Furnace Maintenance

I called two other people to try to have someone come out and take a look at a leak just on the outside of our house. No one called back. I called Blue Fox at 8 AM on a Saturday and it was fixed by 3:00 same day. It’s a modern plumbing miracle! It wasn’t cheap, but they were responsive, professional, friendly & got it fixed.

We were promised a significant reduction in monthly heating costs compared to our 20-year-old system.

Instead, our bills went up.

We were promised this system would be more than strong enough to cool the entire house in the summer.

Instead, it mostly only cools the downstairs.

As a result, we've had to install a window AC in one of the upstairs bedrooms to make the room livable.

We also had to stop using the other upstairs bedroom to help mitigate costs.

We also have to run this new HVAC system at max most of the time (while a box fan runs next to the upstairs bedroom vent) to help compensate for the upstairs window-AC unit's lack of cooling power, which makes everyone downstairs miserably cold.

My theory:

They installed a heatpump @ the furnace, but still charged us the cost a normal AC unit.

Why do I think so?

Partly because that would explain why this system runs at half the ability of a proper system.

Also, after they installed the entire system, they came back (unannounced) a day later, to remove the unit they installed.

The techs said they accidentally installed the wrong thing.

Those techs did not want to answer any specific questions about it.

Instead, they just spent some hours swapping out our new furnace unit for a mysterious "other" unit, swapped out the thermostat that goes with it (which has a hard-capped cooling limit of 60°F), and then left.

Months later, Summer arrived.

Several weeks into Summer, I lost all patience with it.

I (a father in his 50s) am already chronically sleep deprived due to health conditions.

I can't afford to get even less sleep. But that's what happens when this system can't keep up with the Summer heat.

We are the family that lives here.
We are not the property owners.
We merely live here.

She appreciates that we *try to keep her stress low by trying to take care of things.

Once we realized this new AC doesn't even come CLOSE to what they promised, I called Blue Fox to have one of their techs come out to see what they could do.

However, the secretary let us know:
1. Yes. They are willing to come out.
However
2. There's nothing they can really do for us.

If it's not cooling the upstairs, there's not really anything they can do about it.

So after we 'sat' with that fact for a day, we told her never mind then.

Now, we (tenants) wouldn't really mind a heatpump system instead, *IF* that system included a separate heating/cooling unit (each with its own temperature controls) for each section of the house;
- as heatpump systems are known for.

That way, we could save money by only heating/cooling per the needs of each isolated area inside the home, and we'd be assured of ample heating and cooling for each area.

However, it makes no sense for the property owner to pay the same price for a singular heatpump unit (if that's what they swapped in) for this entire house, especially when those units only have HALF the life-expectancy of a normal AC system.

-And then having it work overtime (and failing) to make the entire home livable, while raising our monthly utility costs compared to the decades-old system we replaced.

Meanwhile, during these couple of months, I haven't told the property owner about any of this, because I didn't see a point in causing her more stress over something that I've been told (by Blue Fox) we are basically SOL about.

However, the more I've thought about it, I think she may as well know what's up with this system, just so she's not blindsided about it next year when we expect to move out.

We were considering a few more years here. But this particular development is a multifaceted catalyst of hardship.

I'm going to send her a link to this review after I post it.

But this isn't her fault. It really isn't fair to her that she/we got scammed (I do think that's the correct word) by Blue Fox.

I have no doubt the next tenants (or future owners) will not be happy with their quality of living either (mainly during the Summer months) when theirs is also thrown back to the 1940s.

BlueFox is the best heating & Air company. Every time I call and need anything, they are so pleasant and helpful and always get a technician to come out instantly. Thank you Blue Fox.