TR Miller Heating, Cooling, Plumbing and Electrical

As always, service was prompt and professional. I realize we could probably have this service performed by someone else for less money, but we've had this inspection done every year for several years, and we have never had any trouble with our HVAC.

Brian was the sales person and thankfully he was the first person of four to bid on our job. He took the time to explain what we really needed, why we needed it as well as what we didn't need and why we didn't need it. His professionalism, knowledge and ability to explain HVAC to someone who is not familiar with it made all of the difference. None of the other three companies met the standard he set. The real icing on the cake was that the TR Miller bid was also the most affordable. Ben and his team came to install the system today. They were on time. They were very accommodating. They worked quickly, efficiently, remarkably quietly and effectively. Ben took the time to explain how everything was installed and why it was installed the way it was. He also explained fully how the thermostat and humidifier work. Our house, inside and out, is cleaner and neater than when they began their work. We couldn't be happier. I will actively recommend their service to anyone.

Tim Miller responded to my request for a bid on a new air conditioner the very next day. He spent a considerable amount of time reviewing my current heating and air conditioning system prior to putting together a proposal, providing thorough explanations for the existing design and that it was well done with one exception. The furnace had been replaced by another HVAC company twelve years ago and they sold and installed an efficient 2-stage unit but never enabled its 2-stage operation. Tim included correcting this issue in his proposal. I also explained the symptoms of the current system problem and he suggested that the problem be diagnosed and corrected prior to installation of a new air conditioner. I received two proposals for the air conditioner replacement. TRM's was considerably lower for equivalent units (American Standard versus Lennox) and work. Once I informed Tim of my decision to go with his proposal, he had a service man out the next business day to diagnose and resolve the problem. Diagnosis turned out to be a little tricky and it required multiple part orders and visits but in each case, Tim's service person kept me up to date on the order status and immediately scheduled the service visit once the parts were available. Tim's service person was friendly, prompt, and informative. Tim also waived the labor cost for the diagnoses and repair given that I had accepted his proposal to replace the air conditioner - you don't see concessions like this very often. With the furnace issue resolved, the air conditioner installation proceeded and once again, Tim's people were excellent. They called ahead to let me know their arrival time which was within the two hour scheduled time, they were friendly and very informative. The installation was done very well and was completed within the estimated time frame. The bottom line is that TR Miller has a very professional and courteous staff with years of experience. They did great work and I would highly recommend them. I'll certainly be using TRM for my future HVAC needs.

Excellent service. Explained all details well; very thoughtful, friendly & professional.

They are actually very good. They just come and fix the problem, they are just excellent. He's excellent.Both times he came in diagnosed the problem, repaired it. Got in, got out. Reasonable charges. So we've been happy with them, and have used them every time we had a problem.

We were having issues with our current furnace and decided to purchase new equipment versus putting repair money into an obsolete one. Due to the unreliability of the old unit, we wanted the new furnace/AC installed before we went on vacation. They arrived on time, and completed the work in the time frame promised. All the work was done to the highest quality, and exactly as promised. This work was done on a cold day, and with over a foot of snow around the house, including around the old air conditioner. With the cold temps, we were very happy the total job was done in about 6 hours. The equipment is working extremely well. TR Miller took away all the old equipment, and did a good job of explaining the operation of the new furnace, thermostat, humidifier, and air cleaner. I would highly recommend this company for any heating and cooling work.

My furnace was making a lot of noise and I had a company come out to dagnose and quote on it. They quoted me over 800 to replace the fan, motor assembly, and a capacitor. I felt that was a little high so I had put the prices on Angies List to have some quotes for comparison. TR millers quote cam back around500 so I scheduled the work. Upon arrival they checked the furnace and determined the only thing I needed was a fan and charged me 36. for the fan and 95 for the call. What a breath of fresh air to have someone honest come work on your house.

In the process of doing the annual cleaning a crack in the heat exchanger was discovered. The furnace is 15 years old. Many times this is cause for a new furnace. Mike checked and found that the part was under warranty so it would cost for the labor, which was still going to be just short of $500. He ordered the part immediately and two days later had it installed. This happened in mid September when the weather was still nice so it was not a problem. I didn't ask but I assume there may have been more urgency if it had been mid January. Two days after that I had coincidentally had scheduled to have my humidifier replaced. Showed up right on time and had it quickly replaced. Explained how it worked since it now has outdoor probes, and digital control. Sounded more complicated than it turned out. Hopefully it works as presented. In both cases there were no surprises in cost. Everything was explained up front. They showed up when they said, worked until complete and cleaned up afterword. I have been using these guys for years and they have not disappointed me yet.

I was bedazzled by the tech talk which is the main reason for the B' s that I gave them. I wanted to give them all A's. So here's the story as I remember it. I made the call and found out that the original company that had originally installed my American Standard AC had retired and sold the customer list to this company or something of that nature. I thought that first company was excellent as I only had to deal with them for replacement filters for the electrostatic filter that they installed with the furnace and AC. I never had a problem for 17 years. We kept the cooling and heating temps to minimums and maybe together with the American Standard equiptment that seemed to be quality units this kept everything in balance for so long. I recall the phone call with the young gentleman who first came out. He was very courteous and kept the conversation going mostly all by himself as he was driving to my home to investigate my AC unit. He asked me to tell him what was going on and all I could say was that it wasn't cooling where upon he launched into his techno dialogue. I couldn't get a word in edgewise. No problem there, cause I sure couldn't have kept up with him. He sure knew his stuff. When he arrived, he proceded to run some tests, all the while he spewed out his expertise quoting max pressures here and minimums there, IFs and ANDs about this possibility and that one was all I heard while he ran those tests. He told me the cost for investigating a leaky system and to repair it and based on how much a replacement would cost it pretty much sounded like that was the way I should go. My old system was 17 years old, so I did. By the way, no leaks were reported to my understanding. But 17 years is a long time so I was cool with getting a new unit simply on general principals, techo babble or not. Well, the new one was installed in pretty much 2 hours as I remember. That impressed me. A new thermonstat was installed also. That is an area that for me seemed overkill. But maybe that is the way things are done now days to avoid problems down the road. We had a White-Rodgers programmable thermostat that I never had any trouble with except to install new batteries in for the whole 17 years of service. They put in a Honeywell that I found out through investigation was Wi-Fi capable and had something called "Smart technology" which would learn your heating and cooling "habits" I suppose. I prefer to set it and forget it. None of the specifics of this new thermostat were explained to me. I didn't even get to see the box it came in. I saw one at Radio Shack for 99 dollars and saw the Honeywell line up at Home Depot too. I never saw any other brands at Home Depot but Honeywell. The one that was installed was in the line up somewhere in the middle of all the Honeywell thermostats. That's good. For two months my AC turned on and off and on and off, something I believed was not efficient at all. The thermostat never seemed to reach equilibrium with the temperature that it was to turn off at. The thermostat showed the temperature it read inside and also the temperature that you had it set for. You have the different times during the day to make the settings for when you were not at home and when you went to bed. Ideally, these settings should be gradual changes so as to not run the AC any more than necessary. Mine were 75,77,75,and 74, however, all the AC did was turn on and turn off, never reaching a point where it was satisfied. I called about this and they came out, deduced the problem and left on another call because I had an appointment that day and the problem wasn't one that could be fixed without going inside the furnace where the cooling coil and the "Thermal Expansion Valve" were located. Well, they called later the same day which surprised me as I thought that I would have to re-schedule. This was a good thing cause it was hot and so was I. They put the new part in and I asked about the thermostat. The explanation was something about the thermostat reading a decimal point like 74.1. They absorbed the cost which I expected but told me about an optional part that could be installed, at my cost, in the AC unit called a "dead start kit" that might help the compressor motor initially upon starting when it needed extra current at this time. The lights would flicker when the compressor kicked on and made a noise upon starting that didn't seem natural at all. There would be a pause and then the blower would also start up. I bought this part and it has helped a little, I think. Not sure about this but he said that there were no guarantees on this kit. The AC unit continued to turn on and off keeping the house cooled as requested never allowing the two figures on the thermostat display to vary even one degree til it turned on again. Now your probably saying this; "So, that's what it's supposed to do!! Well, yeah, it is. But if it's running for 10 or 20 minutes with 5 minute rests to keep the house cooled down all day,all summer, is that efficient? And what about that compressor motor that has a problem starting without extra current. Are you really going to save electricity and repairs this way? Is "Smart technology" really going to make my air conditioner last if I don't drive it too hard or is it going to cause me additional repairs down the line. I can see where ComEd might not be happy with the way the compressor starts, causing all those surges during the cooling year. The lights still flcker and there still is that pregnant pause before the compressor motor and the blower motor are in sync but I never bought into that Artificial Intelligence in a thermostat and replaced it with a Honeywell simple programmable one from good ole' Home Depot and I watch the settings so that the AC only has a few degrees to make up when each time segment is reached. I did this at my own cost so as to avoid being baffled with all that B.S. I would have had to endure had I complained to TR Miller. I never had it connected to my Wi-Fi but I think that if you program it to turn on when you want it to turn on and also when you want it to turn off, then you shouldn't have to talk to your thermostat via your smart phone during the day for whatever that is worth. The old AC never worked this way. You couldn't talk to it using your cell but it worked flawlessly for 17 years. What am I going to be able to expect from this one when it turns on and off so many times for the sake of "efficiency". My neighbor has an American Standard of the same vintage and it's still running. Maybe it's too much to ask when you build them to last, you don't sell as many. Is this what happened to the American Car Industry when everyone started buying Japanese? Maybe American Standard is really made by the Chinese. Maybe they make "thermal expansion valves". I'm really not blaming T.R. Miller for any of this. They did what they promised but they could have done it using fewer words or maybe the right words for less confusion. Still not sure about this AC. I'm wondering about that furnace and what, if any, technology will play, in it's re-placement. I went to DeVry Tech years ago and they had a TV that had been running for 5 years because it hadn't been turned off. They touted that it's the surge current in the initial moment that it is turned on that contributes to failure. If you can dazzle 'em with brilliance, you won't have to baffle 'em with B.S..

The service was fine. Two guys came out and it took a full day to complete the job. They insatalled the unit and everthing to go with it. They had most fair prices. I would say they are very professional they work quickly.

Seems expensive for what needed to be done. In the future we'd comparison shop a bit more.

I replaced both of my forced-air furnaces and a/c units due to age (25 years) and efficiency. I also replaced two humidifiers and upgraded to wi-fi thermostats. I contacted TR Miller and another American Standard contractor to receive bids. Tim (the owner) came out and did a thorough job of accessing our situation and walking through his proposal. I contacted both contractors over the next 7-10 days to better understand competing proposals as well as negotiate the overall price. While both parties were close on price, Tim's level of responsiveness and demonstrating that he wanted the business made the difference. We scheduled an install date for Nov 8th. His crew of five installers showed up on schedule (8am) and worked diligently through the day. They were all very professional and always willing to explain what they were doing if I had questions. Amazingly, the job took just under the 8 hours they estimated. Ben, the manager, provided a detailed walk through of all the work, how to care for the units, as well as things to watch for. Another installer explained how the wi-fi thermostats worked (which are awesome and highly recommended by the way). There was quite the mess from ripping out my old units and some of the duct work, however the crew cleaned up everything. After they left, it was as if they were never there. Overall, I could not be happier with the process. Despite rather mediocre reviews on Angie's List, I can't say enough good things about my experience with TR Miller.

The service was great. Larry took his time explaining everything thoroughly. I would highly recommend them to everyone.

Serviceman was prompt, cordial, listened to my concerns, understood that it was the same exact issue as last year, tested the Freon level, acknowledged that it was low and added Freon. My issue was with the bill. I was charged a $96 "Service Fee", $150 for 3 lbs of Freon and $48 labor. The serviceman was only here for 30 minutes. I called to find out what was included in the "Service Fee" and was told that this was just to come out to my house and diagnose the issue. I told them that I already knew what the issue was (they had performed this service for me last year and told me that they would need to come out and add freon every summer until we decided to replace the unit) but that did not matter. I asked them why 30 minutes of labor was not included in the "service fee" and they told me that was not what they do. Even when I go to the auto repair shop and they charge a "diagnostic fee", some of that is applied to the labor if I have the work performed. To me this is just taking advantage of the customer who needs his A/C fixed on a hot day. When I spoke to the service manager, if he had just offered to waive the $48 labor fee, I would be writing about how TR Miller listens to their customers concerns, understands the situation and makes the right adjustments based on the situation, not just following the status quo. TR Miller's inability to "step out of the box" is now going to cost them a $5K air conditioner sale as we will likely replace the unit next year. We will be looking for better "partner" to bring our business to.

Two or three weeks later when I went to bed I would hear an intermittent tapping noise that would get louder as it went on coming from the air ducts. The noise radiated through out the house, but most prominently in the upper floors. I called Tim Miller about the issue. He had heard the noise and sent out the original technician who cleaned the furnace. The man said there was no problem, but he was not an expert with furnace. They then sent out the guy to clean out the air ducts again. He stated that he is not an expert in furnaces, but cleans air ducts. I left a message for Tim that the problem still persist. Brian his son called me back and after speaking with Tim he said that I should contact a professional heating and cooling company to come out and diagnose the problem. This was another $89.00. There was a lack of communication and customer service.I left a message for Tim again. Brian his son called me back and said the only thing they could do would be to tear into the drywall and put in more screws into the joyce, but he could not promise this would fix the problem. On January 3rd I requested specifically to talk to Tim. Later that morning Brian called me back and said Tim would be contacting me. I never received a phone call back. In the mean time I had to speak with a representative from April Air to return the humidifier. I then had to call a sales representative of TR Miller whom asked if I had spoken with Tim about the issue. I explained that he has not called me back. I finally got a refund for the April Air from TR Miller. Tim's wife had contacted me to let me know they would remove the humidifier and refund me for the air ducts. Since this incident I had to have a professional person come out to diagnose the problem which cost $629.00. They have notified me that the noise is in fact coming from the furnace and there was debris all over the place. It is going to cost me $8,422.00 to fix all the problems that TR Miller has caused.

Furnace went out in middle of the night. Primary reason I called TR Miller was pricing - over the summer a friend of mine had mentioned that she and another neighbor had their A/C and/or furnace replaced and that TR Miller's pricing was better than others. I called TR Miller at 8am and had technician here by 11. Larry was friendly and professional. He said I needed a new ignitor and I asked him to clean the furnace as well - he appeared to do a very thorough job of cleaning the furnace. He never tried to push buying a new furnace despite the age of my current one. In my experience with previous companies it seems they ALWAYS try to push you into buying a new furnace even if your problem is a minor one, so I appreciated not having to deal with the sales pitch for a replacement furnace. Larry even answered my questions and concerns about my humidifier. TR Miller will be the first and only company I call next time!

In the midst of this summer's hot spell my 18 year old air conditioner died. I called several companies looking to obtain estimates, one of them being TJ Miller. Although I eventually selected another company to install the air conditioner I was very impressed with the time and energy provided by Tim Miller in making the estimate. I felt it warranted positive recognition on Angie's List. Mr. Miller did an initial inspection of the equipment, including entering the crawl space to look at the furnace. He then spent considerable time reviewing my options for replacement equipment as well as explaining how the new air conditioners and furnances worked. His quote was delivered within 24 hours and was very competitive to the company I ended up selecting (only $100 difference). I chose the other company because they had previously done some work for me and they offered a $150 Angie's List coupon. Obvioulsy, I cannot speak to how well the company actually performs their work. However, based on the way I was treated, I would suggest that other members at least consider calling the company when they are looking to replace their heating/cooling systems.

They were fine and their price was comparable to the others. They came when they said they would.

Within a year it went out and they fixed it. I had mice that ate the insulation. They were able to make a connection and did not charge me for this even though they could have.

We had an initial conversation with Pam Miller at T R Miller and company and we discussed the Air Duct cleaning in detail She told us that their company had a policy of sealing the vents and returns as a routine part of the Air duct cleaning process. Since this was of primary importance to us due to family members and children having dust allergies, we signed up to have the Air ducts cleaned by them. Their team arrived per schedule with all the equipment. When we spoke to them they informed us that they do not seal the vents or returns and that they have never heard of this process. I spoke to Pam right away and she recanted her story saying that she never had that convesation with me. I insisted on speaking with Tim Miller before they began the cleaning and he assured me that there would be no dust due to the fact that they have the strongest vaccum in the Chicago land area and that the team will take extra precaution to clean up around each vent and return after they had completed they process. After this assurance, I agreed to have the team start the Air duct cleaning process. Due to a medical condition I could not make sure that they had cleaned up after themselves, but after they left we had to vaccum the entire house because of the dirt that had been generated. Before handing over payment to the Service person, I spoke to Tim Miller and expressed my dissatisfaction with the way the Air Duct cleaning was handled and he said he would make sure to stop by the next week and talk to me in person and ensure that I was satisfied with the work, at which point I released the entire payment to them. After one week of no contact from Tim Miller, I called their office again and was told that Tim would call me back before the end of the day. I called their office again on the next day and was told that due to a family situation, Tim would not be able to contact me, but that their General Manager would come to our house and inspect the Air Duct cleaning work. He did come the very next day and took a picture of the inside of the main trunck line where the vaccum was attached and said that the truck line was clean. I told him that I was sure that portion would be clean as it was directly attached to the vaccum outside, but that I was dissatisfied with the service as what was promised was not delievered and that the follow through was completely lacking. He assured me that he would talk to Tim and have a resoultion for me with in the next day or so. Two weeks after this, I called their office again and asked to speak to the General Manager again. He at that point said that I was lying and that their team had sealed the vents and returns and they had also cleaned up after them selves. We were very disappointed with this response,because we know for a fact that what they promised they did not deliver. We kept up our end of the deal.

Excellent service and price. Definitely recommend them.

We have had good relationship with them. We have a service plan, so I only paid for the service call. I have been satisfied with their service.

Furnace was in good shape and he carefully cleaned it and inspected the humidifier even though it was not covered under the service contract. Recommended replacing ignitor since furnace was over 10 years and service history sheet on furnace did not show replacement although I thought it might have been. Since the price was less under the service contract I had than if it had to be replaced when it didn't work I told him to install a new one. Later, when filing the service invoice in my file, I found an invoice from 2005 from the same company that showed the ignitor was replaced at that time as it was worn. I called TR Miller's service dept. and they contacted the tech who returned in about 5 minutes. He apologized for not checking my service history with the office, removed the new ignitor and re-installed the old one (fortunately I kept it) and cancelled the charge for the new ignitor. He was very courteous and blamed only himself for not checking before doing the work.

When they hooked up the furnace, they forgot to do something, but we were without heat or air conditioning for a whole weekend because they forgot to turn the switch on or something. The experience was fine once we got a hold of them, which they feel we should have called over the weekend, but I didn t think they were opened. They came out and checked it over and realized that there was a switch that hadn t been turned on. Once it was taken care of, everything was okay and it worked and we haven t had any problem with it.

We have two furnaces, and they did a great job replacing the one. When we first were shopping for estimates, the man that came out was helpful and knowledgeable. When they came out, they were clean, and they got the job done in 4 hours tops. They also replaced an air conditioning unit as well. They were clean and we love our new unit. We would use them again in the future.