Alamo Heating and Air

Diagnosis and repair within same day.

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I have used them about a year. They came out and evaluated the system. They came out and did a repair recently.

We were referred to Alamo Heating and AC from our home warranty company when our upstairs heat pump failed in late January, 2010. We initially had repairs done to the existing 20 year old system but then decided to replace the unit with a complete new system. After the installation the new heat pump would not turn on, we could only get emergency heat. Various service personnel tried reprogramming the thermostat, replacing the thermostat, and finally finding a protective shunt had not been removed. By the time summer arrived we had heat available. But not air conditioning. We had more work on the thermostat, air flow, including fiddling with dip switches, rewiring the air handler, adding refrigerant, removing refrigerant and a new thermostat that included a humidity control setting. The system never seemed to be able to cool the upstairs satisfactorily. It always felt warm and humid. The humidity would not go below 60% and the system seemed to be running all the time. We reviewed the original notes from our first contact with Doug in which he had indicated he would install a 3 ton unit. However, the actual installation was revised to use a 2 ton unit, but the price was not adjusted; Doug told me that they are the same price! Bubba told me that since we had also added insulation, we only needed the 2 ton unit. I have never been able to get an answer from Doug or Bubba on the price Alamo charges for a 2 ton versus a 3 ton unit. I have now had conformation from Bubba that Alamo charges the same for a 2 ton unit as for a 3 ton unit. He says that the price is based on SEER rating and that the price we paid was for a SEER 16 unit. A quick check on the internet will show a SEER 16 rated 2 ton unit sells for around $365 less than a SEER 16 rated 3 ton unit. In addition, Alamo installed an air handler for 2.5 - 3.5 tons, not one for 2 ton. The price difference on the air handler prices is around $200. Since the unit still was not satisfactory and the service personnel at Alamo have not been able to make it right, I decided to get a second opinion. I called Champion AC and had a technician at the house within half a day. He evaluated the entire system and showed me what he had found: There was an imbalance between the air handler and compressor that would require back and forth adjustments (ultimately requiring 5 pounds of refrigerant); the plenum had been attached to the air handler with tape on three of four side and was leaking, to the point that the attic was quite cool and comfortable at 4:00 PM with outside temperature in the upper 90s; the water drain lines from both air handlers ran uphill from both units to get to the drain running downstairs and had plugged up. Working that afternoon and the next day all problems were fixed and the unit now is finally working. The upstairs finally feels comfortable, the humidity is down to 50% and all rooms are adequately cooled. I paid over $700 to Champion to have this taken care of, but decided it was worth it to be rid of Alamo. I hope that this unit will now run efficiently summer and winter. Doug had promised a huge savings in electric costs which have never appeared. Our electric bill for August was nearly identical to last year (we have been in the house just over one year), not cut in half as Doug had predicted. That is with an extra 8 inches of insulation and new, better insulated ducts. So the system installed by Alamo never functioned correctly in the half year they tried to get it working. After Champion fixed the system I felt relieved to have the system work and very disappointed to have spent so long trying to get Alamo to fix their own work. I would recommend avoiding Alamo Heating and AC at all costs. If you have a home warranty system that sends you to Alamo, decline to use them and pay repairs out of pocket, it will cost you less in the long run. I will never let anyone from Alamo back in my house. The only nice thing I can say about Alamo is that the service technicians were pleasant people and generally came when scheduled, but were simple not trained sufficiently in AC/heat pumps to do the job. We also had many times when we had to wait considerable lengths of time while they tried to get more information on what to try next.

They were difficult to reach. One technician would tell me one thing and the next one would tell me the opposite.