Trade Secrets
Click the underlined links to find out what’s really going on in this trade.
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All this information can lead to an acute case of analysis paralysis. The goal of all this specific knowledge is to help you find a generally good contractor. So find one that’s as close to the ideal as possible and don’t pester him about his imperfections. To do otherwise will drive you, your contractor, and possibly even me crazy!
Finding / Dealing with Contractors
The Surprise Flaw with Online Review Sites
“Most online reviewers, the data show, are either cranks or starry-eyed fanatics—and in this supposedly snarky age there are a lot more of the latter than the former. In 2009, The Wall Street Journal found that the average rating in a five-star system, Internet-wide, was a 4.3, suggesting a world of uniformly awesome products, services, and experiences.” —NY Mag*
It’s true. Online reviews are dominated by happy people. Consequently, both good and bad businesses are highly rated. To the small extent that consumers are willing to write negative reviews, it’s primarily for businesses that they have visited. A business that serves hundreds of customers daily at a retail location is unlikely to know who the negative reviewer is. Despite that anonymity, consumers are generally reluctant to write negative reviews.
Consumers are particularly reluctant to write negatively about businesses that have visited them. A mobile repairman that serves just a few customers daily knows where the negative reviewer lives. Just as importantly, the mobile repairmen most deserving of negative reviews tend to be a little “rough around the edges”. Knowing that, you can understand why many homeowners don’t write negative reviews for in-home service providers even when they want to.
The relatively few homeowners who do write negative reviews for in-home service providers are often persuaded to remove their review. Some businesses accomplish this by “making it right”. Less scrupulous businesses threaten and/or bribe the negative reviewer. As a result, businesses that provide in-home services don’t just have normal grade inflation* on Yowl* and other review sites. They have extraordinary grade inflation.
* Internet Archive may be slow to load.
The Fatal Flaw with 3B Accreditation and Cubic Zirconia Certification
3B does virtually nothing to investigate the products or services of a business they accredit. They say as much* on their site: “…accreditation does not mean that the business’ products or services have been evaluated…” All a business has to do to be accredited is have a decent rating on 3B, promise to treat their customers well, and send 3B money. In other words, 3B sells their vaunted credential to businesses they know almost nothing about.
To illustrate the point, I give you these screenshots. As you can see, that 1.5 star company started accumulating negative reviews the same year they became 3B accredited. As you read above, grade inflation is the norm on Yowl*. To get a bad rap on Yowl, a company has to be really bad. That particular company has been really bad for years and they’re still 3B accredited. This is not an isolated incident. 3B accreditation has no cred.
As for Cubic Zirconia Certified*, I’ve got their local directory in front of me. Despite the extraordinary grade inflation that’s endemic to Yowl, the HVAC contractors in CZ’s directory have a weighted average of just 3.3 stars on Yowl (at the time of writing). In other words, contractors that couldn’t even cut it on Yowl still managed to get certified by CZ. 3B and CZ are funded by the companies they’re supposed to watch. Is it any wonder that they don’t watch too closely*?
* Internet Archive may be slow to load.
Stay, watch, and ask questions.
Pointing the repairman to the equipment and walking away is the biggest mistake many homeowners make. Not only do I ask homeowners to stick around, I actively engage them during the repair. You should do the same with any repairman. That’s the best way to find out what kind of person he is and if he truly knows his stuff.
Some homeowners resist by saying they don’t want to annoy the repairman or make him nervous. That’s considerate of them, but consider this: When you go for an exam, is the doctor made nervous by you watching? Is s/he annoyed by your presence? Does s/he get irritated with your questions? If so, should you not get a new doctor?
The answers to those questions should be true of any skilled profession. If your presence makes the repairman nervous, then he may not know what he’s doing. If he’s irritated by your company, then you may be unwittingly thwarting his unscrupulous plans. Or maybe he’s just a jerk. Either which way, it’s time to find a new repairman.
“It’s shot.” or “It’s old.” is not a real diagnosis. A real diagnosis explains why it failed and what the repair options are even if the repairman thinks you should replace. To repair or replace is not his decision, after all. If he says that the parts aren’t available, or that it’ll take weeks to get them, ask for the part number and check into it yourself. Google is your friend… sometimes.
A real diagnosis is also understandable. Whether it’s heating and air conditioning or medicine, a competent professional explains things in a way that’s easy for their client to understand. Don’t approve any action until you do understand. And get the diagnosis in writing! Some repairmen change their diagnosis when forced to document it. Learn more here.
California auto mechanics are legally obliged to give you the old parts if you ask for them before they perform the repair. I’m not aware of any such rule for HVAC. Nevertheless, when dealing with a repairman, it’s wise to ask for the old parts before they start the repair. Legally obliged or not, he’s going to give them to you unless he’s up to something. Plus, it makes the repairman think. I don’t know about you, but I like making repairmen think.
Reward them with a review and make it count.
Even though the articles above discredit them to some extent, the fact remains that online reviews are incredibly powerful. They can, in fact, make or break a business. If you’ll forgive my potentially self-serving suggestion: Don’t leave leave your contractors’ fate in the hands of the aforementioned “cranks” and “fanatics”. Contribute to the system by giving them real reviews.
As for making your review count, that’s another story. Most review sites don’t appear to have any meaningful filtering mechanism. However, Yowl is different. They explain it this way. I explain it this way: Reviewers have to prove themselves trustworthy to Yowl’s automated system. Until they do, their review is not “recommended”. In other words, it gets hidden from view and doesn’t count towards the business’s rating.
Yowl wants the formula they use to determine if a review is “recommended” to remain a secret. However, after years of observation and investigation, I’m reasonably certain that doing some combination of the following is how a reviewer’s reviews become recommended. A reviewer is not required to do all of these things. A combination of some of them is probably enough:
- Install the Yowl app on your smartphone.
- Make Yowl friends. (Any one thing is optional!)
- Fill out your Yowl profile with optional information.
- Link your Yowl profile to other social media accounts.
- Post plenty of detailed reviews with various star ratings.
- Don’t post them all at once. Spread the reviews out over time.
- Stay logged in while browsing Yowl so their system can “see” you.
Yowl uses the information you knowingly and unwittingly give them to try to determine if you’re a legitimate reviewer or if you’re a shill. If you don’t give them enough information, and/or if enough time has not passed, you may look like a shill to their automated system even if you’re legit. Consider these two scenarios:
- A new business owner asks his buddy Jack to write a positive review. Jack doesn’t care for the “online thing”, so he gives Yowl very little information about himself and writes his fake review. Jack browses Yowl thereafter, but he does so logged out – so Yowl’s system never “sees” him again.
- Jill feels compelled to warn others about an unscrupulous contractor. Jill doesn’t care for the “online thing”, so she gives Yowl very little information about herself and writes her legit review. Jill browses Yowl thereafter, but she does so logged out – so Yowl’s system never “sees” her again.
Both Jack and Jill posted “hit and run reviews”. One was legit. One was not. However, as far as Yowl’s system can tell, they are the same. So both reviews will probably be filtered. However, should Jill eventually meet Yowl’s criteria for trustworthiness, her review will probably become “unfiltered” – that is to say, readily visible and recommended.
If you want to find out if your review is recommended:
- Wait a week or two. I’ve seen Yowl filter reviews almost immediately. But it seems like others take longer to get filtered.
- Then look for your review while logged out. If you’re logged in their system will probably put your review at the top, as though it’s unfiltered.
- Sort the reviews by date. Their default sorting is not by date. Then scroll through the other reviews until you find where yours should be.
- If you can’t find your review, scroll down to the “not currently recommended” link at the bottom of the page and click that. You’ll almost certainly find your review there.
If your review is filtered, it can become unfiltered once Yowl’s system is convinced you’re legit. Just follow the steps above. I went through the process myself with my personal account. My first few reviews were filtered. They became unfiltered after I filled in my Yowl profile a bit and linked it to one of my social media accounts. That link wasn’t required, but it helped.
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Money
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Don’t be fooled by a cheap trip charge.
A well-known consultant calls the “cut-rate trip charge” a regulator. I call it a very old and busted marketing gimmick*. Some of the very same contractors that charge very little at first charge over $400 an hour* or for their repairs. And from what their customers tell me, it seems that a cheap trip charge buys you a cheap repairman. A skilled repairman doesn’t put his services on sale.
* Opens a new page to my new site dedicated to education.
The trip charge may not include a complete diagnosis.
Some problems take minutes to diagnose. Others can take an hour or more. Freon or Puron leaks are a good example. Finding a leak isn’t always easy. It can take minutes or it can take an hour or more. If it’s going to be the latter, many contractors will give you the half diagnosis of “low on refrigerant”. They’ll then charge you more to actually find the leak, sometimes a lot more.
Quoting extra for a lengthy diagnosis is not unreasonable. Not informing you of that possibility up front is. You have to inform yourself by asking questions like these: “Does the trip fee include a complete diagnosis? Is there ever an additional diagnostic fee?” Most contractors are not forthcoming about all of their fees. You have to ask.
Don’t be fooled by a cheap hourly rate.
A little reverse engineering of this invoice suggests that company charged around $100 per hour for labor. That’s very reasonable for HVAC in the SF Bay Area. That same invoice shows they charged over $400 for parts that cost them less than $100. In my experience, I’ve found that companies who charge very little for labor also charge very big for parts.
Learn the contractor’s true cost.
Assessing an HVAC contractor’s true cost based on their trip charge is impossible. Most contractors price their trip fees artifically low*. If you really want to know how much they charge, ask them for their hourly rate and parts markup. All contractors have an internal hourly rate and parts markup, even flat rate contractors who say otherwise.
Most flat rate pricing systems are designed to hide the hourly rate because, as I explain here*, that hourly rate can be over $400 per hour or more. If you find a contractor with a good hourly rate, don’t get too excited until you know how they mark parts up. A good hourly rate means little if they’re marking the part up by 1,000%. (There are stories behind that comment, dontcha know?)
If they won’t tell you their hourly rate, find out what the part costs wholesale.† Multiply that cost times two and subtract it from the total bill. Divide what remains by the number of hours spent at your home plus an extra half hour for travel. That number may be a reasonable approximation of their hourly rate. My labor rate and parts markup can be found here.
† If you want to know what contractors pay for parts, look it up online. Quite often the best price you find online for common parts is roughly what contractors pay locally. That’s definitely not the case with certain specialty parts, new equipment, or restricted materials like refrigerant. Contractors can often purchase those items for less than the public.
* Opens a new page to my new site dedicated to education.
Most repairmen are under-trained and over-commissioned.
It used to be that residential HVAC repairmen went to trade school. Or, at the very least, they received extensive on-the-job training before being allowed to work on your equipment alone. Once trained, they made a good hourly wage and left the sales to the sales department.
Those days are over. Most repairmen today don’t understand the fundamentals of their trade. And many make a low hourly wage, sometimes minimum wage, plus commission. Some companies get around that ugly word by calling it a bonus or spiff, but it’s the same thing.
Obviously you’re better off hiring a company with properly trained technicians who make nothing but an hourly wage. However, finding such a company can be quite difficult. As you might have guessed, most contractors are unwilling to share that information over the phone.
If they won’t tell you over the phone, the repairman may “tell” in person. Watch the repairman work. If he’s a true professional, he won’t mind. Ask him lots of questions. The repairman’s words and body language will reveal more about him than even he expects.
If you’re looking for a good deal…
Skilled professionals don’t work cheap. Take accomplished physicians as an example. They only have so many hours in the day and they can’t duplicate themselves. So if one hospital doesn’t want to pay their price, they’ll probably move on to a hospital that will.
It’s no different for a skilled and honest tradesman. He, too, only has so many hours in the day. He may hire a few people, but he probably won’t hire many because he’ll lose quality control. The high demand and his limited availability means he’s not going to work cheap.
Look for a good deal and you may, indeed, find a repairman who’s cheap at first. However, in the end he’ll probably be even more expensive than the supposedly expensive guy. Look for skill and integrity instead. The fair deal will almost certainly follow.
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Air Conditioner Repairs
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Freon and Puron aren’t that expensive.
As of 10/12/23, Freon (R-22 refrigerant ) can be purchased for $33 per pound. Smart contractors stocked up when it was even cheaper. Even so, many contractors are charging $200 to $400 per pound for Freon. Puron (R-410A refrigerant) can be purchased for $16 per pound.
As of this writing, I charge $80 per pound for Freon (not including time). Why the disparity? They’ve stopped making new Freon. And though it hasn’t been phased out yet, regulators have their eyes set on Puron too. Those facts are being used by some contractors as an excuse to gouge homeowners. Learn more about Freon and Puron here.
If you’re low on Freon or Puron you have a leak.
Air conditioners don’t use up the refrigerant. If you’re low then, with rare and odd exception*, you have a leak. If the leak is small enough then there’s a chance sealant will fix the leak. However, sealant comes with the potential of expensive side effects. Finding and fixing the leak the old fashioned way is still the best way to repair a leak. Since Freon and Puron are being phased out, it’s becoming increasingly expensive to “top off” the charge. It’s perfectly legal to top off without fixing the leak, but each successive top-off will cost more. Learn more here.
* Internet Archive may be slow to load.
Delaying the repair can be very costly.
When a car overheats, most people pull over immediately and shut it down. When an air conditioner overheats, it’s usually left running. That’s a problem because the compressor is cooled by the same refrigerant that cools you. If your air conditioner isn’t cooling you well, it may not be cooling its own compressor very well either. Run it that way long enough and the compressor may fail. It’ll probably cost thousands to replace.
If the air conditioner runs, but isn’t cooling at all, then it may be completely out of refrigerant. In that case turning it off may not be enough to prevent damage. The same leak that allowed the refrigerant out may allow moisture in. Moisture contamination can also cause potentially expensive damage. The bottom line is that a faltering air conditioner or heat pump should be turned off and tended to as soon as possible.
If you have a bad capacitor, check the specs.
Replacing bad capacitors is the most common summer repair. The typical dual run capacitor gives the compressor and the compressor’s fan a boost, so to speak. When it fails, the compressor and/or its fan may appear to be dead. Or the failed capacitor may cause the compressor to moan for a few seconds as it attempts to start. The compressor will quickly overheat, possibly dimming the lights for a few seconds, and turn off. The compressor’s fan may do the same. Or the fan may run slowly until it overheats and turns off.
In my experience, quality capacitors often last between ten to twenty years. Cheap capacitors may not even last five years. From what I’ve seen, most contractors install the latter. If you’re lucky, they will at least match the specs of the old capacitor. If you’re not, they’ll install one that’s close enough to make it work. The “close enough capacitor” could stress the motor and may eventually cause premature motor failure. If that motor happens to be your compressor, it may cost thousands to replace.
A lot of quality capacitors come from the US and Mexico. Most cheap capacitors come from China. Another way to tell is by cost. For example, at the time of this writing a quality 5/440 costs about $7. A cheap 5/440 costs about $2. Generally speaking I install Mars Blue Box and Mars USA capacitors. I particularly favor Mars for heat intensive applications like inside a condenser (air conditioner). You can find the correct part number here and you may be able to find the part itself at SupplyHouse.
A capacitor’s shape isn’t too important. It’s the specs and quality that count. Capacitors have microfarad and voltage ratings. There are dozens of possible microfarad ratings, often shown as a “MFD” or “μF” rating on the capacitor. In a pinch you can vary the MFD rating by 10% or less, but it’s best to be exact. As for voltage, they’re either rated for 370 or 440 volts – often shown as a “VAC” rating on the capacitor. A 440 VAC capacitor can be used in place of a 370 VAC capacitor, but never the other way around.
If they’ve diagnosed a bad motor, ask about the capacitor.
Capacitors are little tin cans that give motors a boost, so to speak. (See the section directly above.) With the exception of variable speed motors, most residential HVAC motors use them. When a capacitor fails, the motor it serves usually appears to be dead even though it’s probably still good. Unscrupulous repairmen use that appearance to con homeowners into replacing blower motors, compressors, and even entire air conditioners.
If they’ve diagnosed a bad compressor, get a second opinion.
It’s such an expensive diagnosis that you might want to get a second opinion. I have performed hundreds of second opinion calls over the years. I’ve brought quite a few ostensibly bad compressors back to life.
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Other
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The Truth About Equipment Lifespan
The average air conditioner lasts 20 to 25 years. The average natural gas furnace lasts 25 to 30 years. That’s what I’ve experienced locally. We have relatively mild weather in the SF Bay, so our equipment lasts longer than in other parts of the country. Other parts of the country may get less than 20 years out of their equipment.
Naturally the equipment fails more often towards the end if its life. If you’re at a point where you’re reasonably certain that you’re going to replace the HVAC equipment once but not twice *, then it may make sense to do so now rather than pour repair money into equipment that you’re going to replace anyway. This audio commentary explains in detail.
* You can be reasonably certain if: 1) Your current equipment is old enough, and you’re going to own the home long enough, that replacing the equipment is inevitable during your tenure as that home’s owner. 2) You’re going to own the home for less than 20 years, which means you’re probably not going to have to replace the equipment again before selling.
Maintenance isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
In my experience, most residential air conditioners and natural gas furnaces in central Contra Costa County need little in the way of maintenance. They do, in fact, need a little. And, of course, there are some air conditioners and furnaces that are in desperate need of maintenance. Since most homeowners don’t know which category their equipment falls in, I’m not saying skip maintenance. I am saying have realistic expectations. I explain in greater detail here* and here. (The first link opens a new page to my new site dedicated to education.)
Duct cleaning is mostly useless.
If you’re lucky, the duct cleaners will accomplish very little. If you’re unlucky, they’ll damage your ducts. Either way, it’s unlikely that your air is going to be cleaner or your system will run better as a result of duct cleaning. Learn more here. (That link opens a new page to my new site dedicated to education.)
If you have a cracked heat exchanger…
Replacing an out-of-warranty cracked heat exchanger is so expensive that most homeowners opt to buy a new furnace instead. As a result, most on-commission technicians are on the lookout for those cracks.
Some technicians stretch the definition of a crack in order to sell that new furnace. Asking him to document the crack’s location might snap him back. It’s kind of hard to document the location of a crack that doesn’t exist.
Be aware, too, that most residential heat exchangers have a twenty year warranty. Some have a lifetime warranty. That warranty may only apply to the furnace’s original buyer and it doesn’t normally cover labor.
Ask for a real duct evaluation.
If you’re home has a balance problem – if one area of the home is consistently hotter or colder than another – then it’s likely that your ducts are partially to blame. They may be entirely to blame. And so you probably need your ducts evaluated. A real assessment of your ducts may only take a few minutes. However, in most cases it’s going to take a lot longer than that. If so, then you’re faced with the challenge I describe above.
With rare exception, you’re not going to get a time consuming duct evaluation for cheap or free. What cheap or free usually gets you is some guy popping his head into the attic or crawlspace, spinning it round like Linda Blair, and telling you to buy a whole new duct system. Or, if you’re lucky, he may actually enter the attic or crawlspace. However, if he exits just as quickly then he probably hasn’t looked at much. A real duct assessment can, in some cases, take an hour or more.
Avoid getting “Linda Blaired” by being very clear with them on the phone. Describe the symptoms and see if they agree that it could be a duct problem. If so, ask them how much it’ll cost to evaluate the ducts. Are they going to suit up and check all the ducts out? What if it takes longer than normal? A good contractor will embrace the questions and answer forthrightly. A bad one will get annoyed. And, of course, a good customer understands that a real evaluation costs real money.