Cosmos Heating & Cooling Co

I had a 20 year old Rheem unit that I knew was coming to the end of its life. There were a few hot days in the Spring when the AC unit seemed to be working fine so I gave little thought to actively replacing the AC unit. So at the end of May we were experiencing a series of 90 degree days and the AC unit was cycling on but shutting off after a couple of minutes, then coming back on. We were getting some cooling but clearly we were dealing with an electrical malfunction of some kind. This started on Thursday. So we called our contractor of 20 years who is clearly swamped with calls because of the heat wave and says that he can not get to us until the following Tuesday!!! So I get on Angies list Friday morning and start calling AC contractors who are located in my immediate area with the hopes that I can find someone to look at our unit ASAP. One contractor came by but did not fix our unit and quoted a price for a new system. Because I was still hoping to get my AC fixed immediately I kept calling and eventually called Gus at Cosmos. I could tell that Gus was very busy with multiple calls because of the hot weather, understandably! I was upfront with Gus saying I knew I needed a new system but Gus said he could not install one until the following Wednesday. But understanding that we were desperate to get our old AC running in the mean time Gus came by late Friday afternoon and after an hour fixed my unit enough to keep us cool until our new unit could be installed. NOW THAT IS SERVICE!! So Gus installs only Carrier units (which is one of the top three best AC units) , and he suggested that I keep with a 3.5 ton unit and go for the 16 SEER(our old unit was 8 SEER). I will confess that I research (listen and verify) a LOT before making a big purchase . I spoke with other contractors to hear what they recommendend and in the end I was certain that Gus was not over selling me anything and that he was the best choice (best price and quality of equipement). So on Wednesday Douglas came initially to start to break down my old system and he patiently answered all of my many questions. A number of hours (installation is a big job) later Gus came with the second component of the unit. Likewise, Gus answered all of my questions about AC units, and my installation. I learned that he works hard to build peoples trust, he understands, as a small business owner, the importance of costomer loyalty. He is a great guy! And yes, I supervised the entire installation. I am VERY please that I connected with Gus, that he was kind enough to fix my old AC unit so that we would not be hot and uncomfortable waiting for our new system to be installed.

My rental unit air conditioner had the misfortune of breaking at the same time as many others--on the first day of the hottest period of the year. I needed a fast repair, and Cosmos was about my fifth or sixth call. Everyone else was busy, and I was sure they would be as well. They were busy, but were able to squeeze me in and within a few hours they were on site, reviewing the damage and making repairs. The rates were reasonable, they had parts on-site, and two hours later my tenants are enjoying cool air once again. I highly recommend this company and agree with the many positive ratings posted.

Kudos to manager George Christofi and crew. Mr. Christofi provided a range of options and prices and three days later installed the choices I made. His prices were very competitive and he already had experience installing new systems in similar condos. He measured the ducting beforehand so it could be made at the shop and brought to the installation. The actual installation was completed in about 6 hours with the crew pretty much working non-stop. The crew was very professional and polite. They explained how to operate the new system and cleaned up the area before leaving. All in all a very good experience.

My house AC went out last Friday. I had called FH Furr, but my scheduled appointment for today (Tuesday) was outside their predicted window (11AM-1pm became 9:30 AM) and so I had to cancel. Next appointment was on Friday. Although I took the Friday appointment, I really wanted to get it done tonight. I called a few other businesses and they too could not respond immediately (it was now 4:30pm). I checked Angie's list and called Cosmos, and talked to Gus. Gus told me his prices up front and then came out within the hour. After taking the cover off of the outside compressor housing, he quickly discovered the problem to be a mouse nest. It was inside and near the compressor timer, causing a short. He fixed the wiring and then had the compressor up and running. We checked the rest of the AC system inside to include the postioning of the vents to maximize my air flow. In summary, an immediate response, no hard sell, very informative discussions, and most importantly the problem was fixed! A pleasure to work with and I would definitely use him again.

In April the weather got hot for a few days so I turned on the air conditioner to cool the house. Unfortunately no cool air was coming out of the air vents. I quickly determined that I needed expert help and so I called 6 different companies to get some help. None of the companies I called could come to the house as quickly as I wanted. It was a Thursday and no one could come any sooner than Monday. Then I called Cosmos Heating and Cooling. They came out the next day, tested the system and showed me that it needed to be replaced. It was over 15 years old. We scheduled an installation date and time for Tuesday. The installers called in advance that they were on their way, then showed up at the scheduled time. They did a great job with the removal, installation, and cleanup. Normally after this much work, I have to clean up something. But they left it completely clean. The HVAC unit has been working perfectly and I have to commend and recommend Cosmos for the wonderful job they did. They were efficient, friendly, and very good at their job.

Overall service was great.

I was very please with Mr. Cosmos and his worker. They worked thoroughly to clean and maintain the ac units inside and out. Mr. Cosmos took his time to explain exactly what he was doing. He brought hard to find odd sized air filters for me, which no one had ever done before.

They did a good job and were professional. They cleaned my system and made recommendations with a quote for repairs. I would and plan to use them again.

We were extremely pleased. They reduced the price of the labor.

I had already gotten two quotes; one by phone and one from by a contractor who came to my home to inspect the system. Both quotes were similar but I like to get three quotes for a job as large as this (~$7,000). I called Cosmos to get the third quote. Communication on the phone broke down on the spelling of my street address so I switched to Cosmos' online form. I asked for a quote to replace my heat pump, stated the manufacturer and model number of the existing unit and described the problem. A few hours later I got an e-mail response from Cosmos that he could not ascertain the appraisal value of my home as the mortgage company had only comparison values on file. There was no mention of the heat pump or how the market value of my home related to the quote. This response seems unrelated to my request. The other two heating companies had no questions about my mortgage and I would not expect any from an HVAC company. The inability to understand a simple request for a quote would make me hesitate to hire this contractor for any complicated job.

Fantastic service again from Cosmos Heating and Cooling. The pilot light on the water heater kept going out. My husband would relight it, but the light would only stay on for a short time. When I called Gus to see if he could come out to take a look, I told him there was no hurry. I had several appointments that day and asked if he could come out in later in the afternoon or later in the week. He asked when I was leaving for the appointments and told me he'd be out in 1/2 an hour. Not only did he and his assistant show up within 15 minutes, they thoroughly cleaned out the pilot light assembly, didn't charge me for the visit, and I had plenty of time to get to my appointments. No problems with the water heater since the visit. Great service! We'll be calling Cosmos for the a/c check in a few months. Thanks!

Excellent job.It is very refreshing dealing with someone who is very courteous, professional and honest. Great service.

Three things impressed me about Mr. Christofi: One, he tried to save me money. When I called him initially, he voluntarily told me exactly what his services would cost per hour on a regular basis versus on an emergency basis. He was quite transparent about the cost. He questioned me about the gas leak to see whether I really needed emergency service that Saturday, because he said that small gas leaks are often not dangerous. He said he could come on Monday, instead of Saturday, at half the cost. However, I told him that, for my own peace of mind, I wanted him to come that day (Saturday) and would be happy to pay the extra cost. Two, once he showed up, he was very methodical about what he was doing at each stage and was happy to explain it to me in plain English. This included not only fixing the gas leak but also helping me understand my heating/air conditioning ducts better than I had ever understood them before. This has helped me improve the evenness of my heat throughout the house. Three, Mr. Christofi was very courteous, very nice, and very neat. So I will definitely use him for my future heating & air conditioning needs.

Summary of below: The boiler installation performed by Cosmo's was not fully up to code & they did not make me aware of peripheral repairs that needed to be done to ensure a functional heating system. When problems arose, they did not address them in a way that resolved the issue. They did a good job with the water heater installation. Gus arrived on time with another gentleman and got to work draining and removing my old boiler & water heater. When the new units were in and hooked up, I went downstairs and saw that they had only replaced 2 of the gate valve boiler drains with quarter-turn drains, leaving 6 of the gate valve drains (the old turn-style types) on the pipes leading into/out of the boiler. Gus said that the 6 that were left were fine and didn't need to be replaced, and I accepted that. After the work was done, I noticed that some of the radiators in the upstairs of the house were not giving off heat. Gus and his crew stayed an additional 2 hours and seemed to have some trouble getting the heat to work up there due to "air in the pipes." Finally they were able to bleed the air out of one of the radiators and heat was flowing faintly. They seemed satisfied and said it would get hotter as the system warmed up. Then they left. That night I went to bed and was alarmed by a loud and intermittent "Glub-Glub" sound of air bubbles gurgling through the pipes. I went down to the boiler and noticed 3 steady slow-dripping leaks from 3 of the remaining 6 gate valve drains. I called Gus the next morning and to his credit he did come by the following day. I showed him the leaks, he tightened one of the gate valve drains and stopped that leak (although it did start leaking again a week later), and as for the other two leaky drains, he told me they could not be tightened any more, but that they would "seal themselves" over the summer and that I shouldn't worry about it. He also said that these types of valve drains (gate valve drains) sometimes leak because they are older. I asked him why, if that was the case, hadn't they changed them out to be standard quarter turn valves when they did the installation? He repeated that they didn't need to be changed out, and once again said that they would "seal themselves." He then stated that if I wanted them changed to quarter-turn valves, he would have to charge me the full price & it would be very expensive because it would take another full day to drain the system, do the work, and re-fill it with water. At that point he became dismissive and stated that the leak wasn't dripping that much water anyway (of course, it had only been a day) He then put a bucket underneath the leaks, and seemed to feel that that had fixed the problem. After 2 weeks, the bucket was, of course, 1/3 of the way filled. As for the noisy radiators, before he left he installed what he termed a "bleeder" (which turned out to be, not a bleeder but a saddle valve, which is against code for this application) at the end of the pipe that seemed to be the loudest, and told me whenever I heard the noise I should bleed it at the valve he had installed and catch the water with a plastic cup. When Gus said he would charge me full-price to fix the valve problem that he did not anticipate, I had no reason or desire to go back to his company to replace the valves. I had another company come in to give me a quote to replace the valves and had the unfortunate experience of learning that several aspects of the Cosmo's boiler installation were not done correctly. I ended up spending WAY more money in the end to fix the problems.... but it was worth it to learn about the poor quality work I did receive now, instead of much later. Why I will not hire Cosmo's again: 1. The work they did was not to code. a. They installed a safety relief valve, but did not connect a discharge line to the valve. Instead they left the valve open and pointing directly at the brand new water heater they had installed. I'm attaching a photo of that as well as the picture from the boiler manual they left me that shows where the Discharge Line should go. This violates sections 1004.2 (which states safety valves must be installed according to manufacturers guidelines) and 1006.6 of the VA state mechanical code (which states safety valves must be connected to a "rigid pipe that is approved for the temperature of the system") . b. They failed to install a Backflow Preventer, which prevents the boiler water from backing up into the tank and contaminating the potable water supply in the house. This violates section 608.15.2 of the VA state plumbing code which states that all openings and pathways to a system's potable water supply must be protected by a reduced pressure principle backflow preventer . c. They also installed what they said was a bleeder to one of the pipes in my upstairs radiators, it turned out to be a saddle valve, which is usually used for humidifiers . Saddle valves are not approved for use on radiant heat piping, because they are not made to withstand high temperatures over an extended period of time. I'm told this is a code violation, but I cannot find that verbiage anywhere to verify for myself. 2. I think Cosmo's did not do a complete job. When I made the decision to replace the boiler, I wanted a boiler that functioned efficiently and properly within the larger system of the house. If I had been told that gate valves were prone to leaks and that the valves can only be replaced when the entire system is dry, I would have wanted them to be replaced while the system was already drained -- and I would have paid a litttle extra to see that happen, knowing I'd be saving money on labor in the long run. In fact, I wanted a complete system with all parts of that system functioning well as a unit -- and in keeping with that Cosmo's should have also replaced the 40 year old expansion tank, which I learned later was filled with water and not functioning properly. The best thing about Cosmo's was the price, which was low -- but of course they had the lowest price, since they were not doing all the work that needed to be done, and in fact did not even give me the option to do the more complete job for more money. When I complained, their final stance was: You wanted a new boiler, we gave you a new boiler. This is true. But then it's also true that they essentially replaced one set of leaks with a different set of leaks.

It went very well. Cosmos is a family run operation, and the father came the first day for the inspection and evaluation. He was very pleasant and he related the condition of our existing unit to me in great detail. We discussed options and chose to replace the unit after he explained that he had been able to secure a partial credit for our failed unit from the manufacturer (Carrier) even though it was out of warranty. The cost of the replacement unit was on par with the cost of replacement parts for the existing unit and with the replacement unit, we would get a new 10 year warranty. The next day, the son came to our door at exactly when he pledged to arrive, and he and his somewhat larger crew reomved the exiting unit and installed a replacement within a couple of hours. To a man, the Cosmos crew was extremely pleasant to work with and I will most definitely be adding their annual inspection and system check to my service calendar with extreme confidence.

We woke up Saturday morning, February 16, with no heat. There was a singed odor near the heating unit, and my husband and I discovered that one of the large fuses had blown. Also, one side of the heater seemed very hot, even though by the temperature in the house it was obvious the heater hadn't run in a while. We became first-time homeowners just a few months ago, so this was outside the realm of do-it-ourselves work. I called several heating/AC repair people Saturday morning. Most of them either didn't have someone available until Monday or didn't even have someone answering the phones. It was Saturday, that's understandable. However, it was COLD this weekend and we really needed someone to come by to look at the heater. Thankfully, Gus answered the phone and said he'd be over in two hours. He arrived when he said he would and was SO nice and explained everything he was doing and what was going on with our heater. He examined the unit and said it wasn't just the fuses that were blown; the wiring inside the unit was breaking down, and that's what was causing the fuses to blow (it's also why the unit was still hot on one side). He replaced the fuses short-term on Saturday so we would have heat through the weekend, and then he and Douglas came by on Monday morning to replace the wiring and housing of the fuses. They only charged us for one visit, which was amazing considering he came on a Saturday AND a Monday morning. One place I'd called on Saturday wanted to charge twice as much for a diagnostic visit on Saturday! We are really thankful to Gus and Cosmos for helping us out on a really cold weekend! We won't forget it and will be calling them again in the future for our heating and cooling needs.

I called Cosmos at night upon learning my furnace was not producing heat. Cosmos said they would come to the house at 8:30 am the following morning. I was extremely happy that they arrived promptly at 8:30 because I was anxious to go to work to make it to a meeting. I stayed until Cosmo found the problem. I was given an estimate, wrote a check, and went to work knowing I would return in the evening after Cosmos repaired my furnace.

We've only worked with them since last year, but they've been very helpful. They were great with explaining everything and helping my mother feel comfortable. Their price was reasonable.

I came home from vacation to a cold house - I could hear the furnace but no air was blowing and there was an odor in the house. So I shut it down and used my fireplace until Monday when I could call. Checked Angie's List first and found Cosmos. Based on the reviews and the coupon I decided to try them. I called mid-morning and George said he'd be here between 2 & 3 PM which was fine with me. He actually arrived closer to 1:30 PM and was courteous. He got right to action and while it ended up working fine it was a pleasure doing business. I asked him to send me quotes because this is a builder grade unit 12 yrs. old and I would rather replace now than wait for it to stop all together. George said he would email 3 different quotes and he was very patient wth my questions. I would definitely recommend and I will be letting my other co-workers and friends know. Thank you!

I called Cosmos on Friday, January 18 to obtain an estimate on duct cleaning and a maintenance contract on my home. Rather than price over the phone, they requested an appointment for the following Monday to review the system. On Monday they called about an hour before their arrival to confirm the appointment, and arrived within the time frame indicated. George reviewed the system and advised me that a duct cleaning was probably not worth the expense as they appear to have been cleaned recently. He then asked if I wanted him to give the system a check-up. We reviewed the various prices and he serviced the unit as requested. He seemed genuine and upfront in all our dealings. The price I paid was for a full year maintenance contract, the first of two check-ups was performed on site. That price was comparable to other well rated HVAC companies. I am a contractor by trade, so I am a little more comfortable with the working class type of contractor. Cosmos appears to be this type, low overhead, no bow ties and Mercedes, just a decent HVAC technician. If you're looking for uniformed techs with a nice lady answering the phone, you won't get it, but George answers the phone just as nicely as a secretary would.

I got home on a Friday night to find my furnace out. The next morning, I called Cosmos and spoke with Gus, one of the owners. He was at my house a short while later to diagnose my problem. Gus is one of the nicest men you'll meet. I watched as he took things apart to figure out why the furnace (an oil burning hot water boiler type) was not working and he explained what he was doing, what he thought the problem was and what my options were. Turns out I needed a new transformer, as I wasn't getting a spark to fire up the oil. Gus returned with the part on Monday (there was no real urgency as we were having an extremely warm weekend), installed it and it's been working great ever since. Due to my work schedule, one of my adult sons met Gus and let him into the house on the Monday visit. After Gus left, my son also commented on what a nice guy Gus is. Gus gave me a discount on the parts and I thought the charges were very reasonable. I liked that, when explaining my options, Gus toId me what each would cost and was not at all trying to up-sell. I would definitely use Cosmos again and understand why other List users rate Cosmos so highly. I do, too.

The entire experience with Cosmos went very well, and I would use them for other properties. I highly recommend Cosmos.

Very well, except for the price. He stated over the phone that coming to my house would be $95 for diagnostics. When he arrived, he took one look at the furnace, pulled out a pin and realized it had too much carbon on it. He proceed to take out a blade, cleaned the pin for about 10 minutes, put it back in tested it and finished. I said, "I owe you $95?" he said "no--you owe $190" "$95 for coming out and $95 for cleaning the pin" Somewhat shocked, I said "can you apply the Angies list coupon of $20?" He said, "No--that's only for services of $200 or more" I said, "can you make the service $200, take off the $20 and charge me $180?" He said, "no", but you can use the coupon next time. While Mr. Cosmos, was very prompt, efficient and courteous, his effective labor rate comes out to about $800/hour (including his diagnostic fee). With a diagnostic fee of $95 and a really small fix like cleaning a pin, I would have expected an even $100 or something close, not double I recently used a highly rated electrician from Angie's List (Mark Young). He came to my house for free and quoted me $300 to install a 240V outlet for a dryer. It took 6 hours, he cut four or five holes in the drywall, installed new circuits in the panel, snaked wire along a bulk head, installed the outlet, patched all the drywall (and had to make a few trips to the store) and he charged me the quoted $300 for six hours of work that is far more skilled than cleaning a pin from a furnace.

Called them on Saturday for service on a very loud buzzing heat pump. They showed up within the hour! It was determined a wire may have come loose and the buzzing was fixed. In the process the technician determined that a newly installed thermostat was malfunctioning and the problem was also resolved with a different thermostat.

I called Cosmos after noticing that my heater wasn't working properly as the house got colder. The gentleman on the phone told me a technician would be over in about two hours which was a great relief to me as I was expecting to wait at least a day. George Christofi showed up almost exactly two hours later and found the problem--broken ignitor--straight away. He retrieved a "top quality" ignitor from his truck and recommended it as a replacement. He said it costs a bit more but would likely outlast the furnace itself. I agreed to the replacement and George had the house warming up in about an hour. I was very pleased with the quick response from Cosmos and George's professionalism. I chose Cosmos because they are located nearby and saw the good reviews on Angie's List. I would recommend Cosmos to my friends and neighbors.