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5 Investigates Tests A/C Companies

The Valley’s been experiencing record breaking heat and those high temperatures can do a number on your air conditioner.
But who do you call when it stops working?

5 Investigates put some local companies to the test.

Do your research, ask for references, and work with somebody you trust. One company may say you need to shell out $5,000 for a new unit when $200 in repairs may keep you plenty cool for now.

5 Investigates borrowed a house to test some local air conditioning companies. First, though, we had to make sure the A/C unit at the house was up to snuff.

We paid Dial One Mears Air Conditioning to check it out. Scott Mears told us many A/C contractors are honest, but others will try to take advantage of you by selling parts you don’t need. Or at least, parts you don’t need right now.

Mears said, “There’s a lot of scare tactics that you’re going to be without heating and cooling for weeks if you don’t do these repairs immediately.”

In our case, Dial One and a second company, Donley, determined that we needed a few minor repairs: a contactor for $120, a capacitor for about $65, and the coil cleaning, which was basically included in the service charge.

We knew what was wrong, and we were ready to roll the undercover cameras.

The first company we called was Ace Air Conditioning. The technician told us the coils were dirty, noted that the contactor was burnt, and suggested going on a maintenance program. But he did not hard-sell us anything or insist we had to do anything right away. And he only charged $40.

The second company was American Home Maintenance. The technician hit the nail on the head, suggesting we replace the capacitor, the contactor, and have the coils cleaned.

But our experts thought he pushed the capacitor too hard.

The American Home Maintenance technician said, “So if you don’t change that today, that blower motor could burn out. And that would be 800 bucks. The longer he waits on the capacitor the motor is just going to be dead, if it’s not dead already.”

He also told us, “The motor should be around 400, 450, depending on the job.”

Both our experts felt the tech was kind of pushing it.

Donley’s Joe Mazzarella said, “Well, it’s still working, isn’t it?”

Mark Stoltz, the General Manager of American Home Maintenance, told 5 Investigates, “Our technician inspected the unit and his diagnosis was 100 percent correct. The technician’s opinion was that the capacitor should be replaced sooner rather than later to avoid future expense.”

During our investigation, four of the companies we called were no shows, at least at first: Super Cool, Schmidt’s, Consolidated Mechanical and Al-Tech. None of them called to warn us, and Super Cool never called us at all.

Eventually Consolidated Mechanical and Al-Tech showed up to check out the A/C unit.

The Al-Tech repairman said, “System is cooling, it’s working okay.”

He noted that on his invoice and pointed out that the air conditioner was 11 years old.

He said, “It’s just a matter of time before things decide they want to quit.”

But he also wrote that an expensive crucial part, the compressor, was drawing high amperage. And he started a conversation about eventually replacing the entire unit.

The repairman said, “Once the compressor, which is the heart and soul of whole conditioner, when that decides to go down and it goes out, all the money you put into replacing all the other stuff isn’t going to mean anything.”

Our experts agreed with him on one point: if an expensive part breaks on a old air conditioner, you’re probably better off buying a whole new unit. But a new compressor?

Mazzarella said, “The compressor is running fine, the amps weren’t over excessive.”

5 Investigates’ Jon Baird said, “In this situation, you didn’t tell us you need to look at a new compressor, a new unit.”

Mazzarella replied, “I think it’s too soon.”

Al-Tech’s GM, Lee Reardon, told us the company stands behind the technician’s diagnosis and said the technician didn’t actually recommend a new unit. He also noted that “nobody has a crystal ball” when it comes to parts failing.

Yet minutes after the technician left, he came back with a refund because he said there was nothing wrong with the Trane A/C unit.

That’s pretty much what another company told us one hour later.

The technician said, “Yeah, it’s running good. It’s a Trane. ‘It’s hard to stop a Trane,’ right?”

Technicians may have different opinions, and some may cost more than others.

Our advice: don’t wait until summer for a check-up. That’s a low priority for a repair company when they have customers with no air conditioning.

Also, get a second opinion. If you’re going to spend $1,000 on a repair, you might as well spend an extra $50 to be sure you need the work.

Copyright 2007 by KPHO.com. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Ace Air Is The First Technologically Advanced HVAC Company To Go Green!!!

We are increasing the number of Green Households, One Customer At A Time. Insulation, Tankless Gas Water Heaters, The Most Energy Efficient HVAC Systems on the market professionally Installed and Maintained, not to mention our great Service Department to get your down unit running, and our Maintenance Technicians to make sure they stay running safely and efficiently.

Keep your Central Air System in tip-top shape and it will use less energy. In fact, the difference between our standard Tune-Up and a Maintenance Assurance Plan Check-Up is the included coil clean. A normal Tune-Up identifies any problems you may have and charges for extras, if you need them, but a Check-Up gets the Coil Clean Yearly, and saves 20% on any other Parts & Labor that might be needed. When you divide their price by the number of years, and then consider it’s $220+ to clean both coils, you are already saving money there, while saving energy and our environment.

Check-Ups are available as a part of our Maintenance Assurance Plans Annually or Bi-Annually, and also include Quarterly or Monthly, for our Commercial Customers. The more operational time and “people traffic” your Central Air System sees, the more pampering it needs. A Dirty Coil is the Poster Child for Energy Mismanagement, and I say Mismanagement because it can be taken care of with a process that pays for itself with the energy savings, and the wear and tear on your unit.

Your filter system is what keeps one set of coils clean, and using the standard throw-away filters and not replacing them monthly is the leading source of coil contamination. We will cut and install a permanent washable “Poly-Flo” filter for you. These are the blue rolls our technicians carry around. They last 3 years or more, depending on any abuse received during cleaning. They offer several advantages:

• 100% Polyester Construction
• Cleans easily with water
• Cuts to full size of opening with scissors eliminating air by-pass
• Rigid construction – needs no frame
• Low resistance to air flow – saves money!
• Fibers are unaffected by moisture
• Safe to handle – no fiberglass or sharp edges
• Bi-directional air flow
• 80-90% dust retention
• Flame Retardent – self extinguishing

You hose this off once a month during normal summer use, give it 15 minutes or so to dry off, and put it back up in your return air vent. If your air cleanliness needs are medical in nature, we offer several different types of filtration systems from a standard electrostatic filter to a complete in-line system. Having a good filter is essential to energy conservation, especially since not enough air flow through it could cause your unit to work longer harder hours, so a low resistance is very critical.

Here are some facts on lung disease:

• Lung diseases are disorders such as asthma, pneumonia, tuberculosis, lung cancer and many others.

According to the American Lung Association:

• Every year, nearly 361,000 Americans die of lung disease.
• Lung disease is the number three killer in America, responsible for one in seven deaths.
• Lung disease and other breathing problems are the number one killer of babies younger than one year old.
• Today, more than 25 million Americans are living with chronic lung disease.

Better quality air is required for customers afflicted with lung disease or allergies and we can step up and provide alternatives to what you are using now. Even if it is just pet dander that gets you down, our Air Quality program will not only keep your air cleaner, but will help your Air Conditioner run longer (not to mention you).

Everybody knows a well insulated home will use and lose less energy than a poorly manufactured home. You can install dual-pane glass around your home, or at least on the “exposed” side, plant shrubs / trees in a position to blow the sun’s heat or impede cold wind. You can caulk around openings, and put radiant paint on the outside of your home. And you can ensure you have adequate insulation in your attic.

For years, everybody has recognized Owens Corning as one of the premier companies for this type of work (and Pink Panther has become their symbol). R-19 used to put a smile on your father’s face, and anybody that didn’t have at least that knew they were going to take a severe hit in their wallet come summer in Arizona. Things changed, and cellulose (a blown-in paper type product) became a good way to get there or better, even in walls. New types of roofing materials became available as well, that added R-Value to the upper section of your home. Now they have a revolutionary blow-in fiberglass insulation that is superior to cellulose and you can insulate your home to R-49 or even R-60 if you desire. There is a data table you look up that compares the starting R-value you have, what level you desire to achieve, and gives you the number of bags you need according to the square footage. It’s a simple formula, and the process can be done in about an hour and a half, and can make a big difference in your energy bill.

Do you have a gas water heater? Do you get tired of running out of hot water so quickly? Do you notice when you’re taking a lot of showers, or baths, washing a lot of clothing, the gas bill goes way up? A tankless system will only use the energy required to heat your water the very moment it is needed. That means the water that sits in your tank and has to be constantly reheated because it is cooling off, will no longer waste energy. There are various models available, depending on if they are to go inside or outside, and how many gallons you want to flow through your system per minute, and if they are residential or commercial. We have information on them on this site under OUR SERVICES (top of the page), then follow the menu down to Energy Saving Products.

Again, these only use the energy necessary to heat the water for immediate use, and do not store water to be used later, therefore reducing the amount of energy needed to maintain a storage volume of future shower water. Plus, they are more powerful than a water heater, more durable, and can therefore heat so much faster, that you can literally take a hot shower and never run out of water.

The higher the seer rating on your air conditioner, the less electricity is required to operate it. You don’t have to go with the most efficient unit on the market, and they do run more money because of the better engineering, and the materials used in construction, but if you truly want to save our resources, you might consider buying one anyway. Since we are as large as we are, we get discounts others companies do not, so we can beat the competition in price, unless they are giving them away.

Our promise to you….
When you are ready, Choose Ace Air.
We’ll Be There