Important Questions To Ask AC Repair Company | Fort Worth, TX
If you live in Fort Worth, TX, a broken air conditioner is the last problem you want to experience, especially in summer. This is because the weather here is known to get extremely hot, with temperatures reaching 100 degrees on some days. Therefore, if your air conditioner fails on a hot summer afternoon, it can make your house extremely uncomfortable. In fact, an air conditioner failure has the potential to make your house virtually uninhabitable. Therefore, in most cases, air conditioning problems will need to be addressed urgently.
But no matter how quickly you want to see an air conditioning problem resolved or how much you enjoy getting your hands dirty in your house, you should fight any temptation to try DIY air conditioning repair. This is because DIY air conditioner repairs can be quite dangerous and expensive. Therefore, unless you are a professional HVAC contractor, you should have an AC repair company you can trust with all the air conditioning issues you might run into in your house or business. Professionals deal with air conditioning issues daily, and they know what needs to be done to handle any air conditioning issue you might run into.
However, although there are many air HVAC companies, finding a good one is not easy. Therefore, if you are looking for a good HVAC repair service in the city, you need to do your due diligence. To this end, you need to know the right questions to ask an HVAC repair service before you can trust them with your HVAC infrastructure. Below is a rundown of the question you should ask your HVAC contractor before you can sign the papers allowing them to start working on your air conditioning system.
Are You Duly Licensed?
Not everyone is allowed to offer professional HVAC services. This is because the HVAC industry in Fort Worth, TX is regulated by both the federal and local authorities. This is because handling air conditioners improperly could have severe impacts on the environment. Besides, HVAC equipment installation and repair jobs could have a significant effect on the safety of the people living in and around a given house. To offer professional HVAC services legally, an AC repair company needs to be licensed by the relevant authorities. Therefore, before you trust an HVAC contractor, you need to ask them if they are duly licensed. A good AC repair company should display its licenses for everyone to see. Therefore, if an HVAC contractor is unwilling to show you their license, you should not take the risk of hiring them. This is because hiring an unlicensed HVAC contractor could lead you to serious problems. For instance, it might cause you to lose your service warranties and even put you at loggerheads with the local authorities.
Are You Insured and Bonded?
Some HVAC repair jobs can be quite dangerous in the sense that they can put the people doing them in grave danger and even leave sections of a building damaged. For example, some AC repair jobs could expose an HVAC technician to the risk of freon poisoning. This condition is associated with symptoms like headaches, seizures, fainting, nausea, and vomiting. In some cases, refrigerant poisoning might lead to death. Besides, since HVAC systems are electromechanical, they might expose HVAC technicians to the risk of electrocution and electrical shocks. A good AC repair company should prepare for such eventualities by being adequately insured and bonded. If you make the mistake of trusting an uninsured AC repair company in Fort Worth, TX, you may end up getting held financially liable in the event of accidents or extensive property damage. By hiring an insured AC repair company, you can rest assured that their insurance and bond companies will take care of the possible risks. Therefore, before trusting any given AC repair company with a job as risky as repairing an air conditioning system, you need to ask them if they are insured and bonded. If the answer is negative, you should not risk hiring them.
Will You Come to My House for Inspection?
Modern air conditioning systems are quite complex. Therefore, even if you can explain the air conditioning problem you want an AC repair company to help you with, the HVAC service should send a technician to your home to assess the issue at hand before giving your quote. No matter how minor the issue might seem, a good HVAC technician should be willing to come to your house for an inspection. Coming to your home will allow them to have a good look at your HVAC equipment and make it easier for them to accurately diagnose the underlying cause of the issue at hand before determining what it would cost you to get it resolved decisively. Therefore, if an AC repair company is not willing to send its representatives to come to your house to inspect your HVAC equipment, you should be worried. As such, before deciding to hire a given AC repair company, you need to ask if they will send someone to come to our house in Fort Worth, TX, and inspect your HVAC system. If they insist on giving you a quote through a phone call, you should not take the risk of trusting them with your HVAC system.
How Long Have You Been in the Business?
HVAC jobs are quite technical in nature. Therefore, HVAC technicians seem to get better at their work with experience. In addition to adequate training, some HVAC jobs call for many years of experience. In any case, more years of experience expose these professionals to a wide variety of issues and make them better at handling even the most complex ones. Therefore, if you make the mistake of hiring an inexperienced AC repair company, you may end up with technicians who do not know what needs to be done to solve some heating and air conditioning issues decisively. In any case, if an AC repair company has been in the business for more than a few years, it will be much easier to find relevant information about it for you to make an informed choice. Therefore, before you can choose a particular AC repair company in Fort Worth, TX, you need to ask how long they have been in operation. If an HVAC contractor has not been in the business for more than a few years, you should not take the risk of hiring them. This is because they may not be competent enough to decisively handle all the air conditioning issues you might run into.
Do You Have Any References?
The fact that an HVAC has been in operation for many years does not necessarily mean that they have been doing a good job. Therefore, before you can decide to settle for a given heating and AC repair company based on their experience, it is important for you to talk to the people they have worked with and even see the projects they have handled in the recent past. To this end, you need to ask the HVAC contractor you are about to hire if they have any references. With these references, you will be in a better position to assess the quality of services you can expect from them. If the people they have served in the past are not happy with the job they did, you will have to walk away to avoid getting disappointed in the end. Therefore, if an HVAC contractor in Fort Worth, TX is not willing to give you some references you can rely on to assess the quality of their services, you should not take the risk of trusting them with your HVAC system.
Are You Always Available?
When your HVAC system is working properly, it may be tempting for you to think it is special and it will never have a problem. However, like any other electromechanical appliance, your HVAC equipment can break down when you least expect it. For example, you can walk into your house one hot summer afternoon only to realize that your air conditioning system has not been working and your ambient temperature is uncomfortably hot. In such a situation, the underlying cause of the problem will have to be addressed urgently, meaning that it will not be possible for you to wait another day. As such, you will need to make an emergency call to your AC repair company. However, not all HVAC contractors offer 24/7 emergency services. Therefore, before you can hire any given AC repair service, you need to ask if they are always available. If the answer is negative, you should avoid hiring them. This is because relying on an AC repair company that does not offer 24/7 emergency services could force you to live in an uncomfortable home for an extended period, particularly if your HVAC equipment breaks down over a weekend or a holiday.
Will I Get a Warranty?
Even after ascertaining that a given AC repair company has what it takes to do a perfect job, you need to remember that the job will be done by humans who can make mistakes. Therefore, even a good HVAC contractor can fail to do a good job at hand as expected. The good news is that good HVAC contractors are willing to protect their clients against the cost of poor workmanship. To this end, they offer warranties for the products and services they offer. With a warranty, you can rest assured that the repairs are redone for free if the issue at hand reoccurs within a given time. On the other hand, if you do not have a warranty, you will not have any legal basis to hold your HVAC contractor accountable in the event of poor workmanship. Therefore, before you can sign the contracts allowing a given HVAC service provider in Fort Worth, TX to start working on your HVAC system, you need to ask if you will get a warranty for the services you are looking for. If the answer is negative, it means that they are not willing to back up their promise of quality with their own money and you should not take the risk of trusting them.
How Will I Pay You?
Once you have found an HVAC contractor you can trust with your HVAC system, you need to find out how much the job is going to cost you and how the payments should be done. Every AC repair company has unique pricing and payment terms. Some charge a flat rate for their services, while others use an hourly charge. Some will require you to pay something upfront while others will allow you to make the payment after the job is complete.
You also need to study their quote to understand what it covers. This is because some will include the necessary parts, while others may require you to buy the parts separately. By understanding how much a given HVAC job is going to cost you and how you will need to make the payments, you will avoid getting at loggerheads with the AC repair company. It will also be easier for you to compare how much the job will cost you, depending on the HVAC contractor you choose. However, you should not accept mediocre services simply because they are cheaper.
The Bottom Line
Overall, it is apparent that finding a reliable AC repair service is not easy. This is because there are many quacks masquerading as professional HVAC contractors. However, if you know the right questions to ask, it should be much easier for you to avoid settling for an incompetent person. If you are looking for a reliable HVAC contractor, One Hour Air Conditioning & Heating of Fort Worth is an excellent choice. We have been providing AC repair services for many years, and we are a household name in our community. Feel free to get in touch with us today to learn more about our company and the services we are best known for.