BelRed Energy Solutions

OUTRAGEOUSLY EXPENSIVE BILLING PRACTICES Be prepared to pay big time. I recently had a problem with my furnace and called BelRed Energy Services. The problem turned out to be a faulty pressure switch. The part itself costs approximately $50-60. The company charged me $411.00 for the part and installation! When I called the shop to ask about it, I was told that they bill a flat rate based on the job. Apparently, they last updated their rates in the 70’s. The affected part is right at the front of the unit and installation involved removing a single screw and putting the new part in with the same screw…all of 2 minutes. Now it’s a Friday and I can’t really go looking for another shop, risking going into the weekend with my furnace out of commission, so I'm between a rock and a hard place. I called the shop the following week and they tried to justify the high fee, talking up the high overhead to run their business, their warranty, their highly-trained techs, and, additionally, claimed that they had no way of knowing if the work would take 2 minutes or 2 days. Really? They don’t know enough about servicing equipment that they sell so that they can charge a reasonable fee? The person I spoke with finally told me the matter would be passed along to the Service Manager, but he never gave me the courtesy of returning the call. Guess they figured they had my money and weren’t going to talk about it any further. I found several other reviews that will bear witness to this same issue. I will never use BelRed Energy Services again and would warn anyone to be aware of their pricing practices.

We called BelRed Energy Solutions to service our tankless systems. We asked for someone who was familiar with noritz tankless system. The plumber who came did not know what the -11 was on the noritz screen so he called the Noritz tech support. We found out that the part numbers were given to him but he did not order the part from them. He told us he was going to order them and he told us their were leeks on the tankless which we question. He supposedly was going to order the parts and come back the 2nd week. When he returned he not only did not have the parts that the tankless needed but Jeff the plumber said he talked to his coworker who worked on Noritz tankless before and it was a messy situation. He recommended for us to purchase new tankless systems that was going to cost $12,000.00. We told him we didn't have that kind of money laying around. He said that was okay because they had excellent loan available. We asked if he can try to order the parts that was needed and try that first. The said he was going to order them. I asked why he didn't order them the first week when he told us he was going to order them but he avoided answering the question. He proceeded to say he will order the parts and have them rushed delivered and that he will be back Monday or Tuesday to install them. Third week comes and we called because he did not come Monday and midday Tuesday and no call from their company. They said we were not on the schedule for service. We were upset. We asked to talk to the manager and they transfered us to the supervisor. We did not get any good response so we called again to speak to the owner or manager. We spoke to Brandon who promised that the parts will be ordered and we are on the priority list. Next week comes and still no parts. My husband and I both did our investigation. We called Noritz.com and found out that they logged in when the plumber called and was given the part numbers to order. The parts can be ordered and delivered at the latest in 3 days and can be overnight shipped. We were so upset and at this point have suffered without running hot water for 4 weeks. So we cancelled out service with Belred, ordered the parts ourselves for $50.00 and with Noritz tech supports' help we were able to install them. Belred manager Brandon said they will take one week to refund us the money we paid but I have not received an email about the refund yet.

Our recent experience with Bel Red Energy Solutions was top notch. Our furnace stopped working on Friday, they sent a technician to check it out on Saturday. We had a new furnace by Tuesday. Everyone at Bel Red was professional and helpful...scheduling, diagnostics, estimating, installation, and final inspection.

It was good. We've used them every year for several years.

Bel-Red had performed annual maintenance on my furnace for several years, so when my furnace would not light several weeks ago, I called them. Bel-Red sent two guys who diagnosed the problem as a bad igniter switch and said they could put a new one in a few minutes. Total cost over $700. The techs had already dissembled the furnace and taken the igniter out to test it;. The part looked relatively simple and only needed to screwed back in. So I asked how much labor was involved and why just reassembling would be so expensive. The tech said Bel-Red charged a flat fee to do the work and they couldn't break down the price into labor/part pricing. Also it was based on market conditions and national pricing, etc. He also said that future annual maintenance calls would cost me double what I had been paying Given the cost, I told them button it up, paid the diagnosis call fee ($100+) and shopped around. Good thing I did. Another group came out and fixed the furnace for about half of the price. Despite doing my service for several years, Bel-Red had never reported or did anything about visible rust on the furnace caused water dripping from an improperly closed hole in an exhaust pipe. Not sure if Bel-Red drilled the hole, but even so, they never reported the problem nor did anything about it even after multiple annual inspections.

Over the course of a couple of years, they talked us into so many "repairs" and "preventative maintenance" tasks on our furnace and a/c (each less than 10 years old, and working fine when they showed up) that it cost us thousands of dollars. We were fairly new home owners and let them get away with it for far too long. Everything seemed well documented and explained at the time, and we approved the work before it was done, but after the last bill for several thousand dollars (for units that were running fine!) we felt they'd abused our trust, realized we'd accumulated more in routine maintenance costs than a new furnace would have cost, and vowed never to do business with them again. When we sold the house, we warned the buyers not to use Bel-Red, and put the word out in our neighborhood as well.

Everything went really good. I am glad that I did buy a new furnace, but was not sure if I really needed one. This was my first time using this company. It was very easy to get a hold of them on the phone, and to schedule them to come out. They had the work done in 3 days. They also have an app where you can control the temperature from your phone, but it has monthly fee. They went above and beyond, and put a surge protector on my AC Unit.

Scheduling, equipment installation and electrical went well. They didn't offer running a new thermostat wire (as a 5 wire that came with the 1990's built house was short on conductors), so i did have to schedule a separate electrician to install but as I had other electrical tasks on my todo list that wasn't a big issue.. The crew and installation process of the hardware was good and efficient, and I would recommend the company for their excellent communications and crew. The service of the furnace promised by the sales guy didn't happen (dropped the ball there). I purchased an annual service to cover the existing furnace (fall) and the newly installed heat-pump. Sales had indicated they would do a furnace service as part of the installation; which didn't happen. Now I wait till the fall normal schedule. Not a critical issue but still, a thing sales indicated they would do, that didn't happen. The finish installer was only marginably knoweldgable on the NEST thermostat. This seems to be a common issue in the HVAC industry - maybe because NEST/Google doesn't provide a good training system for technicians, or the technicians with their decades of the old-way experience don't know how to get educated on the new systems. In any case, he didn't set up the heatpump+2stage gas dual-fuel optimally with the NEST thermostat. He wired up and configured the NEST and the furnace as a single heating stage to the NEST as AUX heating. This means the NEST sees the heat pump and an external single stage AUX heating source that will get changed over to when the outside temp (reported by the weather service over the internet) drops below a certain cutoff (configured by finish installer as 35 deg f). So in the winter ( foothills of the Cascades in Washington) if/when it gets cold enough heating will switch to the furnaceand furnace handles going to stage 2 after timeout of running on stage 1 heating for 10-15 minutes. So when its very cold and the heat is called for, I'd be stuck with the furnace trying to get there via stage 1 heating only fir the first 10 minutes. Want to heat up the house fast for some reason ... sorry, you gotta wait. This can be done better and one can set up the NEST to do that. The Bel Red folks (and other installers) just need to go get educated on the way to configure these thermostats. Its not rocket science but you also cannot just peck at them and click through menus without care and reading which setting you are on and treat them non-elegantly. So now I've got to go rewire the thermostat-furnace interface and configure the NEST myself so that the NEST sees there is the heat-pump + additional 2 stages of AUX heating.. thus the NEST thermostat will be able to call immediately for stage 2 heating from the gas furnace when it needs to rather than waiting for the furnace controller board to time-out after 10-15 minutes. The concern is of course the number of non-optimally configured systems that are getting installed - in the SEATTLE, WA area no less. Clearly those with complex systems really need to understand some part of HVAC - the thermostat to equipment interface and what the systems in the HVAC do, in order to be able to help themselves, else they may end up with a system not running its full potential.

The technician Scott was prompt and professional, and was able to respond to my lost heat on the same day. He replaced the ignitor in 10 minutes, and spent another 20 minutes cycling the furnace and ensuring that there were no problems. More importantly, I spoke to Dwight from the service department after raising concerns around my invoice. This is conversation occurred the day after my service, after I had signed a consent for repair (which includes pricing). Although I was agitated, Dwight was professional and respectful. He walked me through Bel Red's perspective on industry standard pricing on parts and labor. We were able to arrive at a fair adjustment. I appreciate Bel Red's willingness to prioritize customer satisfaction.

I'm working to complete a remodel/addition. Need to install a new furnace and re-route duct work to accommodate the addition. Bel Red responded quickly to get someone onsite to review the project. I was told by the consultant David, he would be out on vacation for 2 weeks, but would have Brandon contact me within 48 hours with an estimate if I needed work to happen quickly. I called Brandon 3 days later and left messages for him every day for 4 days. Brandon finally decided to return my call. He had no information from David and could provide no estimate. He apologized for the situation and told me he would move some meetings around, call me back and be out to look at the site that afternoon. I never heard from him again. Don't waste your time here. They don't need the business.

Disappointed with two aspects of this visit. 1. I had to call after a week to get the estimate sent to me even though I was supposed to get it after a day. 2. They were looking at removing furnace in order to install new gas line for fireplace. I had suggested a different path for gas line as it seemed straight forward solution. Furnace work would have greatly increased price of estimate. Ended up bringing in someone else to do the gas line and it was done as I had thought it should, minimal hours and minimal cost. I was very surprised that they even suggested to remove the furnace to install new line as it didn't make sense to me and would have increased cost for nothing. I am still waiting on estimate for AC install. Told them to forget about giving me numbers for fireplace as it's already done now.

VERY PROFESSIONAL; KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING; IMPRESSED

Recently bought a home and even with the thermostat on off, the furnace fan kept running. Previous owner had used Bel- Red to service the furnace so I called them. They said it would be $110 to diagnose what was wrong. Two reps came out, spent about 90 minutes, said I should have my ducts cleaned by them for $475 and that the blower motor and module needed to be replaced and it would cost $1975.00 for them to do it. And, by the way, they checked the serial number and said the furnace warranty had run out four months ago. After they left (me reeling), Puget Sound Energy knocked on the door to turn on the gas that had been turned off for work being done on an adjacent home. I told the rep what Bel-Red told me and he said that PSE does that for free, and offered to look at the furnace. PSE also repairs furnaces and charge for that, but not for the diagnostics. Three days later after determining that there was nothing wrong with the blower motor or module, they talked to the furnace manufacturer, realized that a sensor had been plugged into the wrong outlet, likely when the furnace was last serviced. PSE plugged the sensor into the right outlet and, bingo, the furnace was fixed, no charge, no new parts needed. They also checked the A/C unit and thermostat to determine that they were working correctly. I asked for my $110 back from Bel-Red, telling them that PSE fixed it for free, that I was very glad that I didn't spend $1975 on a furnace that didn't need it; they agreed to send me a refund by check. I have not received it yet, but I feel certain that they will do that. Word to the wise: First call Puget Sound Energy if something goes wrong with your furnace. Second, if you don't call them first, at least get a second opinion.

On time, professional, polite. Seemed to do a good job for AC. In past, had heater/furnace serviced: a broken part was replaced with another broken part. I was left with no heater x 3 days until I figured out what was going on. They did come back and properly replace the part, but it was a hassle.

The person that was doing the spring inspection noted that the electrostatic air cleaner was no longer functioning and I decided to go with paper filters. The size required a special order, so I wrote a check to Bel Red and was assured that it would be drop shipped to my door. Time passed, and I still did not have the filter, consequently I called to check. I was informed that they had not ordered the filter as the manufacturer required a. large minimum order. I told them that I would have appreciated being told of this, and requested that they refund my money. More time passed, I contacted them June 8, Monday, and asked where the check was. When the person checked with accounting it was discovered that they had done nothing about it. I was told that they would move it along quickly and it would hopefully go out. When I checked the mail today, Wednesday, June 10, and still no check, I called again. I was told that they had done nothing about it yet, and the reason given was that they were busy with spring work. When a company does work, it expects to be paid immediately, and that is only right. However, when Bel Red cannot see their way to refunding money that they have no right to continue to hold, that is definitely NOT right. I have no intention of calling them again

We got a call back today that the valve is out of production and it would be a custom job costing over 1000$ to do, including replacing the entire pilot assembly. The Superior brand fireplace (One brand name used by Lennox) has a 20yr warranty and was installed new in 2004 by the home builder. My husband and I made a few phone calls, got a 178$ price on the exact valve per the part number from an authorized parts distributor in California for the fireplace model. We have scheduled with another firm to come do the installation. What a rip off from BelRed. Never again. The service technician who came arrived on time and was very pleasant and professional. The company, not impressed.

Avoid this company. Premium cost for the worst possible service - multiple no-shows, code violations, recommending work that doesn't need to be done/is a waste of money - first we tell you need major service on your furnace, then afterwards we tell you it is well past it's life and should be replaced as soon as possible. Not to worry, their work cannot pass building inspection anyway and they will no show repeatedly promising to resolve. Avoid avoid avoid.

Will NEVER call them again. Tech's temporary fix for issue did not fix. When I sent them out the estimate to fix the unit was HUGE! and it may not FIX the issue. They said my unit was NOT covered by the warranty and I would have to pay the full repair bill. Another provider ran my serial number with Trane and it WAS covered and they did the whole job at half the price. Bel-Red installed our unit and very disappointed to be treated so poorly and gouged after all the money I have spent with them over the years.

I won't use anyone else. They have also installed street lighting and other electrical work. The electricians/Technicians are very professional and let you know if they're running late. I have nothing but good things to say about them and they also offer handyman services.

They are good. I had a little bit of an issue with the plumbing guy. But they are all very professional. The humidifier doesn’t kick in till the winter months; it's just sitting on the wall right now. I don’t really have a good comparison on the price. We keep going back to them because of the price. They were pretty punctual.

The office called last week to schedule my annual furnace cleaning and inspection. Se called again this morning when the tech was 15 minutes away. He arrived well within the window of time they had quoted when I made the appointment. Levi cleaned the furnace and showed me three areas which would need attention at some point. He explained the issues, cost and how long I could delay repairs, making it easy to decide when to have them done. He scheduled a no cost duct inspection, since there was a temperature difference that concerned him. I prepay for furnace and heat pump annual maintenance for about $238 combined; they take care of the heat pump in the spring and the furnace in the fall. The techs who come every year are knowledgeable and answer my many questions. I know my furnace and heat pump are in good hands with Bel Red.

Note: Robert (from Bel-Red Energy Solutions) who called in response to this review, clarified that they had sent a letter recommending a maintenance checkup and my wife (unbeknownst to me and likely unaware of who she was dealing with) called them back to schedule it. As far as I knew, the provider simply called me and left a message that they were on the way out to my house (I was at work). Be that as it may, whether it started with a letter or a phone call, the interaction was still unsolicited by me. Sorry for any misunderstanding. My wife, who was home at the time, let them in and they performed the inspection and left an estimate for a replacement hot water heater. Cost was $125 which my wife paid with a credit card. This is the latest in a series of shenanigans with this company, going back several years. Almost every interaction I've had with them has been contentious and unpleasant. Here's some history: they originally installed a replacement high-efficiency Rheem gas furnace for me in 2007. Once the installation was completed, the furnace fan ran at high speed all the time and the noise was intolerable. I called and complained and they sent a technician out to adjust the settings. For the follow-up call, they refused to give a specific time and instead gave me a time interval of several hours, during which I had to be home from work. When the technician didn't arrive during the scheduled time slot, I called their office and they couldn't tell me when he'd be there or even where he was. After I insisted that they provide an ETA and explained how I'd taken time from my work to wait, they still were unable to tell me when the technician would arrive. After hanging up from my call with the administrative assistant, I got a call from the owner -- I expect to apologize for the sloppy and unprofessional behavior. To my surprise, he proceeded to castigate me instead for treating his office staff poorly! The technician, after he finally arrived, didn't seem to be properly trained on this complex high-efficiency pulse furnace. After he left, the fan still ran all the time and the condensate pump was so noisy it would wake someone from sleeping downstairs. After calling again, I scheduled another trouble call, this time the technical adjusted the settings for the furnace again and and quot;rebalancedand quot; the system -- now the fan was not running all the time, but the condensate pump was still very noisy. I suggested relocating the pump so that it was further away from the furnace fresh air intake, but the technician said there was nothing he could do about it. I gave up on the contractor and refused to engage them further. I have come to loathe Bel-Red Heating and Air Conditioning (or Bel-Red Energy Solutions, as they are called today) After putting up with the condensate pump noise for a few years, it finally failed. I engaged another contractor to come out and replace it (as well as tune up the furnace). The replacement pump was much less noisy, seemed to be of much higher quality. Still need to relocate it and construct a sound isolation container, I plan to do that work on my own. I was surprised that Bel-Red would make this unsolicited maintenance request. After talking with Robert at Bel-Red, I asked that my installation be removed from their maintenance schedule permanently and for them not to call or solicit business from me. I'll never intentionally use Bel-Red Energy Solutions again.

The board on the unit had been fried, so they replaced it with a generic board. Which apparently worked fine. I didn't notice until after the technician had left, that the fan stayed at the first stage (of our two-stage system), so we had to schedule a return visit. They were very quick to respond and gave us priority in the follow-up. The settings needed some adjusting, but the unit seems to be working fine now.

So -- a few months back I posted a negative review and while we seem to be having more than average problems with our heating and a/c I can say that Bel Red have been doing what they can to make amends. On Saturday our a/c was not working (again) and given our previous experience they made the effort to come out that day to repair. Unfortunately (for me) it was a new problem and so cost quite a bit to repair (which makes me wonder why I do preventative service) but they did work to get us up and running again. I still have concerns given that preventative maintenance doesn't seem to be effective, but adding a new review with a 'B,' this time. Our furnace and a/c unit is also a bit old (15 yrs)...

Without actually going into my crawlspace, they declared that it was because one of the registers was closed. They charged me a $95 diagnostic fee. I asked them to come out again and actually go into the crawlspace to look at the ducts this time. They wanted to charge another $95 diagnostic fee to do what they should've done the first time. I made another appointment, and they didn't show up. Since the explanation of a closed register seemed unlikely the cause of the problem, I hired another company to look at the ducts. The other company found that one of the ducts had fallen down and was not connected with the system. To summarize, BelRed Energy charged a $95 diagnostic fee, didn't go into the crawlspace and mis-diagnosed a problem that was really easy to see, wanted to charge another $95 to do the job right, and then didn't show up for the follow-up appointment. That's three strikes.