While I do admit that this last week or so has been pretty awesome with the birth of Amber, but I would like to take a minute to vent just a little. My furnace quit working, now I don't know anything about furnaces but I had my Father-In-Law come up and we gave it a good look and tried to figure out what was the problem. Well at first the furnace didn't start up at all, then the pilot light wouldn't stay lit. So we decided that I should call a "professional". The "professional" said that my furnace could be fixed but it would probably cost me half as much as a new furnace would cost. So he recommended a replacement, then charged me $75 because he "looked" at my furnace.
So we decided to get as many estimates as we could so that we could get the best deal out there. We also decided that this would be the opportune time to get central air as well. So this post is my attempt to give a summary of what I have learned up to now, so be forewarned: this could possibly be valuable information for you or could potentially bore you to death.
I wasn't completely aware of exactly how many estimates we originally had done, but in making this summary it looks like we looked at 8 different companies. So here is my final analysis, ranked in order of priced bids:
1. Comfort Zone
This company is located up in Salt Lake but does some work down in Utah County. The guy we are working with is Wayne. My buddy referred him and they gave by far and away the lowest bid along with a very good warranty, service, excellent brand names and an excellent reputation. They have many great customer reviews. Long story short, this is the company we are going with and highly recommend.
2. Mountain Aire
This company gave a very good overall price bid, but they seemed a bit unreliable and uncertain and they aren't registered with BBB.org. Their company also seemed a bit sketchy as well, I couldn't find any major complaints or problems, but something didn't seem quite right. We seriously considered them anyway, but I am very glad that a better company out bid them.
3. Doctor Air
The guy we worked with was Brian. He was the guy we called first and he was the guy who gave us the original breakdown of the cost of repairing our existing furnace. He gave us a very good overall price bid for a new replacement. He even called later and said that if we got any lower bids that he would try to negotiate his price down or he would throw in some extra things at no cost to us. His company is relatively new, but he is registered with BBB.org. I would definitely recommend calling him for an estimate.
4. PPM
This company I have had out to so some minor pluming repair work and they have tuned up and gave the green sticker to my furnace in the past. I originally wanted to call them first because I haven't had any bad experiences with them. So when he came to give an estimate I was anxious to hear what they could offer. They gave a very reasonable offer, it wasn't the cheapest and definitely wasn't the most expensive either. They have good products(York), great service and a good warranty. Their company has been around for over 11 years and they have a very good reputation. I would have went with them if Comfort Zone didn't beat their overall price by $1000.
5. Absolute Air
This company is the only one partnered with Home Depot in Utah County so you know they are a relatively good and reliable company. They actually gave a reasonable estimate, but it was only an average price bid. The sales guy was very pushy, but was nice enough.
6. The Heating & Cooling guys
This company is relatively new as well. No major complaints or problems that I could see just that their estimate was a little above average. Overall, the sales guy seemed uninterested, I wasn't impressed at all.
7. Service Experts
This company is a highly respected company and they have been around for a long time. Here is my summary of this company. The sales guy was extremely long winded and didn't seem to want to leave for some reason. They gave the second highest bid which was $2200 higher than the previously highest bid. They only work with Lennox products, which are great products, but no other good options. I don't recommend this company unless you have time & money to burn.
8. Whipple
Dude, I can't wait to tell you about this one! The original reason we called this company is because we got a ad from them in the mail that said that they are giving free furnaces with the purchase of an Air Conditioner unit. I felt that maybe it was a "sign" that we got this ad when we needed one and I didn't want to find out later that we could have saved an additional $2000 if we would have gotten an estimate from them. The sales guy (Jason) spend an hour and a half at my house, telling me how awesome his company is. After all of the wasted time he gave me the highest bid of all, over $10,000. But he did offer the promotional deal in the ad, so he knocked off $2200. That meant the price was still way over $8000! Their company has been around for over 50 years, but who cares if ultimately they are just in business to try to break the world record for overcharging?!? Who do these people think they are anyway! Who are they working for?!?
Any of you have any good or bad experiences with furnaces or AC?
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