Reed Heating & Air Conditioning Inc

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I was worried my pipes were freezing. Kevin sent Roger to my house (within 24 hours of my phone call), who spent A LOT of time trying to figure out what was going on. It did not seem like the pipes would freeze (given location of bathroom, source of pipes in basement, etc.), so he was ultimately unable to figure out what the problem was. The water flow had stopped once previously, but then started up again within a day or two. Same thing happened this time. Roger did not charge me for the visit, b/c he didn't and quot;fixand quot; anything. And he called a couple of weeks later to see if I was having continued problems. Still a mystery (?), and we decided it was premature to go into the walls, etc. I was very happy with the assessment and time he spent, and comfortable with our plan to wait and see. I will definitely call them again if something comes up.

We had a spacepack system installed in our basement. The trunk line was disintegrating a bit, and we had questions about how well the system was installed to begin with, so we got quotes for reconfiguring the system entirely. We hoped the new system configuration would be more efficient and reclaim some precious space in our basement (it was taking up a lot of room). Kevin Reed said all of the right things and we hired him to perform the work. Things started well, as he arrived promptly on the agreed- upon day and disassembled the existing system. That's where the professionalism ended. It quickly became apparent that Kevin was in far over his head, and scrambling to do something that would pass for a functioning HVAC system. His promises to clean up the configuration went out the window-- the new configuration turned out to be much larger, turning what was previously undesirable into a monstrosity that made it it impossible to finish the basement. I want to be completely fair here-- as I've mentioned, the system we brought Kevin in to fix had a lot of pre-existing issues, and I understand that unforeseen complications arise. In this case, Kevin did not anticipate how difficult it would be to make necessary bends to the high velocity ducts to physically fit them in as small a space as he had promised. Okay, I understand sometimes things don't go as planned. As long as the contractor communicates the issues and we can move forward together, it's usually not a problem. This is the point at which Kevin Reed's professionalism left the building. I came home from work one day to find him installing a completely different type of air return than we had discussed-- in fact, the return was no return at all. He was unable to configure air return ductwork as he had originally envisioned, so instead stopped building ducts and left several round ducts sticking out of the system in the basement. I could go into detail about why he did this but it would take a long time and honestly it gets me too worked up to think about this fiasco in detail. In short, he left three open circular returns sticking up out of the system like pipes on an organ-- differing in lengths by about 3-5 inches. I asked him what was going on, and he tried to tell me this this was a and quot;state of the artand quot; system that pulled return air (from the unheated, unconditioned basement) at different and quot;zones of altitudeand quot;. I asked him to explain to me how this was supposed to work, given that return air should be coming from the upstairs finished space so there is a circular effect. Kevin told me I was mistaken and that air returns do not have any impact on system performance. At this point he was directly lying to me, and I should have ended the work and refused payment. But our system was not configured, and it was getting cold, so I hoped the situation could be salvaged. I asked him to figure out a way to tie the return in as we had originally agreed. At this point it became very difficult to get him to come back to work. He basically disappeared. Only threats of negative reviews and a report with the Better Business Bureau brought him back. I arrived home to find Kevin at work in the basement with his brother. They seemed to be joking around and throwing things together willy-nilly. The air return was still the same. I observed their work and instantly noticed something was terribly wrong. A high velocity duct coming into the basement was connected directly to another high velocity duct going back up from the basement. By this I mean two ducts were connected to each other without ever tying into the system at all. I was flabbergasted. Kevin and his brother struggled to sheepishly form a response. They apologized and said they were nearly finished, so I allowed them to fix that mistake and finish the work. They presented the and quot;finishedand quot; monstrosity shortly thereafter. The new configuration, which was promised to be low profile, took up twice as much space in the basement as it originally had. The air return had not been fixed and I was again given the lie that air returns don't make any difference. At this point I asked Kevin if he thought I was stupid, and the situation devolved further. To make matters worse, I checked some of the electrical work on the Spacepak and discovered that he had neglected to hookup up the emergency overflow switch on the overflow pan underneath the Spacepak. If the pump would have failed we would have had a flood. My blood pressure is rising just writing this, so I'd better stop. You get the idea. In the end the system functioned, but at decreased efficiency (the end result was worse than before the work was done). Given the amount of money paid we could not afford to do anything else immediately, and suffered with the system through the winter (purchased space heaters) and the summer (purchased window units). We are now having the entire system replaced. Kevin Reed might be a reasonable technician for conventional installations, but he certainly has no idea how high velocity systems work. Considering the straight faced lying about the basics of how air returns work, I wouldn't be able to recommend him for any type of work at all.

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Kevin Reed is an exceptionally talented and highly organized Master HVAC engineer. As the job also required electrical expertise, he proved himself to be extremely versatile. I was impressed by his neat, methodical and detailed approach to this complex project. He took his time to make sure that no mistakes were made and that all measurements and calculations were exact before proceeding to the next step. As a result of his precise and careful approach, the complete installation took 2 and one-half days. He explained each step of the installation and patiently answered questions and considered suggestions. It was quite obvious that his goals included both a high quality installation along with a high degree of customer satisfaction. I have called him a few times since the installation and he has always answered promptly and provided any guidance and information I need about system operation. I am totally satisfied with his work and with the new Daikin system. I would not hesitate to hire Kevin for future HVAC or electrical projects. In fact I plan to call him when my central HVAC system needs servicing or replaced. In summary, this was a highly impressive installation and Kevin is the consummate professional.