HVAC Repair Tips for Homeowners

Have you ever wondered how to handle problematic situations when you fail to get the kind of service you expected, or it doesn’t happen at all? Well, I have been in the same situation before, and some I just let slide.

However, allowing this to become a habit finally got to me, so I decided to find ways to resolve my issues with service providers who slack or mishandle my property.

That’s when I came across an insurance program that covers professional service providers, such as an HVAC company that provides home services to clients needing ac repair or HVAC maintenance. The catch is that you must request such services from the site for the cover to be valid. For example, if I need my air conditioner serviced, my air duct cleaned, or the ac filter changed, I have to request a quote and proceed. On the same note, if I seek the consultation services of an HVAC professional, I can use the same platform to get help with indoor comfort and tips on improving my air quality. However, if I seek the services of an HVAC technician for ductwork or service to my HVAC unit and they don’t show up, I can claim a refund by filling in a “refund request form.” Should they show up and probably break or damage something while working on my air conditioning system, I am also eligible for compensation. Of course, the reimbursement is tied to a submission period of 30 days and other terms. The service also recognizes specific companies listed on their platform, so you can’t just pick any service provider. It’s a perfect solution for someone who might need a third party to help solve their problems.

cooling workman

As a handyman, I am comfortable doing most of my repairs and installations alone.

• But when my confidence gets over me, I mess up without realizing it.

With the convenience of online shopping, I make a lot of orders online for my small tools and equipment. I usually pick up the larger ones myself to ensure I am picking the right thing and handling it well. I had a pre-booked maintenance this week and wanted to prepare in advance. People know me to be very hands-on with my tasks, so the HVAC technician must adapt to my habit. The problem was a malfunctioning air conditioner that wasn’t cooling the house. Out of excitement, I wanted to get ahead of the technician and buy the parts in advance. I suspected many things, including the capacitor and condenser fan motor, could be wrong. To be sure, I called the HVAC professional to help me identify the same. Once confirmed, I went online to an HVAC company website and made my order by sharing a photo of the parts. By the time it arrived, I had notified the technician, and he showed up hours later. On arrival, he looked at what I bought and noted it was the wrong part and model. So now I had to identify the seller and visit their store in person for an exchange. I left the repairman assessing the HVAC unit, air duct, and the ac filter. The ac repair took a while because of the mishap, but I had to get the air quality back in order now that I got help with indoor comfort. Moving forward, when home services are due, I’ll leave the ductwork issues and the air conditioning system troubleshooting to the professionals so that my HVAC maintenance can take place smoothly.

hvac worker

During the pandemic, many people avoided public contact at all costs. This had a noticeable effect on service jobs such as ours. My services were still in demand as a technician, but some clients avoided calling us. Fewer visits meant more calls and handling customer care problems over the phone. Before, someone would just call the office and get a redirect to an HVAC technician who could assist immediately. However, since the pandemic, everyone had direct contact with us to try to get us to fulfill home services over the phone. Of course, some calls made sense. Others didn’t. For example, a client tried to seek help with indoor comfort by video-calling me. He asked me to determine the air quality in their home by reading and observing the air conditioner’s behavior from a video call. It was a challenging time, but for simpler ones like changing the ac filter, I gladly gave clients a crash course on how to do it over the phone. It took some clients a while to catch on with the reusable ones, but the challenge was with the disposable ones since we constantly had to re-train them after the service period lapsed. This is the only HVAC maintenance job I managed to offload, enabling me to concentrate on more serious issues like in-person ac repair during the peak season. The more demanding tasks involve assessing and determining how to solve issues with the HVAC unit or air conditioning system. The former is more complicated when you have to inspect ductwork and file a report on the condition of the air ducts. Many homes went unserviced during the pandemic because tenants feared letting people in even when they proved they are from an HVAC company, so the cumulative effect eventually became a nightmare for many HVAC professionals like me.

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House calls are my favorite kind of assignment.

I meet many people, some welcoming, others just want you done with work, and off you go.

I always try to strike up a conversation with my clients to determine how much they know about their AC equipment. Some are quite knowledgeable, others very hands-on, but most just don’t care what you are doing so long as you mind your business and leave. This past week, I attended two house calls that required looking into their ducts. Sometimes when problems arise with AC at home, they concentrate on one area that pushes the clients to seek help with indoor comfort. When this happens, we run out of replacement parts fast and have to put clients on hold for a few hours or even days, if not weeks. Since I have been an HVAC technician for a while and understand the behavior of HVAC units and air conditioners, I can easily tell what’s wrong by listening to the machines run, checking the ac filter, or observing certain parts of an air conditioning system. My last house call was about inspecting the ductwork, and I got more problems than I anticipated. The client had low air quality because he tried to pull off a DIY with the air ducts and installed multiple branches and long duct runs when renovating the house. The result was little air reaching the rooms. So I had to determine an action plan, the bill for bigger duct sizes, and install them. Unfortunately, we don’t have the right size in store, so as a retail HVAC company, we had to order and wait before I attended to his ac repair needs. This is what happens when you ignore signing up for home services, cutting corners, and having to call an HVAC professional to fix something HVAC maintenance would have handled.

air conditioning professional