Carini Home Services

Description of Work: I purchased a big deal for a 22-point Fall Furnace Tune-up AND a 22-point A/C Tune-up!

Description of Work: This was an Angie's List Big Deal promotion / A 22 Point Spring A/C Inspection & Tune Up Special. The technician (Bowen Smith) did a complete inspection of both our furnace and A/C equipment and throughly cleaned and serviced the latter. Could not have been more pleased with the technician's care in performing this service. Knowledgeable, professional, helpful and polite. Certainly, a great asset to his employer. Certainly, the price was right. Was at our residence for more than an hour. We have run the A/C all summer without any problem. Bowen's cleaning of the equipment itself was amazing / looked almost new! Took great pride in his work / unusual in this day and age!

Description of Work: They removed the old HVAC system and installed a new high efficiency Rheem HVAC system and ductwork in our home.

Description of Work: Found and fixed a blockage in the AC drain which was diverting water to the backup drain to outside my attic, and causing a huge stain down two stories.

Description of Work: Bought a Big Deal for a new furnace installation.

Description of Work: I bought a Big Deal from them for a 22-point fall furnace tune-up and 22-point A/C Tune-up.

Description of Work: scheduled maintenance on AC and heater. Cleaning filter.

Description of Work: Performed routine maintenance, cleanliness checks, evaluated electrical capacity ofinstallation. Replaced worn plastic fittings with brass fittings.

Description of Work: Called during the recent heat wave for a A/C cleaning and check. They were able to schedule within a week (others had openings 2 weeks away) and charged $85 per unit for a full A/C AND heating check.

Description of Work: Removal of old, inefficient heating and (2) air conditioning units. Installation of new units to existing zones and setting up/installing new air conditioning zones. Scoped the ducting to determine usability. Design and installation of heating/ac unit for the living room where no equipment or ducts existed prior to this project. All units installed on the roof of the house, new electrical, new plumbing, and special care to preserve the roof warranty. Required communication and coordination between all trades.

Description of Work: Our furnace was not turning on after a major renovation.

Description of Work: They tuned up my AC. I purchased a Big Deal.

Description of Work: We just bought a new house and wanted to have the air conditioning checked, as the previous owners did not have it serviced in the six years they owned the house.

Description of Work: They gave me an estimate on an air conditioning unit.

Description of Work: Furnace/AC inspection and tune-up.

Description of Work: I purchased a Big Deal for $79 for a 22 Point A/C Tune Up

Description of Work: They did an inspection of why my heating and air conditioning system wasn't working and what my options were for fixing the issue. The issue was covered under my home warranty so I didn't get services from them but they did the inspection for free. Outstanding customer service and did a great job explaining all of my options. I will definitely use these guys when I replace my heating and air conditioning system a couple years down the road.

Description of Work: We had just bought a new house and the HVAC system needed an inspection and servicing, and we needed a new thermostat. Services performed: Initial inspection and estimate Extreme clean on entire system Pull coil out and clean drain pan Pull blower motor out and clean motor and wheel Install new drain line and secondary safety switch Insulate around blower motor and coil box Insulated return air cabinet Installed new thermostat ............................................................................... April 18, 2012 - 2nd service, cost $200 Clothes dryer was venting into wall space causing condensation, duct seemed to have become disconnected Work performed: Initial service call to determine issue Cut whole in wall behind dryer for access to vent, found broken vent Reconnected and cleaned vent Cleaned lint in wall space Patched whole in wall and re-textured Answered questions regarding thermostat functionality

Description of Work: I used Carini Heating and Air Conditioning. They were here a month ago and they’re coming back next week to put in a new heating and air conditioning system. I got a 28 point inspection for free and I’m paying for the air conditioning unit. They are putting in a new condenser coil and rebuilding the shelf that my heating unit sits on.

Description of Work: When SDG&E told me my furnance's fire box was about to crack, I got bids from four companies for a new furnace, one of which was Carini.

Description of Work: They came out to clean the inside and outside units.

Description of Work: Our technician, Bowen, was absolutely prompt at 8am, when the appointment was set for an 8-10a.m window. (One small suggestion I'd make, is that a courtesy call to the homeowner, as they are enroute, might be a good idea.) As I greeted him at the door, he slipped booties over his shoes, before stepping over the threshold. He explained what he would be doing, and then allowed me to view the trouble spots of the interior of my furnace as he went thru his inspection and cleanng process. He was very professional and knowlegeable and provided a wealth of information on the operation of my heater, it's condition, and likely longevity . I look foward to woriking with this company in the future, for an estimate on a new heating and cooling system, as well as a hot water heater replacement.

Description of Work: I used the Angie's List Big Deal for a heater/AC inspection. Bowen was the representative from the company -- he called 1/2 hr before arriving to say he was on his way, and arrived on time. He protected my hardwood floors with a tarp and made sure the area was clean when he left. He performed the 22 point inspection & tune-up, and when he was done he went over all the points, answered all my questions. He is a very knowledgeable heating & AC guy.

Description of Work: They put in a new relay for the heating.

Description of Work: Carini Heating and Air Conditioning of San Diego recently sent a technician to our home to do requested 22-point tune-ups on both our air conditioner and furnace. (Normally, the cost would have been @$250, but Carini offered a short-term "Super-Saver" special on Angie's List for $89! We were surprised to learn that a perk to the special was that we got to choose the service date - even up to 6 months in the future!) The tech, Bowen, who called 30+ minutes before he arrived, early within our pre-arranged 2-hour time window, really knew his trade! He was happy to answer the many questions that we asked, as he worked steadily and efficiently for the 90 minutes or so that he was here. He was also very personable and pleasant - someone we would be comfortable having in our home in the future. He wasn't bothered in the least by our 2 yippy but harmless little dogs that found their way into the house toward the end of the service call, or by the the few minutes it took for my husband to move the 4-5 storage tubs out of the way in order to put our step ladder in place below the attic opening for Bowen to climb up and work on the furnace. Before he checked our furnace, Bowen serviced our 12-year-old air conditioner by first removing the bit of overgrowth of weeds and grass surrounding it. He then removed the unit's outer casing and cleaned its vents - inside and out - and then the motor's fan blades by hand with cloth and a gentle cleaner. He said that it was important to clean the blades carefully by hand and not to be tempted to power-wash them (not even with a moderately-strong stream of hose water) because it could bend or damage the blades or other small parts in the motor, and that even slight bends in the blades, or displacement of small parts of the motor that we might not notice were happening during a hose washing, could slightly affect the unit's efficiency. He said that, overall, our unit was in pretty nice shape! As he was working, he shared what he was doing with my husband, so my husband would know how to do this cleaning portion of the unit's maintenance himself in the future, if he chose - very nice. Bowen also checked and tested the components of the motor and its efficiency, and shared his findings with my husband right then, as well as reviewing them with us on his 22-point checklist at the end of his visit. Bowen showed us that the unit's main wire was becoming worn, perhaps from the sun, a weed-whacker, or both, as was a portion of the foam-like protective covering around the pipe that goes from the unit to the house, and he repaired both of them nicely with some special tape and materials that he had brought with him, at no charge - part of the tune-up. He also shared with us that sometimes on his a/c service calls, he notices that some units' wires, though they meet minimum code standards most times, are slightly thinner than they ought to be for that unit to perform as efficiently as possible, forcing it to work harder to pull the needed energy, and potentially costing more $ He said that ours of a good, sufficient width, though, before moving on to our furnace. After putting on his protective shoe coverings before entering our home, Bowen climbed the step ladder to our attic opening and did some functional and safety tests on the furnace and checked to see if any components needed to be cleaned. He was surprised to find that our furnace was fairly clean, too, and stated that we apparently don't run it constantly, which creates much more dust and dirt than he saw on our unit. When he had finished his service tune-up and safety checks, he came down and shared that it looked pretty good, overall, except for one fairly important thing that he was surprised to find - that the main intake duct (which takes-in air from the house, heats it, and then redistributes it via the house's vents) had barely any "seal" around it, explaining that when the air from our house is being taken-in to be heated, surrounding dirty air from our attic, and more dirty outdoor air, which comes in through the attic vent, is also being sucked into that main duct through the unsealed "gaps" surrounding it, and is then being redistributed, dirt and all, throughout our house. (I had to wonder if this could explain the amount of our house-dust, some of my sneezing fits, and some of our son's dust-allergy flare-ups...?!) Bowen said that he felt that the initial seal-job was incomplete - likely done too hastily (there are several stories of similar "short cuts" found among our neighbors with identical homes) causing the seal that was put in place to loosen and create even more of a gap around the duct. He said that if we chose to repair/reseal the main duct, in addition to replacing the filter that we had (a good $20 allergy-type one, btw) with the reusable/washable filter that he was already planning to install for us - also included free of charge as part of the 22-point tune-up - that we'd notice a minimum of a 10-12% difference in our unit's efficiency. Possibly even a bit more. (I didn't share with Bowen that I already knew about the gap around the main intake duct. I had had a free "energy analysis" done by our local energy company last year, and the rep told me the same thing about the gap, after he'd inspected the furnace. The fact that Bowen found it gave us even more confidence in him and in Carini Heating and A/C. At the end of the service call, while Bowen was busy writing-up his findings, I shared this with my husband, who had been deployed to Iraq last year.) I asked Bowen about the filter because I was surprised that he thought his reusable/washable filter that looked more "air-y" than the one I was currently using would do a better job than our allergy-type one. He stated that our allergy one was SO dense that it required our unit to work much harder than it should have to to pull air from our home into the main duct. He said he'd installed one of these filters for his in-laws over 10 years ago, which they wash and reinstall every few months, and that it's still working really well and in good condition. He mentioned that there is a similar-looking filter available at stores, but that they don't have the amount of diagonal "cross-hatching" fibers that catch more debris and dirt that Carini's does. He said that applying a little Febreeze-type spray after cleaning with a gentle cleaner makes the house smell nice, too. Out of curiosity, I asked him what he uses in his own home, and he told us that he had a different, more expensive type of air filtering system installed - a black-light air "cleaning" system that really helps with allergies and colds because it constantly cleans impurities like salmonella from the air. He shared with us that hospitals and gov't day cares and nursing homes are now beginning to be required to have systems like these. ~Good to know - this is going on our wish-list for when we have $1600 to spare, though it's not that much, really, when I think of the co-pays, perscriptions, and $ lost from either days off from work, or when parents have to pay extra $ for pricey "sick-child" care during those early childhood years. No wonder Bowen, a father of 5 young children, has this system in his house! He said that after he got the black-light system, his family quit passing around their colds and they are rarely sick anymore. ~I also checked our health coverage, and this qualifies as a pre-tax item for our HSA because of my son's dust allergies. It's also really great to know about because my parents will be snow-birding with us next winter and they both have COPD. Bowen said that some households with the black-light air filtering systems choose to run them a lot in the warmer months for an added benefit - as a sort of "poor-man's air conditioning" since they find that the circulation of the household air is often sufficient, and so they don't need to run their more costly a/c as much. Before Bowen left, he reviewed his 22-point check-list with us and made sure he had answered all of our questions. He also took our old, dirty filter and cleaning debris with him as he packed up his equipment, leaving nothing for us to clean up. My husband offered him a firm handshake and a big smile, insisting on thanking him handsomely. We've scheduled with Carini Heating and A/C for Bowen to return in a few days to reseal around that main furnace duct. It offers us great peace of mind to know that, in today's economy, and with retirement-level incomes approaching in a few years, that our household is running as efficiently as possible. ~ It'll be interesting to see how much of a difference we"ll notice, and I'll post a follow-up report on Angie's list under "Carini Heating and Air Conditioning" in a few months, for the rest of you Angie's List members. We sincerely thank all of you other members that take the time to write reports and comments (though I know that this one is probably longer than most :) - they have already helped us make a few important decisions during this tough economy where we have to be pretty conservative with our $. Thank you, too, Angie! :) Happy New year!