During our recent spell of single digit temperatures our furnace was not heating our home at a consistent temperature - if set at 68 we might wake up in the morning to find it at 63. The contractor that installed our furnace 7 yrs ago is no longer in business and a large local heating/cooling company had acquired their phone number. Well it was a weekend and I had to call twice to get a call back from the large company only to find their service call rate for a weekend call would be $350 plus the cost of any repair. My wife did some online searching and she came up with a few names, All Star being one that came highly recommended.
I called All Star on Monday, left a message, and Larry returned my call within a half hour. We chatted and since our furnace had seemed to stabilize we agreed to a wait and see approach. Well within the next couple of weeks temps were near zero again and sure enough the furnace was not responding. It was a Saturday, I called Larry and we chatted he asked for info on our Maytag furnace, he looked it up online as well as looking up our house info online and called me back. Without yet seeing our furnace he was able to see that it was 100,000 BTU with a 2 cycle heating system. Given the size of our house he thought it too big, thinking a 60,000 BTU would serve us better. No he did not propose selling us a new furnace, but rather we scheduled a time for him to come out and inspect/service our furnace.
Larry came to our home in the morning which allowed me to start my day there and head to my office after. He spent time inspecting and adjusting the furnace and its outdoor exhaust, which was not draining well and allowing ice to build up to a point it was blocking the exhaust and inhibiting the air flow. He changed it from a 2 cycle run to a single cycle run which, as I understand it, causes it to run more like a 60,000 BTU furnace and operate more efficiently for our 3,100 sq foot home. Larry checked other sensors and valves, tweaking a few, but overall found them working well. Lastly he recommended that I go to a cheaper filter, I thought it was good to use a filter with a higher density, but he said we'd get better air flow with a lesser filter and the furnace would be better served as would we.
Larry asked me to monitor the furnace for a week and let him know if it was holding the designated temp, etc. Well, I'm happy to report that it was holding at 68 even though we again had some single digit temps overnight. Our furnace was now working as Larry thought it would and we have not been waking up to a cold house.
I highly recommend Larry and All Star - he spent the time to get to the root of our problem in a timely professional manner; explaining what he was doing all along the way without costing us an arm and a leg. He was responsive and caring; all the while I am sure he was more than busy with the cold winter weather we've had.
Two thumbs up to Larry and All Star, or 5 stars as the case may be!!
