Sila Heating, Cooling and Plumbing

The tune up went great. Oscar was pleasant, on time, and neat (it was wet outside). He worked on the furnace, reviewed maintenance tips, and was on his way. Unfortunately, the furnace did not turn back on, and when he came out again, it was determined that the safety switch was fried. A replacement part was ordered, and put in within the week. Separately, Brennan came out to do an air conditioning estimate. This happened a day earlier than was scheduled, and still have not received an estimate. Purchased the maintence package for the furnace. A the time, they had said that they were out of contracts, but one would be mailed. Check was cashed, but no contract as of yet. Overall, when they are at the house, everything is great, but there seems to be a lack of follow up sometimes.

Wow, fabulous service! And we have heat again!!! After shuddering at my desk through a couple conference calls, I realized the temperature in the house had taken a sudden drop. When I checked the thermostat, it was registering a chilly 58 degrees! The furnace would operate, but not on "auto," and it would only blow cold air. Since it was after noon on a Friday, I figured we may have to shiver our way through the weekend, but the (very friendly) woman who answered my call for help at Sila's was very accommodating and offered the first availability. She said that the technician, Oscar, would arrive between 4:00 and 6:00. Oscar arrived within the planned window, and spent a good amount of time to determine the issue, which he said could be one of several things. He pinpointed the problem, and explained the issue to me. He fixed the problem, and heat started blowing again. I really appreciated the time Oscar spent in explaining the problem and the fix to me. He reviewed the overall health of the f17-year-old furnace unit, and described the service plans Sila provides. He also made some recommendations for improving the overal efficiency of the unit. We had a service plan in place with another company, but terminated it because we were unhappy with the customer service we experienced duing the service calls. Oscar's service was exemplary, and, as a result, we will be signing up for a service plan and, later this fall, call back Sila to install our AC unit and cover it with a service plan. He asked me how I found Sila, and I told him AngiesList. Oscar said that there was a $30 off service call coupon, for AngiesList members, which I had printed and then forgotten (it was cold!). How awesome is that?! He brought back the heat, and he saved me money!!! Oscar, thank you for bringing back the heat in our house. You said that you are from New Orleans--laissez les bons temps rouler, with heat! THANK YOU!

When the Sila technician started the tune up he noticed that my furnace wasn't lighting correctly. The furnace has 4 burners and only one of them would light. And every time that one burner lit up he gave it two seconds to see if the other burners would light and then he flipped the switch to turn off the furnace (to prevent the room filling up with gas). After that he did some troubleshooting and told me the gas pressure needed to be fixed and that Washington Gas had to come fix that. Then he said I owned him $98 dollars for a "diagnostics fee"... (he didn't let me know that before he started troubleshooting). So I paid him. Then he told me to call them back after Washington Gas fixed the issue and he would come back and do the 21 point tune up. So I had Washington Gas come that same day and the technician did some readings and said there was nothing wrong with the gas pressure. Additionally, the Washington Gas technician also discovered that every time you turn on the furnace and see the one burner light up, if you give it more than 2 seconds the furnace automatically shuts itself off. Then the furnace restarts and tries to light the burners again. We noticed that consistently all four burners light up on this 2nd attempt. So there was nothing really wrong with the furnace, per se. (Just some bootleg behavior) So I called Sila back and the same technician came the next day. I showed him that the furnace works as long as you just let it run its course. He simply said sorry about that and did the 21 point inspection. He didn't offer to refund the diagnostic fee and I didn't ask. I'm the idiot for not asking for a refund of the diagnostic fee. But good business practice should be that: 1. You let the customer know you're going to charge a diagnotic fee BEFORE you do the diagnosis. 2. If you give a incorrect diagnosis you should refund the diagnostic fee.

They were really good all the way, very professional in work and explained everything to me in simple words including the advise to keep a look out for future problems that we may come across in its use.

They were very accommodating. We called them one evening and they came out the very next morning. The experience with heating was great. The experience with the air conditioning was so far beyond great. They were very clean, they were here every day. The account manager was here every day. It was a great experience. They were very professional and responsive.

Oscar was fantastic. We were able to get a same-day appointment when our furnace started emitting a strange smell, and he was very knowledgeable and helpful. While we don't need any significant work done right away, we ended up signing up for their service plan for our (very old) AC and furnace, which gives us tremendous peace of mind. Another great Angie's List find!

Excellent service, reliable, prompt, and honest.

It was excellent all the way.

Cleaned the furnace. End of story.

Oscar Robertson was fantastic. He was able to diagnose a problem with my furnace. He was very knowledgeable. He gave me some pointers to look for.

They showed up n time, and cleaned and inspected the furnace.

Two of my heating systems were in trouble. One produced no heat at all, and the other was leaking the condensation water all over the floor eventhough the water pump was functioning just fine. I went to Angie's list and noticed that this company has all A's in their ratings for Heating/AC. I called at 8 AM on Tuesday, the day that was forecasted for a major winter storm moving in that evening. They gave me a two-hour window 9-11 AM that same day. This fact alone was shocking. Clearly this was not the norm in this industry, not even a long shot. I could not believe my ear, so I had to ask again that it was today, an hour from now? and was confirmed. I also reitterated that this was not an emergency call to be certain I would not be charged an additional fee for emergency. They simply stated that they just wanted to take care of everyone before the storm hits. OSCAR was came to my house at about 10 AM. He was extremely profesional and courteous. He even put on the shoe cover so he wouldn't tract dirt into the house. He checked out my first system that produced no heat at all and the blower fan did not go on even manually. He was concerned that the blower motor could be shot, which would be quite expensive to replace. However, after a short period, he stated that fortunately, only the capacitor was bad and was minimal to replace. I was very relieved. He then went to work on my second system and was concerned that there might be a leak in the secondary heat exhanger which again, would be very expensive to replace. However, after a short period of time, he said fortunately, only the water collector box was clogged with dirt causing an overflow of water, and of course costed nearly nothing for a quick cleanout. Through out the entire time, he was extremely cordial and honest and was explaining everything in detail. The potential for HVAC companies to charge to replace parts that are not neccessarily broken was there. But not Oscar, he was talking to us as if these were his own systems. He was very trust-worthy. In the end, he even gave us $30 off each system for diagnostic. I would absolutely use this company again for any problem with my heating/AC. It is the best in this area (DC metro), even over a few other bigger companies that constantly advertise on TV/radio but usually have very poor customer service.

Mike was on time, professional, made some recommendation, wasn't pushy. I will use them again...

Oscar came to do a routine maintenance check on our furnace. He was very punctual, efficient, honest, and polite. He gave complete feedback on the system as well as the airconditioning and hot water heater without applying pressure. We were extremely satisfied and bought a 3 year service contract for the furnace.

I was very pleased with the service. They called me to set up an appointment soon after buying the Big Deal on Angie's List. They arrived on-time and went straight to work. The person who came out was knowledgeable, friendly and did an excellent job. I would definitely use them again. We even asked them to give us an estimate for future work. We were very pleased! High recommend them!

This was a furnace tune-up for a rental house. I gave them the tenant's contact info to arrange the visit. A few weeks passed and I was about to check with the tenant if they'd ever been contacted, but evidently they had because she sent an email to me that day that they came by that morning for the furnace tune-up. She said he seemed very thorough and that he would contact me about the results. I never heard from them, but nevertheless it appears they did a good job. I guess they were just very busy.A

I was very impressed with this company. I was contacted, within a reasonable amount of time, by the company to set up an appointment. I'm so busy, it helped me out. The woman who made my appoint was very professional and so nice. The technician was very prompt. He pointed out that I had a humidifier attached to the furnace that was allowing air to escape out needlessly. He removed the humidifier and placed insulated tape over the hole left by removing the humidifier. I did ensue a one hour labor charge in addition to the deal I got on Angie's List for the tune-up. I did want to commend the technician for his professionalism. Overall I was very pleased with this company.

Shortly after the tune up on my previously working fine furnace it stopped working and the company came promptly to find the fault and fix it. They intially identified what they suspected was the problem and replaced the part. However the replacement part didn't work they put the old part back in since start it was working. After 3 or 4 more visits they left the old part in since it was working again. To their credit they did not charge me for the return visits and the tecnicians were professional, knowledgeable and courteous. I would use them again without any question. The office and the techs were all pleasant and professional to work with. In spite of the hickups finding and fixing the problem with my furnace I found the company to be good and would recommend them again.

First and foremost Oscar was very professional, excellent, informative, polite and he showed up ontime. Upon arriving, he introduced himself and told me what he was at the house for. He asked me to show him where the heater was and he checked my thermostat. He did his job professionally explaining to me what was wrong and what I needed to have the thermostat working correctly with the heater. He also explained different things about the heater I didn't know. After installing a new thermostat and doing the maintenance he explained to me how to work the new thermostat, cleaned up and went on his merry way. If anyone is looking for someone professional to come to their house, ask for Oscar.

I live in an old house with a radiator/boiler system. Oscar from Sila showed up and did a great job. Not only did he service my boiler, but he also checked the water heater for safety/performance at no extra charge. Oscar was also good about answering my questions and providing maintenance tips after I explained that boiler systems are new to me. Also, the staff at Sila are all good about answering the phone and emails, and following up. I was so pleased with their level of service that I asked them to provide an estimate on AC installation.

It was great. They came the next morning after I called. Oscar was the tech and he was right on time, very polite, communicated clearly, gave excellent advice on how to solve the problem, worked quickly and cleaned up really well. He also cleaned out some parts of the furnace as well. He was top notch! In addition, Oscar told us about a coupon on angie's list for their services (in addition to the one we were already planning on using), called his office when we couldn't find it online and found out they removed it the day before, and then still honored the coupon for us anyway. It was only $30, so not a huge deal, but it was really appreciated and made me want to use them again immediately.

Every aspect of the service visit, by Oscar, was efficient and professional. See above. I'm glad to know about this company. I'll share it with my friends that live in AA and Howard counties. If I were Sila, I'd have the tech's hand-out a business card to keep on file and maybe offer a few of them so clients could share with friends and neigbors. Just a marketing idea.

This company responded promptly and Oscar was an excellent plumber and we will use this company for all future issues.

Great. The technician was punctual, courteous and professional. He wore shoe covers in the house, had all his gear with him, even a replacement part he didn't know he would need.

I will use them again to check my air conditioner. They are very courteous and prompt and finished quickly! They also gave me information about filters for my unit.