Choosing Air Conditioning Contractors: A Guide
Choosing air conditioning contractors can be difficult. However, since 87% of homes in the US have air conditioning, it’s a need most of us face at some point in time.
It does raise some concerns though. You want to be sure that the person you invite to your home is professional and trustworthy, especially as they’re going to be dealing with an expensive part of it!
Here’s how to choose a good air conditioning contractor and what to look for.
Ask Friends and Read Reviews
The first thing you’ll want to do is ask around your friends for the name of an AC contractor they’ve dealt with. They’ll likely have names to recommend, and might even have names to avoid, which are important to consider too!
Once you have some names, you can look up reviews for them. Nearly all consumers (97%) use the online space to conduct research on a service, so if your contractor has been in business for a while, they should have some reviews available on the internet.
You can look at all possible sites (Google, Yelp, Facebook, etc.) to get a clear picture, as some may have more reviews on different platforms.
Between the recommendations and the online reviews, you should get a good idea of who to look into. They should have a good overall rating and very few one-star reviews if any.
Check License and Insurance
When getting AC repair done, before you move ahead, you should check that the contractor is both licensed and insured.
Being licensed means they’ve undergone training and have enough experience to do a good job.
Being insured means that if anything goes wrong, it’s covered by them — including if anything else gets damaged.
Hopefully, nothing will go wrong and in most cases, nothing does! However, for those unavoidable accidents, you’re going to want to make sure there’s insurance in place to cover both of your backs.
Read the Website
Although web design is a far-off industry from AC repair, you should still take a look at their website and make sure it’s clean, informative, and accessible. It should list the areas they work in, as well as contact information and any other relevant information.
Some websites will even have client testimonials available to further reassure you that they know how to do a good job.
At a minimum, everything should be up to date. If you call the phone number on the website and it’s out of service, that’s not a good sign for how well they take care of it.
Ask About Their Experience
When you first contact them, you can also ask about their experience! You may need a specific thing done, or have a specific type of AC unit. There’s nothing wrong with double-checking that your contractor has experience with this specific thing.
You should be able to ask them however many questions you like and they should be patient and forthcoming with their answers.
If you sense an AC contractor doesn’t know how to answer your questions or seems to be hiding something, they’re likely not the right one to go with.
Ask About Their Availability
If you’ve found a good AC contractor, chances are, they’re pretty busy. However, AC service matters are often pretty urgent, so you should check they have enough availability to get the job done as soon as you want it.
You may also need them on a specific day, like the only one you can take off from work to greet them.
Regardless of your timing needs, make sure you’ve found an AC contractor who can work with you. This is essential in making sure you’ve found the right one for you because there’s no point in going through the motions with someone who can’t be around when you need them.
Get a Quote
Getting a quote for AC repair work can be tricky.
AC work often isn’t cheap, especially if you need a full replacement. You can get a quote from a few contractors to compare and make sure the job is within your budget, but it’s also important not to automatically go with the cheapest.
While a lower quote might be a big draw and make you want to pick that contractor to do the work, it can be problematic. The quote may be significantly lower because they have less experience or bad reviews and need the work.
It’s important to examine the quote along with everything else. If it’s a low quote and they have the experience, license, insurance, and work ethic to back it up, then great!
However, make sure the quote is just a factor, and not the only deciding factor.
Trust Your Gut
Ultimately, you also have to trust your gut when it comes to hiring an AC contractor.
If you feel that they are cold, rude, and hard to get responses out of, you may not want to go with them even if they have the best quote, experience, and availability.
Make sure you find someone who is warm, professional, and has the experience to back up their answers to questions.
Consider This When Looking at Air Conditioning Contractors
When looking at air conditioning contractors, it’s important to consider all of the above together. The quote, availability, experience, and reviews, are all important in their own way and you should look at each factor to determine which contractor you want to go with.
If you’re looking for a trusted air conditioning contractor around the Denver area in Colorado, contact us today at Walrath HVAC. We’d appreciate hearing from you!