Air Works Heating & Cooling

I used Air Works when I first moved into the home. They were very professional, showed up on time, and they completed the work pretty fast. It's my line of work, so I'm a pretty good critic. Everything looked good.

First, Air Works was very courteous and responsive. I called about the problem one day around 4:00 p.m. and they promised to send a technician the next morning. John called when he was on the way and arrived promptly at 8 a.m. He confirmed that the problem was the relay and gave us two options: 1. replace the control panel for a permanent fix (expensive) or 2. install a secondary relay for a perhaps not permanent but much less expensive fix. He noted that our furnace was 24 years old and that we would probably consider replacing it in the not too distant future, so he wanted us to consider this before spending a lot of money on a control panel. We went with the less expensive option because we are aware that our heating and cooling system will need replacement in the next few years. John had the work completed by 9 a.m. and the furnace is working beautifully. This was our first experience with Air Works and we were very impressed with their punctuality, honesty, and ingenuity. We will definitely be calling them for future heating and cooling needs.

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Air Works installed my Carrier furnace in 2006. In 2011 they came and replaced failed primary and secondary heat exchangers. Exchangers were covered under warranty. They charged me $200 in labor. Throughout the service call, I listened to the technician saying the F word so loud it echoed through my house, repeatedly. He was upstairs, my children and I were downstairs. Furthermore, I could hear him kicking at the furnace while swearing. When the technician completed his work, he asked who installed the furnace horizontal. I replied that his company did the installation. 1-8-14 I called a different local heating and cooling company because my furnace was leaking 1/2 a cup of water every time it turned on. They water had a propane odor. They offered to have a tech come out in an hour, but recommended I contact the installer in case work was covered under warranty. Due to my past experience, I was hesitant to call. When I contacted Air Works, they told me it would take a couple of days for someone to come out. Since the entire condensation pan was filling in a 6 hours, I decided the problem could not wait and called the other local heating and cooling company. They came out within two hours. They diagnosed my furnace with failed primary and secondary heat exchangers, soot in burners 2, 3, 4 along with water leaking from unit into condensation tray. He said the problem should not exist. The heat exchangers last 25 years. He recommended I contact the local Carrier representative and have Air Works come out and repair the furnace under warranty. I contacted Air Works to report what the technician found and request service. I was told it would cost me at minimum $130 to have their tech come out and look at the furnace. They did not accept the diagnosis of another company. Since I already paid $160, I did not want to pay another $130 for a problem that should not exist. I contacted Carrier and spoke with their local representative. I was informed there was a class action settlement for my furnace in 2006 because of failed heat exchangers. Conditions of the settlement provided replacement of the heat exchangers and labor. Over the next hour, he asked me several questions. In his opinion, failure of the heat exchangers again in 3 years could be due to poor installation. He expressed frustration that Air Works charged me for labor when they were paid for labor under the class action settlement. He recommended I contact another repair company. Another company came out for 8 hours and serviced my furnace with a long list of problems. They replaced the primary and secondary heat exchangers and burners, installed MISSING air baffle, installed MISSING restrictor plate, secured heat exchangers to back latch tabs by blower motor because it was UNLATCHED and adjusted WRONG gas pressure. During installation or previous repair, my pressure was set for natural gas not propane. I live in the country. EVERYONE has propane. Needless to say, in his opinion the failure was due to poor service repair by Air Works. When his work was completed, I was only charged $200. $120 of it was for the burners not covered in warranty. The remaining $80 was for additional labor. They did not charge me a fee to just come out and look at the furnace. As such, I forwarded the information to the Carrier representative to address the problem. I am in the process of writing a letter to AIr Works. From my understanding setting the WRONG gas pressure is failure of basic 101 heating and cooling education. I do not recommend Air Works for any heating repair or installation.

He took apart the the furnace and checked the pilot to make sure it was firing correctly. He stated it was the original pilot meaning it was some 30 years old and he said it worked just fine. Never suggested that I replace it. He removed the burners from the cabinet and hand washed them in the utility sink. He inspected the heat exchanger with a mirror and said for the age of the furnace it was in fairly good shape. Never tried to sell me anything new..but he did say that when the time comes to replace the furnace that it will be a bit costly due to changes in the codes requiring pvc pipes for venting and efficiency requirements for newer furnaces. He also suggested I relocate the furnace to help free up more space in my basement. He reassembled the furnace and tested it until he was sure any water left in the burners was gone and that it was lighting correctly. Their company (as Air Works and under their previous business name) sold me a new central air conditioner and a humidifier on two other homes I owned. The a/c/ unit was hooked to an old 50ish year old furnace (at the time) and they never once tried to force me to buy a new furnace..they made the a/c unit work with my old furnace just fine.

Our A/C had been out over the labor day weekend, it was hot and we were uncomfortable. I had a diagnosis from Consumers that said I needed to replace my Carrier unit. I called Tuesday and made appointment for same day to confirm the diagnosis and either fix the unit or get information for a replacement quote. No action as of about 4:30 Tuesday so I called to confirm and was told we were on the schedule for Wednesday, I explained my wife was having surgery the next day so this would not work at all, and to please get someone out Tuesday as agreed earlier. The person on the phone then made some calls and arranged for service Tuesday, but they were in Ann Arbor so it would be a while. OK by me. The service person arrived around 7:00 and was professional and courteous. He worked hard to see if the unit could be repaired and finally concluded there was a electrical short and the unit needed replacement. I felt we got our money's worth, and then he measured and took information for a replacement unit quote and said the office would call with a quote with various options.All in all the call went well and I was prepared to give Air Works the replacement business, assuming the quote was reasonable. The next day (Wednesday) I did not hear from Air Works and in the afternoon I called to thank them for getting the service man out Tuesday and that I was looking forward to the quote. I was told Bob had the information and would call with a quote. To shorten this up a bit Air Works never bothered to call with a quote (as of end of day Saturday) and I lost a couple of days believing they would call any minute and we get our A/C on line. It was hot enough so that I had to take a Hotel room for a few days so that my wife could rest after her surgery, and of course that added to the cost of the overall outage. All in all a disappointing.experience.

They offered a great deal of very good information without any expectation of making a sale. I shopped around before I went with them.

Airworks was one of four estimates I rec'd, all in writing. Airworks offered the best price. Estimate appointment was prompt, installation went well, service people were very courtious and helpful. They took the time to show me how to work the new equipment and came back on time as a follow up.

GOOD TO RESPOND TO CALL and SERVICE. PERSONABLE and PROFESSIONAL.