I've had several great interactions with Affordable Cooling and Heating since 2010. - 2010 Replaced my water heater - 2010 Inspected my HVAC system because I felt it was struggling to cool the house effectively - 2012 Replaced my HVAC system - 2013 Returned and installed a whole house humidifier on my new furnace.
My water heater failed in the early spring of 2010, and I called around to find a contractor to come out and replace it. I found Randy's Affordable Cooling and Heating through HomeAdvisor.com and scheduled an appointment for an inspection. He confirmed that the tank had cracked, and it needed to be replaced. He told me that he had a water heater on his truck, but suggested that I call the warranty hotline number printed on the water heater and see if it was still under warranty. In his experience, the manufacturer would likely pay to replace it for free, and that he would be happy to come back an install it once I picked up the new one. That honestly surprised me, and I took his advice. Sure enough, GE worked out a warranty replacement with my local Home Depot, and I received a new water heater at no cost. If I remember correctly, Randy went to lunch while I picked up the replacement water heater, and then returned and installed it later that afternoon. I was extremely impressed with Randy's honesty, and his willingness to skip an easy pay day to do honest work and build a relationship, which is the way it should be done. He could have very easily taken advantage of the situation and sold me the water heater he had available, but the fact that he didn't spoke volumes. An hour or so later, he had installed the new water heater, tested it, cleaned up after himself, and was on his way. He only charged me for the labor and materials to install the water heater, too. 3 years later, I've had no issues with it or his work at all. In the summer of 2010, I asked them to come out and inspect my HVAC system because it was not cooling my house effectively. I had two other companies come out as well, and both proposed expensive piecemeal fixes, such as re-plumbing the evaporator and completely replacing the duct work from the furnace/evaporator up to the main plenum and into the home. They also proposed topping up the refrigerant. Randy came out, carefully looked the system over, ran several tests, and told me that while the system was under stress, it didn't seem to be in danger of failing any time soon. It was simply too small for the house and couldn't keep up. I told him about the fixes the other contractors had proposed, and he said that he could do any of them if I wanted, but they wouldn't fix the issue and he didn't want to take my money and not fix the issue. He didn't push me to replace the entire system, and didn't even propose an estimate until I asked him, so it was extremely low pressure. He worked up a couple of options and patiently walked me through the pros and cons of each and how the cost would change with the various options. I wasn't prepared to replace the system at that point, but I kept his estimates and notes as a benchmark for later when I would replace it. In May of 2012, Randy was the first person I called to do an updated estimate for replacing the HVAC system. However, he was not the only contractor I called. His estimate was significantly below the others I received, and it was an easy decision to hire him to do the work. It only took him a few hours to replace my whole system, test it and clean up. He did an excellent job and suggested that I hang on to the old system and try to sell it on Craig's List to recoup some of the cost of the new one. Again, Randy could have easily charged me a bogus "disposal fee" and then re-sold the old unit himself. My new furnace package was to come with a whole house humidifier. With summer right around the corner, Randy pointed out that the humidifier units only carry a one-year warranty. He suggested waiting until the next winter to install it, so I wouldn't waste my warranty period with the unit sitting idle during the summer months. I took him up on his advice, and he returned in January 2013 and installed the humidifier at no additional cost.
