Airworks Inc.

Moved into a c.20yr-old home over the winter, which still had its original furnace. Wanted to upgrade this functional-but-gas-guzzler to a new High Efficiency model. Called five HVAC companies, including Airworks. Jerry was the salesman: he came armed with all the info I could ever have wanted in terms of Energy Audit and other rebates; took the time to explain anything I asked about; did not talk bull or leave info out; and was a genuinely nice guy to chat with.

After deciding to go with Airworks for the installation things got a bit more problematic - Lisa in the office consistently failed to impress: forgetting to fax confirmation; getting our file confused with someone else; failing to call back promptly on several occasions (although to be fair at least one of these was possibly due to a failure of another coworker to pass on a message to call). In addition to these issues, there were frequent references to office system problems - going down/needing to reboot/having been offline all day for repairs. Combined with a phone system which seems unable to transfer calls at all (or staff who do not know how to use the feature if it is available) I was becoming a bit concerned about having made a mistake in choosing the company.

Fortunately when install day rolled around (which was quite prompt initially, and a cancellation allowed us an even quicker install date) both installers showed up very promptly just before 9am; were pleasant, polite, and efficient workers. Every join was properly connected and sealed; old chimneys were not just capped but sawn off right at the ceiling, reattached to the beams at their new ends then sealed; new air intake/outlet were beautifully aligned to minimise the damage to brickwork and thoroughly sealed.

Tarps were laid down; any remains were neatly tidied away - as I said to them at the time, if it wasn't for the new furnace I would never have known they were even here.

One problem did come to light at the end of job, when I was being walked through the new thermostat & shown the system functioning (obviously in the current late June climate, a full test of the heating was not on the cards!). Our electronic air filter, which worked quite happily and we wished to retain, had ceased to work. Woody took it apart again, checked for power and confirmed that the unit was being supplied - any fault must be within the front panel. I was offered a paper filter of the right size for a stop-gap measure.

Immediately after signing the paperwork (and being given all relevant copies for the Cool Savings rebate, including a preaddressed envelope!) I called to confirm installation and the problem with the air filter. I was told that Chris would call me back.

I did receive a call from Chris within about an hour. He had taken the time to speak to Woody about what he had done on-site, and asked me what make & model it was; proceeded to tell me where to find the front air intakes and that I should check them for dust or other blockages, since this would be enough to prevent it turning on. I said I'd give it a scrub, let it dry and call back if it continued to be a problem - but Chris nailed it first time. Dismantling the front panel revealed many years worth of buildup, some of which had been dislodged from a fine layer throughout the interior to fall across the inside of one of the air intakes in a big clump - once it was cleaned, *poof* and a functional air filter once more.