Ilya Z. says, "TL;DR --> Worked with Tim from Fair Heating and Air LLC. Not the best at responding and scheduling. Poor communication about price at times. Knowledgeable, polite, service call wasn't miserably expensive, and he got the job done.
Long Version:
I'll spare you the details about my interaction Twin Cities Duct Cleaning -and- Residential Heating and Air (same company, absolutely terrible). I had to diagnose myself that I was out of refrigerant, and that's where Tim from Fair Heating and Air LLC comes in.
Tim comes in, runs a pressure test, and we find a big leak. It looks like someone jammed a chisel into the evaporator coil behind a grate. It was in a hidden, but easily reachable location once we found it. I was about to just solder the hole up. Tim said he had all the tools needed and he could do it real quick, but he neglected to mention that he would charge me $60 for those 5 minutes of work. Not the best communication about pricing there.
Now we go to pressurize the system again and look for more leaks, but Tim runs out of nitrogen and needs to get more. I asked if it's a separate service call to come back again, and he said he would come back another day with more nitrogen without a separate service charge. It takes a week to get him back out again, because he wasn't responding to my messages.
Tim comes back with more nitrogen for the pressure test, refrigerant to charge the system, AND he brings his backup set of pressure gauges. Normally you would pressurize the system for 20 minutes or so, and check if the pressure goes down. He says he can leave the backup gauges there for a few days, so we can do a longer, more thorough test. That sounds great to me! Good idea, Tim!
He comes back out after 3 days, and the pressure is holding just fine. He recharges the system, and is happy to explain the process as he goes. Points to Tim for being knowledgeable and polite. Once he is done, he charges me for another service call because apparently I requested him to come out again. The whole thing could have been done on the first day if he didn't show up low on nitrogen, and it could have been done on the second time he came out if he didn't offer to leave his backup gauges there for a few days for a longer test. So again, we have some poor communication on those up-charges.
With that said, Tim was very polite and helpful. I'm not an easy customer. I'm a career engineer, and I will definitely question you about the slightest misstep when talking about the flow of electricity or pressure gradients. Tim started off giving me the short version, and then explained in more detailed when I questioned further.
So not the best at responding and communicating price, but he knew what he was doing and got the job done. Additionally, his service call is $90 instead of $200 which is what some others tried to charge me. From my experience in St. Paul, most HVAC companies out there are crooked. I would recommend Fair Heating and Air LLC to others in the area, simply because they live up to the name. They are fair, and that's darn good considering their competition."See more