Sila Heating, Cooling, Plumbing and Electrical

The technician was on time, pleasant, knowledgable, a perfectionist in his work ethic. He cleaned the furnaces, turned down the burn to save energy, and explained the system to me. Over all an A+ for this experience with this company.

I found Sila on Angie's List. I just moved into a new house with a gas furnace and I needed someone to come to inspect, clean and basically perform an annual maintenance on the heating system. Sila offered a special rate for Angie's List customers which was great. They were very responsive and customer focused throughout my entire experience which was refreshing. My appointment was scheduled for within a few days of my call. The technician was on time for the appointment and thorough in his inspection and cleaning of the system. In addition, I had questions about how this particular heating system worked as it was new to me and the technician was very thorough and patient in explaining the system, what to look for in good operation and answered all my questions. All in all, it was a great experience and I would certainly recommend them to others. I will certainly use them again for any of my heating and cooling needs.

We have an old home, built in 1900, with no existing ductwork. Our heating system is radiators with a new furnace, so we were only looking for air conditioning. We got 5 people to come out and give us estimates. Two companies said they couldn't do the job, so we got 3 actual estimates. They were all the same exact price (20K), but all offered different approaches. The first difference I saw was that Steve, the Sila representative who came to the house, spent almost an hour evaluating the job. He brought in his own ladder with rubber coated legs to protect our wood floors while he looked at every detail. He then sat at our kitchen table and wrote out the estimate right there. The other two representatives spent about 10 mins walking around the house, then never sent an estimate. I had to call both of them a week later and remind them to do it. I also did A LOT of research about the small duct, high velocity systems versus the older systems. Steve from Sila gave me pages of references, and I called 3 people on the list who had similar systems installed. After my research, we went with Sila. They were very well organized, started the day they promised, and finished the day they promised. They showed up at 7:30 every day, and when we got home from work at night, you would never know they had been there. There was no mess, no tools left around the house, etc. Steve was always available, responsive, friendly and easy to work with. Unfortunately, we have not used the a/c yet as we had it installed end of september, but we are very happy with the job and looking forward to the summer! This is a very expensive endeavor, and their price was the same as every other quote we got. It's hard for me to rate the price as 'excellent', just because it was such a painfully big investment. But, this was a huge job and their quality was excellent, so it was worth it. Great company. Highly recommend.

I've decided to purchase their annual service contract for my gas furnace and central air.

It was really good service, professionally handled, and punctual. Probably a bit more expensive, but very good.

The technician that came out (Jared, i believe) was very knowledgable and super helpful in explaining every step he was taking in the check up process. Unfortunately, I found out that one of the units needed to be replaced (he made sure to show me the cracks in the heat exchanger)...but thats obviously not their fault. The only reason for the low grade on Price was because i had Sila come back to quote me on replacing the furnace. I found that they were at least $1500 higher than the other 4 quotes that i received. They were very quick to point out (even before sending me the quote) that pricing shouldn't be the only factor when evaluating their proposal...so I had a feeling it was going to be high. I just didn't realize it was going to be THAT much higher. Overall Sila was a great company to work with, and if their pricing came down on new units I would definitely use them for new furnaces as well.

We arrived home Sunday evening from a 10-day trip to 40 degree weather and no heat! After using all our blankets to keep warm that night, I called our usual heating guy at 7am and learned he was out of town. At 7:30am Monday, I called Sila and asked for a technician to come out - they said they had someone on a call in Lexington and I would be next on the list. Jarrod arrived at 9am! He was polite, professional and friendly. He got right to work investigating where the electrical disconnect was located, and after checking 5 areas, he found an original switch from 1935 to be the culprit (behind the boiler room door; we didn't even know it was there). He bypassed the switch, since we already had a new emergency shut-off switch installed closer to the thermostat. Jarrod worked quickly and explained all the steps to me. He showed me how the old switch worked and how he had bypassed. He even took a quick moment to meet my daughter's stuffed animals when she came to investigate what was going on. I ended up getting an annual contract with Sila - a great deal which covers the rest of the year and my next cleaning. I thought we might need a new boiler, and instead I spent only $215. Whew!

UPDATE to Review(11/14): After seeing my review of my experience (see below), I was contacted by Jake McLoughlin, the owner of Sila. He immediately had my $89 refunded to me over email and when we were able to speak in person on 11/11, he apologized for any inconvenience caused and expressed his sincere regrets that I had a poor initial experience with his technician John. Jake seems like a great guy, a good boss and a professional responsible business owner---he took full responsibility for his office dropping the ball, he stands by his technician's initial evaluation, and offered to send another technician to replace my furnace's heat exchanger for FREE. This is a $2000+ job that Jake volunteered to have done at no cost to me to make things right! Despite the initial very negative interaction for which I gave them an "'F" rating, I have been absolutely impressed by his follow-up and the lengths he is willing to go to prove that Sila Heating & Air is a topnotch company and to make sure his customers have as positive an experience as possible. It's increasingly rare to find a company willing to go the extra mile especially when things go wrong initially---Jake has proven to me that he is the exception and clearly has his priorities straight. I have subsequently upgraded my rankings of them to a "B" and would not hesitate to call on Jake again for any HVAC needs. When the new (FREE!) heat exchanger is installed in the next week or so, I'll be sure to review that experience as well. Initial Review (11/1/11): purchased a Big Deal coupon on Angieslist for an A/C maintenance over the summer, but didn't get around to scheduling it until October. When John Bisetti (technician) from Sila showed up, he talked me into him doing a furnace check-up for the coupon instead, since A/C season was pretty much over. The furnace in our house is about 5 years old, and it's never had it professionally checked out, because it never had any problems---I ask for heat, it quickly and quietly gives reliable heat. I change the filter every couple of months, and it turns on and off when it's supposed to; what more can you ask for from a furnace? However after John poked around for about 15 min, he had nothing good to say about the state of my furnace. He came up with a list of multiple problems the most dire of which was a "cracked heat exchanger" that "could be leaking carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide." He basically tagged my furnace as unsafe for use, turned off the gas,and told me the only fix was a complete replacement. I'm not 100% sure how he came to his conclusion because he admitted he was unable to get a clear view of the heat exchanger to see, but something about the way the air was flowing around exchange area indicated to him major problems. That was his expert opinion and the only work he did on the furnace was diagnostics---he did no actual maintenance nor did he address any of the other more minor problems that he found--In his opinion, there was no point because his recommendation was to replace the entire furnace ASAP. He promised me he'd have an estimate and written quote for this by the end of the week (He showed up on Weds. 10/5). I didn't hear anything from him by then and gave him a call. He said he was "swamped" and to give him a few more days. I gave him until the following Weds.(10/12)--still no response. I called him again. Again he asked for a few more days---those days passed and still nothing from John. After calling him at least once a week for a full 4 weeks from the initial visit, I still haven't heard back from them. Bottom Line: One would think if you "tag" a client's major house system such as a furnace as "unsafe for use" that it would have your highest priority and attention especially headed into colder weather. It makes sense not only from a business standpoint but from an ethical, human decency standpoint as well. In my opinion, John from Sila has failed on both those fronts. By this point, I have had to call and pay for a second opinion from another HVAC company (there are only about a thousand other options.) My furnace works fine (as it always had), the carbon monoxide/dioxide detectors do not detect anything. They did not come to the same conclusion as John. To be fair, it seems like John may be the bad apple (please see another negative angieslist review dated Oct 5 mentioning John as the technician) as other reviewers seem to have nothing but good things to say about their techs and visits. I hope Sila's management addresses his performance and the negative impact it has on their name and business and refunds me my $89.

Very well. Right on time. Serviceperson was accomodating, professional, and helpful.

I don't usually take the time to write reviews, but I had such a positive experience with Sila that I wanted to share my experience with others. After I scheduled my original appointment, Sila called to let me know they had a cancellation and were available to perform the service today if I was available. I was glad to get it taken care of earlier than planned. Jarrod arrived when he said he would and was exceptionally professional and friendly throughout the visit. He took care entering my home to put plastic coverings on his shoes so he wouldn't track in dirt from outside. Then he got right to work inspecting, testing and cleaning my boiler. Jarrod demonstrated a real love of his job and enjoyed explaining each step to me in clear language, which I appreciated because I wanted to learn more about the system. He was thorough but worked quickly. Ultimately he identified two parts that needed to be replaced. He explained exactly what they did, what condition they were in, the cost of replacing them, and the impact of not replacing them immediately. He took great care in cleaning and inspecting my system throughout. Jarrod also gave me some considerations for replacing my hot water heater, including what would be worth spending money on vs. saving money on. It's refreshing to work with a company that's truly professional and Sila certainly earned my business for the future.

The appointment was orginally scheduled for the morning - a window of two hours. But Sila had a high volume of "no heat" calls and Jake call me to let me know that they would not make it and we worked out a plan to have them come later in the day. As a busy person, I greatly appreciated the heads up and his professionalism on how Jake treated the appointment. The technician, Bobby, did come as promised later in the day and assessed the system. The system is between 10-12 years old and to be honest, I had never had it serviced and was growing concerned that something major would go wrong. Bobby noted that the main line was clogged with bits of newpaper (that may have come from having my ducts cleaned) and that the volume of junk in the line could have caused a major break and certain water damage. Crisis averted! Bobby also showed me the electrical switch outside that needed to be switched off for the winter as well has a hint about animals - mice - that like to take shelter in the unit. He opened ours up and found evidence of mice but thankfully they had not eaten the wires which apparently is common. Bottom line - don't put off servicing your central air A/C units and Sila did a great job -will certainly use them next year!

An excellent experience. Very knowledgeable technicians-would highly recommend.

The service person I think it was Bob was very affable and went right to work. I observed him doing the job and was very pleased and felt he did complete the job well. I also questioned him regarding a maintaince policy for the heating season. It seemed that their policy was much less expensive than another well known company affiliated with the most well known provider of gas in this area. I will definitely follow up with this company in the future.

The technician, Bobby, arrived onsite within the scheduled time. He was professional, pleasant, and courteous. As this was my first gas furnace maintenance as a home owner (previously had an oil burner at past residences), he explained the different parts of the furnace, recommended maintenance, estimated replacement times, and kept me informed. He explained each task he was doing and made pleasant conversation. The maintenance took approximately 45-60 minutes and resulted in no major or safety issues. He recommended the replacement of two parts totaling about $150, one of which was visibly cracked. Bobby cleaned up after himself and was polite and prompt. I would recommend Sila Heating and Air Conditioning.

By exceeding my expectations, Sila's technician, Jarrod, succeeded in winning new business --- service contracts on 16 year old furnace and central air conditioner. Total charge for service and service plan was $420.00.

Great service, professional and very informative.

Very smooth because representative showed up on time; especially apprecaited appointment scheduler was very good about trying to arrange a workable time for me because of my difficult schedule that day. Representative was very professional and also put shoe covers on, which was much appreciated! I felt reassured once the annual check completed. Thank you for the opportunity to work with this company!

Sila came to check our (Lennox) gas furnace - it had been over 10 years since it had last been checked. The tech arrived on time and went straight to work. He did everything as promised - checked/cleaned all basic components, basically giving everything the once-over, etc. He may have been a little on the young side, but still was completely professional and very engaging - telling me in "layman's detail" everything he had done and what to watch for in the future. He even pointed out where some dead bees had been living inside the air intake chamber (I cleaned them out while he was there). Bottom line was that this was my very first Angie's List -related purchase, and I was not disappointed at all. Thank you Sila, and thank you Angie's List!

The process was simple enough, but we feel as though we were taken advantage of as the service was pre-paid.

It was a Big Deal that we purchased. He said they normally charge $275 but we would never pay that much. We have normally paid $150 in the past. It was a good experience. They were a little late but they called to tell us they were coming back from finishing a job. We would use them again if they had the same price. If we don't use them again, it has nothing to do with them; it would just be for price. We were very happy with them.

Both service techs that worked on our furnace were quick, efficient and professional. They explained everything and worked without needing oversight. The work was performed in less than an hour and tested multiple times to prevent them from needing to come back. We were so happy that we bought a service plan with them with includes a yearly cleaning, part and labor for ANY problems. It is only ~$40 than their in season cleaning cost. This is an AMAZING deal which includes night and weekend service calls. It is great to know that we are completely covered by a company we can trust.

My first home was serviced. I had asked for the head technician to service my properties, John, who came. He ended up taking a couple of parts, turning the furnace off, and telling the tenant (who has lung cancer) that the furnace was unusable. He was difficult to understand when he spoke, so there was some confusion on what was really going on with the furnace. The tenant had an understanding that the furnace was giving off CO2, and that he had turned it off without asking. He then left a sign on it that alluded us to “not use” it. This was unusual. He had given the tenant a verbal estimate of what it would cost to replace the furnace, alluding that that would be necessary. When I talked with him, I got the understanding that the furnace “could” give off the CO2. I do have C02 detectors in the home. I had called him about the furnace being turned off, and still he didn’t mention that he had taken parts. I am amazed he had taken parts, without asking or informing either the tenant or me. John told me the furnace needed to be replaced and the earliest time I could have this done was a week later, after the furnace had already been turned off. Then he said he could probably do it Friday. I told him to hold me a spot until I got backed to him. At that time, he asked for my credit information, which I did not offer. About 30 minutes later, he called and left a message the price for incorrect on his estimate. He did not even specify if his price was too high or too low. After that, he called to say our price estimate was correct and that he’d been confused. I was suspicious so I called a service provider I’d used previously. This provider thought I was being overcharged for the replacement of my furnace. This provider is installing a new furnace today. The next day, John followed up with me to see if I wanted him to come on Friday. I have yet to call him back. They were responsive, but we were very disturbed. The tenant in the home is very ill, and really needs the heat. It was disturbing that he left her with no option, and made us think this issue was immediate. However, he couldn’t even come replace it for over a week because they were too busy. They really need to talk with the occupant of the home before turning off the furnace and make sure they understand what the situation is.

I purchased the service through Angies List Big Deal. I called to schedule an appointment and they made the appointment for the following Thursday. The gentleman that did the work was prompt-even a little early. He did a great job, explained what he did and was thorough and professional. I was very happy, overall, with the experience.

I was very happy with their service. They were on time and professional.

Not only did the two gentlemen (Jarrod and Bobby) show up early for their appointment (and called ahead of time to let me know they would be early), but they were extremely personable and professional. They explained everything they were doing step by step, which is huge for a single woman who doesn't understand any of this stuff. The men were tidy, cleaned up after themselves, offered to dispose of the dirty filter they removed, and made sure that I was completely satisfied with their services every step of the way. I would highly recommend them to anyone.