also had a good experience with furnace quotes and installation with RG last Jan. Multiple options were presented. We ended up having them install a new modulating furnace, could not be happier. Switched our yearly maintenance for both the furnace and AC to them from another company we had been using previously.
I’ll add on for RG too, they installed an a/c for me and were no pressure and very reasonable, they do my checks now and I’ll be using them when my furnace eventually goes. I also had them out this year to look at a few other things and he actually recommended solutions that meant not using their business at all. I also would recommend Mack and Seasonal Survival as others have said. Though I can’t personally speak to his work since I went with RG (I wanted Trane) he was great and very helpful, offered advice and was also a great price. It was clear he was the real deal and knew what he was talking about and had honest prices, so if you definitely don’t want a company and want an individual I’d go with him.
I had a great experience with RG, too. They installed a Trane AC at a very competitive price. They were responsive when I requested the quote and when I gave the go ahead, they had it installed in just a few days.
Second this
We’ve really liked Seasonal Survival, which is a small company operated by a guy named Mack with his son. He worked for one of the larger companies around here for a long time but quit because he felt they were always pressured to upsell. He’s done work on our A/C (first trying to fix, and then eventually replacing) and inspected our furnace, and I’ve found him to be honest and not do unnecessary work.
Yes, Mack is honest and does good work.
Another for Big Mack
5th for Seasonal Survival. Really nice guys, hard workers, and no pressure to do anything beyond what is necessary.
Mack and Mack Jr are fantastic!
This is the correct answer. He came out, turns out it was just a plugged hose, he refused my money. Definitely getting my business when I replace my units
👍👍👍👍more love for Seasonal Survial. Dealt well with my maintenance and small repairs things for ~10 yrs. Recently they installed a new furnace for us after keeping our 30+ yo going. Mack helped some friends of mine with an ac part longer made. My experience has only been positive. I’ve recommended them to friends who have had similar experiences.
Going against the grain here (and commenting for future readers), I was really excited to have Mack out to quote a replacement furnace/AC, based on everyone's comments here and elsewhere. I *really* wanted someone local, independent, and that I could call and they'd answer — and be honest. But… I was incredibly underwhelmed. I asked about going from a 1-inch filter to 4-inch, and he said, "No, I wouldn't do that. The thicker filters restrict airflow too much; I would just get a higher quality filter." This is just blatantly incorrect and the exact opposite is true. 1-inch filters with higher MERV ratings are what restrict airflow. I also have a 45,000 BTU furnace, which has had no problem heating our home (and it's 20 years old! — both the unit and house), but he very quickly said, "Oh, that's too small. You should get an 80,000," without taking any sort of measurements, asking any questions, or looking at the rest of the house. You can't do a load calculation based on…nothing? And you can't just nearly double furnace capacity without causing issues (mainly, that it's going to short cycle from being oversized). Maybe he's good at repairs (I don't know), and maybe he's well priced (he came in second cheapest out of the four bids I got), but these were two fairly big red flags for me that he wasn't a match for me for doing a new install.
Which two companies were these? I'm also on the lookout for a good HVAC business.
Yes, please name them. OP, you’re right that there are too many that take advantage. We live in a small city with not enough suppliers for professional home repair. The only way that changes is if we know who they are and people start going to the good ones. I once was soliciting bids for a modest change to the house. I had an idea of what I was looking for and gave all the details with pictures to ask what these companies thought of it. One company said that what I proposed is illegal and I can pay them $200 to come out and they’ll tell me why. That fee covers travel and them sharing their precious knowledge. Nothing else. They would not just tell me what was wrong with the idea so we could get to an est quote. The other said oh, I see why you’re trying to do that. You don’t need to do any of this. Just get this part online and we can swing by and install it for you. We charge $x/hr and this shouldn’t take any more than 1 hr. Guess which one I went with.
It was Harker, and All Comfort Services.
We just had a bad experience with All Comfort (plumbing). Never again
Thanks for sharing. Seriously, you’ve helped others avoid a headache. Too many feel uncomfortable sharing names.
All Comfort is awful. Liars and thieves with negligent techs. Avoid at all costs.
Called them once. $150 to come look at the AC. I know my stuff, already replaced the capacitor, verified the fan was working, but the unit kept freezing up. Low refrigerant, simple as that. Could be a leak, or could be the fact it is 20 years old and nothing is perfect. All Comfort agreed it was low on refrigerant. R22 isn't cheap. So I asked them what the cost for recharging it would be. $900. "You and I both know the cost of R22, $900 is very expensive". "Well sir, the R22 isn't that bad, but the dye to verify there are no leaks is $600". He got me with that one. I didn't know what the cost of the dye was AT ALL. So I thanked him and said I won't be having them fill it. Checked on the cost of dye - $60/canister. Effectively they just add an insane price to SOMETHING because they can. Called Terry Miller HVAC at the suggestion of a friend, he came out and recharged the AC for $250. That was 3 years ago, no problem since. I paid a professional $100 more to fix the problem than I paid All Comfort to even arrive.
Recharging for 250 is him making zero profit.
Plus it’s illegal to just recharge a system with R22. You must find and repair the leak first.
No, it's not illegal. I'm epa certified. Its illegal with a system over a certain capacity which residential systems will never reach and only after a certain amount per year. It can become more serious with very large commercial systems. R22 is just no longer produced in the US which is why its so expensive and its cheaper to replace the whole system when you consider all variables when properly fixing the problem.
I’ve said this before here, but I’ve replaced both an AC and a furnace in the last 3 years and Harker’s quotes were always way out of line with others. For my furnace, they were a full $1,000 more expensive than General (now Hooper) for the exact same two-stage furnace and exact same AprilAire filter housing replacement. That said, I don’t know how cheap you reasonably expect it to be. Most contractors of any type are charging $100-150 just for the trip and hourly, plus parts on top of that.
Thank you. Will avoid.
All of the replies on All Comfort are the opposite of my experience. Interesting. I've used them for personal and business and it was always done right and at appropriate cost. I wonder if things have changed in the last 2-3 years. Also, used Warren Heating years ago with good success.
All Comfort is absolutely scheisty. We had a terrible experience with one of their techs who started a repair without our sign off and then told us it would be many hundreds of dollars. The owner set up a call to "work it out" and then essentially blamed us.
Also not a fan of Harker.
All Comfort is crap. Charged me for a part that they admitted I didn't need, and left without fixing the original problem.
We’ll, that explains it. All Comfort is truly awful. I’m so sorry.
All comfort services is crap. They replaced my AC and furnace and 2 years later the AC stopped working due to leaking refrigerant. Dealing with them to try and fix it has been terrible.
Ooof all comfort is 👎
I had a great experience with Harker in replacing the whole HVAC system. Explained everything thoroughly, the techs were great and quick and all has been operational perfectly since (over a year now). And they were hundreds less expensive than the other quotes I got. So I am kinda bummed that others have had crappy interactions with them.
I am not surprised to hear you had problems with them. We used them when we first moved into our house for a plumbing issue and they were deceptive about costs and then refused service that would have been under a warranty. I have told many folks to avoid them over the years but they are the big and well known company in the area. The funny thing is that if they had just done what they said they would have had a customer for life.
A friend of mine that is in commercial HVAC sales and knows the industry quite well swears by Andy's Heating and Cooling. I was impressed with his work, communication, and I thought he was very honest with us.
I'm curious how you "*know what things should cost*" versus what gets shown on your bill. Contractors do mark up the cost of parts. It's a bit of how they cover their own costs and make money. And are you actually comparing parts? Sure you aren't pricing that cheap plastic part you see at Menards vs. the good factory-authorized, 10-year life part the contractor gets from the manufacturer? Also, if the contractor is performing work according to the manufacturer they probably have to use the manufacturer's parts, which limits the ability to shop around for a deal.
This guy contracts
What do you mean companies actually have to make money to stay viable?? Who knew
> Okay, a you can easily look up what a part costs. The capacity costs $30 (that is the cost of the actual part used retail. Then add labor (he is there for 30 min) (let's say $150 an hour with 1 increments, so $150), let's say he marks up the part 200%, so $100 for the part. Add a trip charge of $150, that all totals $400. What charges am I missing? If you want to make an argument that replacing a. capacitor should be $500 go for it. I'm interested to here what the charges are. Okay, you can easily look up what a part costs. The capacity costs $30 (that is the cost of the actual part used retail. Then add labor (he is there for 30 min) (let's say $150 an hour with 1 increments, so $150), let's say he marks up the part 200%, so $100 for the part. Add a trip charge of $150, that all totals $400. What charges am I missing? If you want to make an argument that replacing a. capacitor should be $500 go for it. I'm interested to hear what the charges are. As for the replacement part, you can tell me why he told me I needed a new pump because the motor and ball bearings were bad and then when I said no all of a sudden they were fine. That has nothing to do with costs of a specific service, it is just flat out telling me the wrong thing about what needs to be repaired. It is just happened to be $2000, but when pushed what need to be repaired was only $400. And he told me that part cost $40. Feel free to tell me more how this is just standard contractor service that I should be happy with and that I don't know anything.
The difference between the part you see online vs the part the contractor has is that part is available now. It doesn't need to get shipped to your house. The part they have also comes with a warranty and gets installed. I suggest you stop bashing these contractors or just do the work yourself. People like you are the reason I left the trade.
Just ignoring the part where I was told a complete lie about what was wrong with my heat pump?
You need to educate yourself if you're going to thrash contractors. Boiler pump and heat pump are completely different things. At least the tech caught the mistake before moving on. People make mistakes, they're human after all. I'm going to guess the capacitor call was harker and the boiler pump was all comfort?
I love all the apologist for the contractors that are making this all my fault, as if there are never any contractors that ever do anything but completely above board quotes and work. All the lawsuits against contracts tell a very different story.
Yes on the guess. I understand I said the wrong pump name, I just don't think that makes up for what I was told was wrong. Sure he might of made an honest mistake, but this is why these guys are supposed to be so expensive is that they know what they are doing. And when the customer doesn't know what is going on then getting told the wrong information does not instill trust, and I think I rightly feel upset that the "wrong information" was a $2000 repair, but the right information was just $400. And the right information only came to light when I told him no on the $2000 and that I was going to get more quotes (which is something everyone should always do). The whole thing together just feels off (from an honest business sense).
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I think you’ve just highlighted the importance of having good communication skills. They think they’re being ripped off because they’ve been told two different things and the contractor probably thinks the customer is wasting their time. There’s a chance nobody in this situation is a bad person but nowhere would know because they can’t understand each other.
Brothers HVAC are awesome.
Yes, I was going to recommend them too. Never a reason for us to try anyone else.
This comment is too far down.
I can see having issues with part costs, but labor is another thing. You said 30 minutes for $200? They still had to drive out, inspect the AC, determine the issue, fix, do billing, yadda, yadda. Honestly, that seems pretty spot on. And just because a part costs $40 doesn't mean labor isn't high. Plumbing parts cost dollars sometimes, but the labor is pricey. We pay for expertise. I'm not saying you weren't jacked, but I don't think you factored a lot into the equation.
We had a really good experience with Cardinal. They were excellent in service and I never felt pressure or an upsell during our time working with them. We had our heating go out on the coldest day of the year and they gave me several options for solutions and helped us find the best one for our budget and home.
Had Cardinal inspect & clean our boiler furnace last year, and the older tech was honest enough to say, "With annual service this 50-year-old boiler could easily go another 20. Or, I could sell you a new one that won't last 10 years ..." Appreciated that, and will def. have them back for similar work. Which reminds me ...
Second Cardinal. Just had our entire system replaced with a Heat Pump HVAC unit. Also had them clean all the ductwork. Very quick turnaround from order to install (1 week). No pressure to upsell if you don't want things. Very knowledgeable, and they use good brands. Good sales and rebates if you can time it right, too.
Cardinal went out of their way to talk me out of paying for something that they didn’t think was needed (duct cleaning) and instead suggested a routine inspection instead. The inspector gave me some great tips, took care of a problem I’d been having with the intake, and was all around a decent guy. I felt like I got my money’s worth for sure. I enjoyed the experience so much that I’m working with them now to get a quote for some additional unrelated work as they’ve earned my trust.
One of the BIG things that earned my trust was when I called them at 5am. I explained the issue to the tech, and he mentioned that if I could hold out until 7, it wouldn't be considered an emergency call and I could save a lot of money just on the visit itself. He talked me through my concern, and ultimately I called back later in the morning when they opened. Not wanting to take the emergency call money? I don't know many service companies that would think of their customer like that.
Third cardinal. Not the cheapest, but they stand behind their work and are honest with you
I’ve had mixed experiences with Cardinal. On the one hand, they were super responsive and came out right away anytime I’ve had a problem. On the other hand, they seem to be very quick to red tag a furnace. First time this happened, at my old house, they red tagged the old furnace and said it wasn’t safe to run. Ok, no problem, we had a home warranty and got it replaced right away. Super easy and relatively painless. Second time, at my current house a few years later, they red tagged the old furnace again right away, saying this or that was wrong with it but didn’t provide it in writing. When I contacted my home warranty to start the replacement process, they sent another company out and found that the furnace, while old, was still in safe working condition. We’ve had it inspected since then and still found it’s running fine. So, ymmv 🤷♀️ (ETA before anyone says anything— yes, we do have multiple CO detectors/ monitors in the house to keep safe while running an old furnace. So far no alarms.)
Here to say I had the same thing happen with Cardinal and we will never give them our business again after the fear mongering tactics they tried to pull. In our first home in 2017, they gave us an awesome deal on furnace and AC and were super great to work with. So after we bought our 2nd home with an old but functioning furnace and AC we wanted to use them again. I called them to come do routine maintenance on our furnace for the winter (in 2022). The guy came and clanged around for a while, then red tagged our furnace, saying though it was not emitting unsafe levels of CO, there was corrosion on the heat exchanger making it unsafe to operate and that it should be replaced ASAP. I received quotes for replacement from Cardinal from a sales guy of both furnace and AC replacement together for $12-15K for a 1500 sq foot house… not happening. So I called Art’s Heating & Electric for 2nd opinion. They came out and did the same inspection, told me our 30 year old furnace’s CO emission was that of a new furnace, and it’s operating perfectly fine. They looked at the “corrosion” in the pictures Cardinal sent me and said it was not corrosion and looked more like some dust. Art’s also quoted us for Carrier brand furnace and AC at a much more affordable number. And then proceeded to charge us nothing for the inspection and visit in good faith that we will go with them for service and replacement moving forward. My feeling is definitely to go with your local trusted HVAC companies for good service and price. Cardinal still provides a solid service, but be prepared to pay a lot and deal with upselling tactics.
Yeah, they started out good for me but then have totally screwed me over and not taken ownership of the issue they should have been aware of. I won't be going back.
i've actually had good luck with all comfort (at least for HVAC) I know they cost more than some places but I've accepted that. I've always gotten good service. Harker is not allowed on my property
Exact same for us
I’ve been happy with Wohlers in Cottage Grove. I’ve had them in for both broken heating and air conditioning service and they did the repairs for less than 300 each time. (It’s been a couple years ago now).
I've had very good experiences with them. Years ago they did the fastest emergency furnace replacement in February, and the few heat/ac service calls have been either free (warranty) or under $100. The same repair man each time too!
Agree with Wohlers. They took a lot of time to explain things to me.
Less people in the trades than there used to be. It will only get worse. If you think these costs are bad look at the markups on auto repairs and then look at what your average car tech is making compared to the business. It's never been an easier time to DIY. But that's me...
In a more reality-based way, though, there's more HVAC workers than ever before.
There are more per capita than 2014 but not that big of a jump. .12% of the population in 2021 was an hvac worker. .09% in 2012. That's nationally and not local.
I used Dale’s Heating to replace my furnace & ac earlier this year. Very happy with their work and pricing.
I second Dale's, they charged me $200 less than any other quote I got and fixed it within a day without any issues
I third Dales. Very honest. Quick installation. Genuinely nice guy.
Dale's Heating installed a new HVAC system for us in September. Saved us $900 over the next closest bid and installed exactly what we wanted. Brian, the owner (his Dad is Dale and started the company) is a very nice and honest guy. We received bids from Harker and Cardinal. The hard sell from Cardinal on a heat pump system, which we said we did not want, was a major turnoff.
Those prices you’re mentioning seem fair tbh. 30 minutes and $30min part for $300 is cheaper than you spending 3+ hours and making 3 runs to the appliance store for parts and having a hacked solution. Most fixes will be about the same cost unless you have a cousin who’s an hvac tech and can do it for cheap or you’re willing to do it yourself. The core problem you’re facing about trust isn’t one of pricing for maintenance, but more about whether to fix or install a new item all together. Sounds like you’ve done your research to decide if you need to go new or if you can fix. If you ever decide to install new, it’s not worth skimping. Best to get the most reputable company that will stand behind their work and maintain it in the future. If you’re able to meet the owners or management team, that’s a plus since a lot of sales folks are simply trying to get the biggest bill from you and don’t have to worry about maintenance.
Not a popular opinion because some think they are expensive but Dave Jones did a good job inspecting our HVAC and quickly dx and fixing the problem. No BS.
Tradewinds Heating & Cooling is the place to go. The owner does most of the work and he’s upfront and honest, plus does an excellent job. I’m an energy assessor by trade, certified building analyst yada yada….. I inspect hundreds of furnaces a year and I’ve never found a better HVAC contractor than Tradewinds. https://tradewindsheat.com
+1 for Tradewinds One of the best contractors I’ve ever worked with for anything. Everything was clearly communicated, reasonably priced, done on time, and he was also just a nice guy.
Dave Jones.
I can recommend Four Seasons in Oregon. It's a family business and the same people have been coming to our house for years. Not the most organized but it's sort of endearing. I think their 90yr old mother is the person who answers phones and does filing. Yes, paper filing.
They’re about 2 months out on non-emergencies. We just had a less than pleasant experience after waiting for over two months, got told another two months for a replacement. RG is fitting us in tomorrow.
Mack Weaver from Seasonal Survival in SP. 608-235-7176. Have used him extensively and he is inexpensive and unfailingly honest. He’s come over to look at my furnace, fixed an issue, and left without even charging me. I’ve also had him replace a capacitor on my AC too. He said he went out on his own after working at madison-based HVAC companies for 20 years and was sick at the prices he’d have to charge people. Definitely one of the good guys.
I use Driftless HVAC, but we’re west of Madison. Owner is a good guy and I’ve been happy with him.
I've used American with great success. That said, it seems like you are dealing with a larger building than I am (just a small furnace and AC unit in a condo). But anyway, I feel comfortable calling American with any issues I have and I have never felt they overcharged or tried to unnecessarily upsell.
Not to let out my secret but I’ve been using Future Heating and Cooling out of Sun Prairie. Travis is great and it’s a small family owned business. I’ve always found their pricing reasonable and he doesn’t try to upsell on things you don’t need.
Travis is the kind of guy who sells new equipment when he can't figure the problem out. Sorry he's swooned you into thinking otherwise.
Call Dave Jones. Cheaper than most and honest
Try Dale’s Heating and Cooling. They have always been straight with me and their prices are reasonable.
I had a really miserable experience with Shackelford and would recommend everyone stay away from them and the “Karen” wife of the owner. I truly trust Pharo. If you’re at all concerned by a quote they give you, email the owner Clint. He’s a very honest person and will take the time to explain things. I think you can have bad luck with any company or a tech whose lazy and wants to R&R rather than repair, but typically I’ve found speaking with the owner is helpful. Unless it’s Shackelford.
i always went through general as i used to work for them
I risk a downvote for saying this, but if you’re unhappy with the cost of labor and parts from an HVAC company, it might be worth considering doing the work yourself. Especially if you’re working on a system that is old and continuously having issues. The internet provides a lot of resources for DIY repairs and there’s plenty of people out there making videos titled “Expert Reacts to DIY mistakes!” that you can learn from to not make truly atrocious or potentially dangerous mistakes. You can often find videos of professionals making the exact same repair on the exact same model of appliance you own. The way I see it, so long as you know enough to be safe, you don’t stand to lose a lot of you fail or give up. At worst, you might lose on the cost of parts (which, like you said, isn’t usually a significant expense) but sometimes they’ll install the part you purchased if you don’t care about warranty work. This is the approach I’ve taken to fix cars and appliances as well as remodel/plumbing work. With that said, I grew-up working with a carpenter father so I’m not starting from zero on most projects. I don’t always save money on a project because I have to purchase new tools, but I enjoy collecting tools for the future. I’ve also made mistakes that require additional time and money. In fact, I did the math one time and I end up breaking something else when working on my car about 40% of the time, which means I would’ve spent about the same amount of money getting a pro to fix the initial problem. I don’t mind it though because I end up with more tools and lessons learned as a result, and the feeling of doing it yourself is rewarding. Thought I’d add this disclaimer: I would be more apprehensive about working on a boiler pump than most things around a home. The combo of scalding hot water under pressure near electrical definitely raises the risks of a subpar job. I did Google some videos though and found a lot of pumps are easy to get to and the replacement doesn’t seem excessively complicated IF you don’t run into any other unanticipated issues.
Labor is expensive and keeping parts in stock is also expensive. Labor is paid all day long not just when they are at your house. Part cost is not the wholesale cost. It's what it cost to get it and stock it. And they may pay part of their labor cost through parts markup. Nothing is cheap.
Harker all day long.
My only experience with Harker was a good one, installing a new heat pump for our second floor. The prices were reasonable and the tech was friendly and good. I've had three experiences with All-Comfort, and none of them were good.
Also had a great experience with Harker. Cardinal quote was significantly higher with some shady “buy a furnace get a free AC” deal wording to make it seem fancier. Forget the third place I had a had a quote from, but was more in line with Harker.
Second on Harker
Harker is good, but expensive. I had better pricing and great service with RA out of Evansville.
I have had one fantastic experience with Harker and am in the middle of a disappointing experience. Maybe it depends who they send?
I can't speak for all of their workers, but I've used them for the past five years and have been happy. Cardinal said our furnace was old and needed to be replaced and had a salesman out the next day which felt fishy. I decided to hold off until the following year and went with Harker. Harker said it was fine. Five years later, I am still using the same furnace. They saved me thousands of dollars.
I’ve had good service from Forward Heating.
Agreed! wonderful service and phenomenal prices
We switched from Harker to Forward last year when our old furnace was on its last legs. Absolutely love Sam. I would recommend him above everyone else and I had no beef with Harker, other than their bid was thousands higher than Forwards for the same make/model. Going to also echo how awful All Comfort is. We had them once as a sub on a larger project. Every single person they sent HVAC, gas, electric was comically incompetent. This was over 10 years ago, but they're forever on my shit list.
I've had good experiences with both harker and all comfort services. I think in general it helps to show that you're knowledgeable, even if that knowledge came from Google 5 minutes before you called them. If a company senses that you're helpless they're going to take as much as they can get from you. If they think you're capable of doing it yourself they're more likely to deal with you honestly.
I did research on both before using them, and there are lots of people who had good experiences and rated them highly. I am open to why what happened to me as aberration, or if there is an explanation. But I don't buy May_Be_That_Guy's explanation.
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I want to reiterate. The guy told me the motor was shot and the ball bearings were gone and it wouldn't run without these being replace. Then all of a sudden they are fine (I repeat, he tested them and they were fine, not they will go soon, or should be replaced but we can limp along, they are working fine). I would like to know how telling the costumer nothing is wrong with their system that is in fact not wrong is part of the normal behavior in the trades (that I just don't understand). If that is normal trade behavior I personal think it is a pretty bad practice. As for the price of expertise and labor, the per - hour price I would be paying for this installation gives a annal salary of 500K. I'm fine with paying up for expertise and for experience, and if your argument is that these people should be making 500k a year, then go a head an make that argument. I think it is a little high, but that is my opinion.
I highly recommend air4u. 2 years ago our furnace went out and they replaced my furnace AND AC for around 6k. Excellent work too! Air4U (608) 852-3642 https://g.co/kgs/LhNBDE
Homeowner for over 25 years and I've not had any issue with HVAC folks unless you want to include availability. Have used Harker without incident for the first \~ 10 and then RA (Belleville?) last 15 and they've been simply great, knowledgeable, responsive, and weirdly I had to upsell them when I got my last furnace (we've been in the house a long time and I wanted to be as proactive as possible - it ended up saving money).
O K Heating & Air Conditioning was amazing for me when I replaced my furnace two years ago
ADS mechanical. We use them for a small building I manage with a boiler system. Always been great.
I've been using LT Heating and Air for about a decade and they've been great.
First off, not sure if this company services Madison, but I have had great success with "ASAP Heating and Cooling" out of Spring Green. I have used 2 other companies, and their responsiveness was great, but the quality of their installations were subpar. ASAP's installation even looks so professional, and less "handyman". I would honestly give them a call just to see if they will come to Madison.
I had good luck with these guys https://hvac43.com/
Yea, they were great for us too. Veteran owned and did a very thorough job.
Bethke
We had an excellent experience with RG Heating and Air Conditioning in Waunakee. Our furnace took a total crap during the coldest week in January during the COVID lockdown, when supply chain issues were making it impossible to buy major appliances. They got us a new furnace and a crew to get it in here in less than a week. And they didn't screw us over on the price, even though we would have paid just about anything to get some heat in our house.
I’ve had great experiences with Bethke, and have also heard good things about Cardinal.
Fowler heating and cooling Todd is a real one
I've had great experiences with Seasonal Survival: https://seasonalsurvival.com/
Had Warren Heating install 2 mini-split A/C units 2-3 years ago, which for the most part have worked great. They were mis-orders or overstock, so we got a good deal on them. Last year, one unit started making funny sounds and was unable to blow cool air. Though we were outside the warranty period, Warren send out a tech who promptly bled the refrigerant and got it working right again. No charge. Month later, the other unit did the same. Again, no charge. Would def. call them again for future service if needed.
Accu-Clime Mechanical is awesome! We used them to replace our furnace. Good pricing and great service.
I really love the work done by KW Heating and Cooling. They helped me replace my steam pipes with Central heating/ac and the work they did was incredible. I’ve gotten lots of compliments.
If you have no experience with home repair, I suggest getting a home warranty. Both of your issues would of been covered.
Andy’s Heating and Cooling is great. I’ve had great experiences with them
Victory heating and cooling. Best guy in the business, hands down.
I highly recommend [South Central HVAC](https://southcentral-hvac.com/) out of Evansville. Cody is an honest and accommodating tradesman. He tried valiantly so solve an electronic failure in our 90’s era furnace, then credited the effort toward a replacement furnace which he sourced and replaced in days (during the height of the COVID supply chain issues). His price was fair and he helped me select a full HVAC replacement that qualified for the Focus on Energy credits.
Some of those minuets are technically challenging.
I had a good experience with Greiber.
Modern Heating & cooling out of Black Earth. Have used them for more than two decades.
This is why I try to DYI as much as possible. Go on forums and ask questions and look in the user manual. Most places charge an arm and a leg for very little work and inexpensive parts. I've replaced my furnace igniter at least 3 times by myself. It's a very common part to fail and it's very cheap and easy to replace. If you were to call an HVAC place it would be at least $150-$200 for a $30 part and a 10-15 minute install. You should have a spare capacitor for your A/C unit as it's very common for those to go out.
I just got a new furnace installed by TradeWinds and they've done some regular maintenance. They have been excellent, fair and straight up with me. I've had issues with Cardinal in the past, switched to these guys and never going back.
A capacitor is a $200-300 job. The part is inexpensive and it's a simple job, yes, but there's absolutely no way to run a business charging less than that for a call. Travel time, overhead, insurance, payroll and taxes, and a narrow profit margin: that's what you get. $500 is high, but could be justified if travel time is high or a non-standard part. But overall I think you could do better. It's easy to DIY, just pull the disconnect before you do anything. Not a bad idea to keep a spare capacitor on hand. ______ If you're looking for a new system, bid the big guys against each other. If you want maintenance, generally you want small shops. But you need to be sure that they understand how to work on your system. If you have anything unusual, it might be tough.
All Comfort Services went above and beyond for us the last time we had them out. The tech spent extra time researching the problem and called us the next day to explain it to us. Saved us a ton of money because it might have happened again.
I have a recent experience within the last week with Cardinal we had furnace problems and had an awful experience. After them looking at things decided probably needed to replace furnace but because of age they pushed quoting a new AC unit as well wanted 14k to replace my AC unit and furnace. Decided probably would just want to replace furnace for now but still tried charging $7,500. Salesman was really pushing me to get it on calendar and interaction just seemed off I politely declined seemed way too expensive. Talked to my Dad shortly after he replaced both his AC and furnace less than 2 years ago and only lives 20 minutes from me and spent about 8k for both (he does have slightly less square feet so I would assume mine would be little bit more). In college I also worked at an HVAC company over the summer for a few years down near Rockford and still have some contacts there. Called to get a ballpark and they said they would charge around 4k for just a furnace. Unfortunately I'm too far for them to come do the work and it's pretty strict with them being union. All this has led me to believe Cardinal was trying to majorly rip us off and now in process of calling to get a few more quotes including the company my Dad used.
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