Best Lighting Repair in Saint Paul MN

I had an issue with my furnace. Service was excellent from my very first call to the actual visit.  I never felt patronized.  I felt like they were just really interested in making sure I got my issue solved and that I understood the problem and solution.  They were friendly and professional.  I will definitely use them again.

Our dishwasher needed to be anchored and Tyler got to our home on time and was very pleasant and did a quick and efficient. Would highly recommend him and use him again!

We have had to use Air Mechanical several time over the past few months due to the age of our current systems.  Today was the water heater, and Chad F. was able to replace a part rather than the water heater itself.  He was a great guy and provided great service.

Very dissatisfied with the timeframe I was given. I was told between 10:00 and 12:00. I even called that morning to confirm and was told someone would be out to my house between 10 and 12. Received a text at 11:50 that Rick was on his way. 40 minutes later still no Rick. I called and was told he's on his way. Rick arrived at 1:15. Dressed professionally and polite. Rick did a very good job explaining what he did and the results of our furnace. Answered all my questions with great detail and I felt he was efficient. I just wish they could give a better timeline. I missed a half of a day of work waiting.

Five years ago, Service Today installed a new furnace and AC unit. They sold me on a premium warranty - 12 years all parts and labor. Since then, I've had a handful of repairs and absolutely nothing is covered by the warranty. There's always a different excuse and the techs will make stuff up on the spot on why it's not covered.

Recently, my AC unit was blowing warm air. I called Service Today and a tech came out. He then called his supervisor to come out and together they spent four hours - mostly in the basement looking at my furnace and ducts, not the AC unit. They charged me $400+ - a $79 trip fee (fair) and a $300+ diagnostic (unfair). Why a diagnostic where the tech figures out what's wrong isn't considered labor covered by a warranty? Who knows.

After four hours, the one tech left and the supervisor explained that I didn't have enough return vents in the house and that would be necessary to regulate the temp inside. He said I only had four and needed one in every bedroom and living area (so six). Apparently, the office would call the next day with an estimate. Well, I went around an counted the return vents and I have six of them - one in every room and living area, so that was a pretty obvious attempt to rip me off.

But what about the AC unit that I had them out there in the first place? Well there's a leak on the setline and that isn't covered under the warranty because he was guessing ice fell on it over the winter. Even though there's absolutely no visible damage or any indication this was true, the warranty doesn't cover it because it's an act of God. He then said they'd pump some coolant in the unit to hold me over until it got fixed. The first tech came back and did that for about five minutes and left. And...still warm air. He didn't actually put any in (which I later confirmed with another company).

Over the next two weeks, I called and called and was passed off to different people trying to get an estimate. Every time, it was like they had no idea what I was talking about. Finally, after five or six calls to them, the send me an estimate for $2200 to find the leak and fix it. So when they were out for four hours previously, they apparently didn't do any of that because they were too busy looking for a larger, more expensive thing unrelated to my issue. Also, the entire amount was purely for labor, which again isn't covered on the parts and labor warranty.

I called another company and they gave me an estimate for $400 to fix everything (this included the trip fee, diagnostic and labor). What they said was that when Service Today installed it, their welds on the setline were done so poorly, it was destined to fail. It had nothing to do with falling ice. I called a friend who is a commercial HVAC tech. He came over and confirmed that the install was the problem (said it was one of the worst he'd ever seen) and fixed it for free in about 60 minutes. It took him about 15 minutes to find the leak, weld it properly and add coolant. Since then, it's been working great.

So my advice is to never, ever use this company for any reason.

I own a condo unit and contacted Lakes Areas because I had little heat being generated and very high energy bills. Lake Area offered to come out the same day I contacted them. After very thorough testing of my heat issue, they concluded that I needed to replace my heat pump unit (this is equivalent to a furnace in a house). I was charged $200 on the spot for the visit, of which I wasn't made aware of when making the appointment. They quoted me $13,390 for replacement of a heat pump and dry wall repair, a larger hole needed to be cut in the ceiling for installation. I was quoted HALF this amount by a second company and eventually found someone to do the work for ONE THIRD the cost. The markup by Lakes Area on just the heating unit itself was 89%! Also, none of the other companies charged me to come out and provide an estimate.

$6,300 for a residential water heater? I don't think so! Avoid this rip-off company.

The tankless water heater Dean's insisted we needed (because it was going to be challenging to vent a standard one the way our old water heater was vented) was going to cost us $5,994. The highest price we could find online for the same model is $1,600 from plumbing supply stores. When we realized the big price discrepancy, we asked for a breakdown of Dean's $5,994 price for the water heater. They said they can't provide that information. After 5 minutes of research, we suspected we were getting totally ripped off.

We cancelled our install appointment immediately and contacted a couple other local licensed home services companies for estimates. Both came out and spent time looking at our basement and venting. Both said Dean's was ripping us off, and we don't even need a tankless water heater as there is no issue with the venting. We got a power vent water heater installed for $2,500 ($4,000 LESS than what Dean's was going to charge us! Even if we had needed a tankless, why were they charging several thousand $ more than it costs?)

Sadly, we still paid Dean's $1,000 for the four hours they spent seeing if a new thermal couple would fix old water heater and eventually giving us their ripoff estimate. We still came out ahead by almost $3,000 by going with someone else.

In addition to price, the other part of the experience that was noticeably different with Dean's was how slick and salesy it felt compared to the other home services companies.

Last month I was headed to a vacation out of state and my furnace was acting up but still functional.  I had Uptown Plumbing come out and a service tech named Robert arrived promptly with his shoe covers on.  I explained the problems I was having and that I thought the furnace was original to the home built in 86.  In about 15 minutes time he presented me with 3 options:  (I will first say that I am a former aircraft mechanic and have had HVAC classes and I am also experienced with industrial equipment)  

Option 1: due to the blower motor being so excessively dirty enough air will not flow over the heat exchanger and it would trip with a high temp.  He would need remove and replace blower motor, motor starter and flame sensor all for $1549.00.  (a shot gun approach)
Option 2: pull and clean blower wheel $527.00 both option 90 days warranty which is ok. (at their $69 rate that's nearly 8 hours of labor)
Option 3 was a new furnace as they only last 10-15 years and mine is 32 years old.  He then proceeded a hard sell approach to get me to buy the furnace and oh they had a bogo for a new A/C unit all with no interest financing.  He then called a person at the office and they could get somebody there in 45 minutes for a quote.

I didn't like the approach but he convinced me to buy their handy $10 a month maintenance plan so the service call would be free.  Which I did, reluctantly. But I opted not to purchase any of the 3 options that day as my furnace was running.

After he left I pulled the panel and looked at the blower motor because  his statement of, the blower motor being so excessively dirty enough air will not flow over the heat exchanger  I was born at night but not last night, the motor was in fact not excessively dirty and was clearly serviceable.  

This fact caused me to believe that the only thing Robert wanted to do was move me into a new furnace not fix my old one.  The nearly $2,000.00 was a hard sell approach to force my decision.  Maybe he gets a commission for selling a furnace?

I canceled my maintenance plan with them the following day and the appointment for an engineer to come a quote a new system.  How can I trust them after that?!?

I then found another heating and cooling company to come out; here are the facts from that visit.  My furnace was actually not original but installed in 97.  The blower motor was not excessively dirty, The motor starter was bad and flame sensor was only dirty and was fixed for about $450.00 plus a service call.  Yes this guy suggested that I start thinking of a new furnace but he resolved my problem of the High temp cutting the furnace off and I was able to take my vacation with peace of mind.

Beware in working with this company, I am only out $69.00 but you may be out for thousands!!