One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning

Title: Avoid HVAC Company "A Big SCAM" - Terrible Experience I recently had an extremely disappointing experience with HVAC Company, which I would strongly advise everyone to avoid. This company, which I won't name here, proved to be nothing more than a big SCAM. Let me walk you through the whole ordeal. When I contacted the company, they seemed professional at first. The technician arrived on time for the diagnosis, which I appreciated. However, things quickly took a turn for the worse. I had a fair understanding of the problem before he arrived and needed his input for a home warranty claim. Instead of providing helpful information, the technician resorted to typical sales tactics and didn't offer many details about the issue. It was evident that his primary goal was to make a quick sale. To my surprise, he presented me with an option that would cost around $2500, without thoroughly explaining the reasons behind such a high price. Sensing something fishy, I decided to wait for the home warranty approval before proceeding with the service. This decision didn't sit well with the technician, and he became visibly irritated. Despite requesting a detailed estimate, as any customer would rightfully expect, the technician refused to provide one. He claimed that it would cost $215 per hour for him to explain the issue in more detail. Furthermore, he warned me that if the conversation exceeded an hour, the rate would increase to $343. This outrageous pricing structure and lack of transparency raised serious red flags. I tried to communicate my concerns through repeated text messages but received no response. It became clear that this company had no intention of providing the service I needed or even basic customer support. Ultimately, I ended up wasting $99 on the diagnosis, which proved to be a complete waste of my hard-earned money. I cannot stress enough how important it is to avoid this HVAC company. Their unprofessional behavior, sales tactics, and lack of transparency clearly indicate that they are running a scam operation. Instead, I strongly recommend using reputable services like FHURR AC conditioning, which I turned to later and had a much more positive experience with. Don't fall victim to this deceitful company; save yourself the headache and find a trustworthy HVAC service provider.

I was displeased with the experience. The technician came to conduct the service, which was prepaid in a home warranty program. I asked him to also reconnect a segment of ductwork while he was doing the maintenance. I am not aware of any maintenance or repairs being conducted. Instead, the technician said I needed a completely new system. Strangely, the system stopped working at this time. One Hour sent a technician out that evening, who gave me an estimate for a new system at approximately $9,000. I later received a second opinion and learned that the duct work had not been repaired as I asked and somehow the wet switch to the drain had been pressed, which shut down my system. This diagnosis and repair cost me under $200.

I have been using One Hour for about 7 years now. They are terrific to work with, are always on time, and they get everything running as it should be.

They were pretty good with responsiveness. I have an contract with them. I used another company for years, and when I called them they were bought by One Hour. I would say its ok for certain things, but I didn't like and don't like the motor they replaced it with. Its not matching with the one that went bad. They came and its a much cheaper motor and its noisy. It was going at an very high speed. The one I had had a very low variable speed, and went slow. It was very quiet, and he didn't have one. He used the generic thing on the truck, and it was noisy. I had him come back and turn the volume down, because it was too noisy. They tore the hole thing apart, because they thought it was leaking. It was completely disassemble and reassemble it. It was expensive. If I have a choice I will probably be replacing the whole system in an year, and I will be going with someone else with replacing the unit.

They are expensive. They are very good.

One Hour Heating & Cooling sent a rookie tech out and he claimed I needed 5.0 lbs of 410a Freon, charging me $553.00. He could not find a Freon leak and suggested I allow him to put dye in the system for another $99.00, claiming it would pin-point the leak. After performing these actions the heat pump still would not start up and he never did find a leak. He called for help and a scheduled their "expert" tech to come out the following day. The expert came out the following day and determined I had a bad thermostat, and a short in the air-handler wiring. He repaired it and got the system running, saying "I probably didn't need the 410a Freon". He suggested I purchase an extended maintenance contract, claimed he could come back in a couple months under the contract to check for the "leak" since the first guy claimed to put 5 lbs in the system. He said "it may take 2 months for it to leak out again". I called back in 2 months and another "expert" came out and inspected the system under the "service contract" that I purchased. The tech could not find any leak at all. He never did check the Freon level with AC guages, claiming "he couldn't get an accurate reading unless the outside temp was at least 75 degrees". I questioned this (as it's not correct) and he said "he would come back in Spring to check the Freon level when it was warmer". He did use a sniffer tool and found no leaks. He admitted the 1st tech was inexperienced and probably over-charged my system, stating it "probably didn't need any Freon to start with". I called the office and spoke to the owner who said "the tech "can and should have" used AC guages to check the Freon charge. I was concerned because it made no sense that they put 5 lbs of Freon in and they never could find a leak. While he was there I also had him check my Electronic air cleaned because it stopped registering on the LEDs to indicate when the electronic filters were dirty. It is still under a 10 year manufacturer warranty. He could not fix the problem and had no experience working on the air cleaner unit. He then tried to sell me a "whole house duct cleaning at a cost of $1,400.00, claiming it's better than normal cleaning as they use ultra-violet lights to kill the germs". I declined the offer as I just wanted my electronic air cleaner repaired under warranty. He promised he would research the air cleaner problem and would return on Monday. He never came back. I followed up with a call and he claimed "he was still looking into the issue". He promised again to call back when he found some info, and I never heard from him again. These people are scam artist. They all bad mouthed the prior techs and also bad mouthed the company that I originally purchased and had the system installed from (Chiltrol). In my opinion Chiltrol was a top notch outfit. They sold the territory rights to One Hour and One Hour took over all of Chiltrol's customers. I will never deal with One Hour again. They are cheaters and commit fraud. One Hour's mode of operation is to send rookie techs on the initial call. They perform task that are common in hopes of fixing the problem. When they fail, they schedule an "expert" to return". Unfortunately the expert I got was not an expert at all. He tried to up-sell before he even tried to fix my problem. The expert bad mouthed the initial tech saying "he's new and inexperienced" and he said "Chiltrol went out of business "because they were doing funny things and got caught" I do not believe this is true. To this day my electronic air cleaner still doesn't work and I was charged $553.00 for Freon that I did not need. Stay away from these guys. They are all a fraud and deliver sub-par service based on lies and inexperience. The outfit is deceitful. I can back up all this with documentation. Save yourself the headache and look elsewhere when needing your AC or Heat Pump serviced. One Hour Heating and Cooling is a scam outfit.

There is a tendency to oversell their products. Their work consistently requires repeat calls and return work and higher overall cost.

They were good. They were accurate when they said they would show up. They have very good systems in place to follow up and send you a receipt. And their people are professional and courteous. He did a great job and was very thorough. They upheld the contract I had with the company they bought out. He told me about some cracks in my old furnace and that he legally couldn't turn it back on. They don't do weekends, so we had to go a weekend without heat, but they came when they said they would and it all worked out. I'm just not positive that the price is the best price I could have gotten, but they did a good job.

The installation was fine. However I asked for and received a quote for a 16 SEER A/C system and have since discovered, when applying to BGE for their rebate, that a 15.5 SEER system was installed. One that does not qualify for BGE's $450 rebate, nor for the $300 Federal tax credit. This has effectively added %9 to the total cost of the system, not to mention the environmental effects of having a less efficient system. One Hour Air of Hanover never admitted to this and dodged my repeated requests for the necessary paperwork for the rebate until finally I arranged with BGE to handle the rebate paperwork myself.

The repair man arrive about 10 PM and discovered we needed a new starter capacitor, which he had on his truck. He replaced the part, and recharged the freon and was done before 11 PM. He was informative, knowledgeable and efficient. Because the One Hour person who came to do our spring maintenance had advise with the age of our system we add a repair contract to our maintenance contract, we didn't have an unexpected expense. We would highly recommend One Hour.

The repairs were great. Didn't like that they sold my wife a "maintenance plan" though, but I was able to cancel it.

My card was charged this month, and when they failed to show up for my appt. today I called them and they said they do not have any record of me.

I had a service contract with them. Now, when they came out they charged me on top of the service contract. I would have liked them to know what they were doing. The last 3 to 4 technicians they have sent out to service my equipment have basically, as I found out later, did nothing that was of a professional standard. I'll never prove it but I've been told they've actually damaged my heating and air conditioning by removing the lines while the system was running doing their pressure check. They've cut my drain line repeatedly. The last technician that came out was laying out all this equipment. There was a leak that should have been covered by the contract but he claims he has to put all this Freon in it just to check it and I'm going to have to check it. He tells me he put 4 pounds of Freon in it but I never saw him with a scale, just dragged the bottle in and put it in it. Then he tells me I need a whole new system and it's going to cost $10,000.00 because I have a leak, though he couldn't find the leak. He was just worried about getting his money and leaving. As far as punctuality, my service contract says if I call in I get priority. So, when I make the appointment, the girl asks me on the phone the day before, when will you be home? I say, I'll be home all day, just have him come out, when will he be available? Well, we make a specific time schedules because of what you are paying for. I said, okay, fine. She says, the first time available that we have open for you is 2 in the afternoon. I said okay. She said, but let me check. Oh, well, I see that we have a technician available first thing in the morning but that's not for premium service customers. I'm like, excuse me? I said, well then why wouldn't I get that slot? Well, that's based on first come first serve. Then I can't tell you a specific time except they'll be there sometime between 8:00 and 10:30. I'm like, serious? But because I'm paying extra you can't get get a technician here until 2:00 for a system that's blowing cold? Oh, well, um, what you want to do is call in in the morning. I can't put you down for both so I'm going to put you down for the appointment time but call in in the morning and ask if they can get someone there quicker because of your contract. So, I call and the girl that I talk to the next morning becomes adamant with me, well you made an appointment for 2:00. That technician will be there at 2:00, you can't change or you will have to wait until tomorrow. I was like, so, I'm paying extra to be treated like this? I don't get priority even though you tell me it's priority.

It was okay. There was the knob that was $50 and there was a debate about what the actual charge as supposed to be. Apparently, their office was saying something different. We went round and round with that. They finally straightened it out.

I used Accurate Air in Havre de Grace before they closed their doors. Cory went to One Hour Heating and Air and was/is always my technician; I won't have anyone else. He's the best; so professional, thorough and I totally trust him. We have a service contract with them for an entire year. They were very proactive in calling me to remind me that our free service was due. I love that. We scheduled an appointment at my convenience. I will continue to use them and would recommend them.

We have been service customers of One Hour in Aberdeen since 2003 when we moved into our new home (builder installed HVAC). In the last two years we have had problems with coolant leakage causing our AC unit to freeze up and stop cooling. One Hour has always been prompt and effective in coming out on service calls within 24 hours to get us up and running again in the hot summer weather (which in and of itself deserves kudos, because who wants to wait for days for the AC to be fixed when your home is 85 degrees and humid?) This year we had the same problem with the coolant levels, and since our HVAC system was builder grade and somewhat inefficient anyway, we decided to bite the bullet and replace the entire system. Brandon came out and provided an estimate for three different levels of replacement - basic, medium, and high - and explained all of the benefits of each. While he was there he commented on the noise coming from our air return, which we've always just lived with (though it was right in our family room and loud enough that you had to turn up the volume on the TV every time the system kicked on). He walked through the house and measured the return and ductwork in the basement, did some calculations and mentioned that the builder had installed an insufficient amount of return for the size of the house and HVAC system, making the system work harder and less efficiently (which may have contributed to early failure). He offered that we might benefit from an additional air return and some increased ductwork, since we were having the new system installed anyway. Then we went upstairs and explained the supply problem we were having in our son's room, which for 12 years had always been about 5 degrees hotter/cooler than the rest of the house in the summer/winter. Brandon said the additional return might help with that and also asked if we wanted to try aerosealing the existing ductwork to seal any pinholes that were leaking air behind the walls. At the end of the 90 minute appointment, we decided to go with the highest efficiency system which came with a 10 year parts/labor warranty, and a lifetime unit replacement warranty - we aren't planning on moving anytime soon, and wanted the peace of mind knowing that it would be the last system we would have to purchase. We also decided to have One Hour install the additional ductwork and air return, and seal the entire system. We were 100% impressed with Brandon and felt he was very honest and sensitive to our needs, not your "typical salesman." Prior to the big install/sealing, Brandon came out one more time with another gentleman to estimate our new ductwork needs. The install itself took a little over two days, and it went about how you would expect any large remodeling job to go - it was noisy, and hot, and dusty, with people coming in and out of the house for about 10 hours each day. However, One Hour did their very best to lay down plastic to protect our floors, and each day got our AC up and running so that we wouldn't be hot at night. I appreciated the fact that they wanted to work as hard as they could to get the job done quickly and correctly, and minimize the time my husband and I had to take off work. All of the workers I met were courteous and went out of their way to answer any of our concerns. We truly felt like VIP customers. The last step was aerosealing the ductwork, which involved (to the best of my non-technical knowledge) - connecting a machine to the ductwork and filling it with aerosolized material that looked and smelled like elmer's glue. The aeroseal team was awesome, so polite and took half the day sealing up all our registers to protect everything else in the house (the goal is to keep the sticky stuff inside the ducts, where it coats and fills all the little pin holes leaking your conditioned air). The air supply sealing process went perfectly ? they were able to seal holes that added up to about the size of a window being left open 24 hours a day, all year long! Unfortunately, we ran into a problem with the new return ductwork, which had a large hole that hadn't been properly sealed when that team left around mid-day on the second day. The aeroseal team ran the machine on the returns for over an hour but couldn?t get a good seal, which they monitored on a computer. What had been happening for the hour was that our basement and portions of our house were being filled and coated with adhesive because of the leak. We figured this out when they finally gave up and we noticed that things were sticky. They found the hole, sealed it with mastic, cleaned up as best they could, and called it a night (it was almost 9pm by that time). The good news was that they?d been able to successfully seal the supply, which since it transfers the conditioned air, is the most important part. The bad news was that we had some sticky surfaces ? mostly on horizontal things like shelves and boxes, but also a little on the backs of our couches and carpet near the basement door. After the install, Brandon returned to make sure we were completely satisfied, and we explained the problems that we had. He apologized, took notes and pictures, and assured us that he would take this back so that they could discuss it at their weekly meetings and use it as a training opportunity. He also offered us a 5-year maintenance package and a complete home cleaning, as One Hour's guarantee that the customer and their home be completely satisfied and respected. We really appreciated that. About two months after the install, on a hot September Saturday, we had another AC failure - my heart sank. Yet again, something on the unit had frozen over due to low coolant pressure and the unit in the basement was leaking water. The house was 80 degrees and the unit wouldn't stop running. I was convinced that we'd gotten a lemon of a system, and the family was HOT! It was 10pm, but we called One Hour's 24-hour hotline, and they were ready to send someone out at no charge that night. It was getting late, so we said that the next day would be fine, and sure enough, a repairperson was there at 8am on a Sunday. He saw that when the outside unit had been installed, a valve had been left on but not quite tightened, which was causing a very slow leak. The valve looked fine, but just to be sure he went ahead and put a new one on and made sure it was really tight, refilled the refrigerant and we were back up and running. One last note (sorry this review is so long, but it was a big job and I wanted to make sure it was thorough) - the new system is amazing! For the first time our entire house is the same temperature upstairs and downstairs. Our son's room is finally comfortable. I am not sure if is the new system, the new ductwork, the sealing, or all three, but One Hour really delivered on their promise to make us more comfortable. We would recommend them without hesitation. They are probably not the cheapest option out there, but we have found them to be the best, and they stand by their work and their word. My opinion is that you can tell a good contractor not only by the quality of the job they do, but by how they respond when something goes wrong. We had several issues in our install and the months following, but One Hour always, always made it right.

I am willing to share the letter, which I have maintained, but Angie's List does not appear to have the ability to upload documents to this review.

-- The provider refuses to honor the written commitment made by the President of One Hour to service the contracts of the company that they acquired. -- Generally, a service company acquires another company for its list of satisfied customers and its reputation. The claim that only a phone number was purchased seems absurd. -- I had absolutely no issues with Accurate Air in the past 3 years. However, this experience with One Hour/"Chilltrol" One Hour has not been pleasant at all. -- Now that I see in the reviews below - this seems to be a pattern here - for previous customers of Accurate Air who are trying to obtain service from One Hour.

This past May, I signed an annual service contract with Accurate Air just as i have done the past three years. The contract called for two visits and cost me $150. My summer has been very busy and I did not call to schedule my summer service until today (July 10, 2015). I called the contact number and was transferred to a new business called One Hour Heating and Air Conditioning. The young woman who answered told me that Accurate Air had gone out of business and her company had acquired it. But when i tried to schedule my appointment she told that their company would not honor any service agreements made with Accurate Air but i could make a new contract with them. I explained that i had already paid for two service visits and if their company had taken over then they should honor it. We went back and forth for a minute and i asked to speak with a supervisor but the person i spoke with never connected us. Instead she gave me a big runaround and refused to provide contact information for a supervisor or owner. That's poor business practice and i will never do business with One Hour Heating and Air Conditioning 653W Bel Air Ave, Aberdeen, MD 21001 | 410-942-9024 and if that's the way they conduct themselves i suggest you think twice about it as well. My options are limited at this point but i am going to see what can be done to recoup my $150.

It went well. They came and tested everything to make sure it was all topped off. They called before they came like they promised.

Came a couple of times. He had to come back the second time because we were stilling having issues.

Our gas furnace was making a grinding/revving noise and we called One Hour because a sticker on the furnace indicated that they had serviced it previously. The technician came the next day. (The company does not give windows of time unless you pay extra, so the "punctuality" category did not apply.) He was polite and wore shoe covers when inside the house. He explained that the draft inducer was "broken" but was not really able to give additional detail. He quoted us over $1300 for the repair. I looked the part up online (priced $300-450), paid the fee for the service call ($49, would have been $39 if I had looked on Angie's List for the coupon first) and called another company. The other company came, cleaned out the furnace completely and replaced the part for $900. The second company did agree that we had no choice but to replace the draft inducer, so I do believe the diagnosis from One Hour was accurate. Otherwise, the company simply did not provide the level of service we have gotten from other similar companies.

Initially they were recommended to us by someone at Home Depot. They fixed a problem that we were having trouble with, that nobody seemed about to fix. They always showed up on time. Their pricing was very competitive and we had a service plan with them. Very nice technicians came out.

The first guy came and wasn't expecting an oil system. He left and another fellow came back later that day and did it.

The service turned out fantastic. They are going to be out next weekend for a 6 month check up on the system. I have a yearly service plan.