I am hoping to compare prices with some on this board for replacing an A/C unit after I have gotten some pretty high quotes that I'm not sure I should trust.

I am being quoted $15-20k to:
1) Replace my 5-Ton unit with a newer high seer 2 stage or inverter unit
2) Add Zoning (2 zones)
3) Add ducting via a future furdown to get A/C to a converted attic space

I have gotten quotes for the Zoning and Furdown at around $5k which leads me to believe replacing the 5-ton unit is coming out to around $10k which seems high compared to comments I see online with people getting top of the line 5-ton units for around $6k. Does anyone have any recent experience they can share for comparison? The quotes I have gotten thus far have been from Mission Air and Lee Thompson for cash and even factor in a low season discount.

Top end units are variable speed, not just 2 stage.

Based on the quotes I got late last year, it doesn't sound so crazy.

I'm replacing a 10 ton unit and a 3 ton unit both with variable speed drives right now for a little under $28k.

The 10t unit itself is $10,125 and is a Carrier 50HJ-012-651. The 3T is $5,670 and is a York D4CE03A46A.

Not sure what part of town you're in but Vista Air Services is doing the work. They're pretty good. Lots of labor and auxiliary support to lift onto our buildings roof so that's why the units are only half the cost.

A top AC 2ton will run about 8-10 grand depending on installer. So 5ton seems ok. Be sure and check seer level, etc. and be careful what brand.

we spent around $20k late last year to replace two units. One was a 5 ton I think with a variable speed motor. It was a high end Carrier unit. The other one was a 3 or 4 ton unit that was pretty basic. So your estimate doesn't sounds that far off base. If you want, I can dig up our invoice and send you all of the details.

Quote:

---

I see online with people getting top of the line 5-ton units for around $6k.

---

This is absolutely not happening. If it is, then these are not the installers you want to use.

Mid to high end, 5 ton, zoned, VS, 2 stage unit 14k-17k. The same setup in an 18-20 SEER can be 17k-23k easy. This is assuming it is a quality installer using reputable people, providing support for the unit and making sure all warranties are handled and intact.

Having a 5 ton Trane 2 speed (18 seer) unit installed Thursday for $9k

One other option to consider is going through Costco. We looked at that but liked the Air Con guy better. About the same price when you factor in the rebate.

Call Mike Waters at Artic Air. He has beaten every price I've ever been quoted. (4 units installed at 2 different houses)

281-222-5224

tmas said:

---

Call Mike Waters at Artic Air. He has beaten every price I've ever been quoted. (4 units installed at 2 different houses)

281-222-5224

---

Artic Air sucks. They are cheap for a reason. If they do something wrong, they will try lie and/or blame the owner...and that is if you can get them to return a call. They go silent once you need help. Other posters have had bad experiences with them as well. Artic Air and it's employees can eat a bag of dicks.

Wow. I've read a ton of positive reviews for them on here. You are one of my favorite posters so this is interesting. Seems like they've made a lot of money off of Texags referrals so am curious about this.

Enviromax

RK said:

---

Wow. I've read a ton of positive reviews for them on here. You are one of my favorite posters so this is interesting. Seems like they've made a lot of money off of Texags referrals so am curious about this.

---

For me to suggest that someone eat a bag of dicks should tell you the amount of disdain I have for that person.

Edit: post redacted pending possible legal review. And thumbs down for Artic, not your post.

I will say that I have used them, and they successfully diagnosed a capacitor issue. However, they replaced the capacitor with a generic style unit which was 'close' but not exactly the same. Multiple pros said that it was not a great idea. I was not happy about that, but the cost was near zero and it got me through until I could get a new one.

Have had decent experience with artic. Install wasn't the best but they beat the competition by $1,500 and I was in a bind to get the system replaced.

Based on my experience with artic air today, I believe BSD and will not be using them again. Was told my compressor was out and coil was bad. Was believable but started to feel like they were trying to upsell when they also started suggesting rerouting duct work etc... Was told at a minimum I needed a new 5 ton condenser and coils for about $6k. Had Ben Vollmar from polar express come out for a second opinion and had it running in 20 minutes for $240. Let me add some more praise for Ben. I had originally asked him to come out but he was going to be a few hours later than the other crew so i went with the others because we have an infant. When I texted him later, he said he could no longer make it today but asked what the other group said. He didn't believe it and was going to refer me to another company since he couldn't make it. He never could get ahold of the other company so he still squeezed me in because he knew I was getting taken advantage of.

Artic messed with my second unit when replacing my first unit. My furnace on my second unit wouldn't ignite, turns out the exhaust fan for the unit had screws removed causing fan to not operate which threw a fault. Funny thing is I function tested my second unit and furnace was working prior to them replacing unit 1. I ended up spending 30 mins after finding some of the screws in my attic and others at Lowe's to replace. Definitely helped me in a bind but wouldn't use again.

I had Artic replace a unit for me in 2016. His price varied and I had asked a bunch of detailed questions (suggested by TA) and he was little flabbergasted that I knew what to ask and look for. Eventually I told him I was going to get a few other bids and they came down $750.

Before that, they were fairly honest and easy to work with, but the owner, Mike, rarely goes on jobs anymore. He relies on his 'guys' to do it. They didn't really give me the warm fuzzies, but I kind of thought if Mike hired them, they should be ok.

After they installed the new unit, they told me I had to have them come out once a year to do a checkup and 'maintain the warranty' at a cost of $70.00. The last time I called them, they were here less than 10 minutes. One guy climbed into the attic, shined his flashlight around (I followed him, and he didn't open anything) and the other guy went out the back door to the side to look at the outside unit, but didn't remove any covers or check refrigerant levels (as caught by Arlo camera).

When they left,one of the guys that came along on the call walked onto the side of my house and triggered the Arlo camera. He was looking in the bed of my truck and then at the gate to go into the back yard. He was there for almost two minutes, so I walked out like I had some trash to take out and I startled him. Asked if he was ok, and he muttered and walked to their truck and they left.

I wont use them again.

Those guys fell off hard. Used to love dealing with Mike but they did a crap job on my AC replacement.

Mike also started *****ing at me that not enough of my clients were using him after getting bids. I told him that wasn't really in my control and to up their trip charge if it wasn't covering costs. Very strange deal.

My unit is 11 years old and I've had to have the starter replaced a couple of times (I believe it was Arctic Air that did the work). I'm dreading having to potentially purchase a new unit. Do companies like American Home Shield cover the replacement of an entire unit? I don't imagine that I'll be in this house more than a couple more years.

David_Puddy said:

---

My unit is 11 years old and I've had to have the starter replaced a couple of times (I believe it was Arctic Air that did the work). I'm dreading having to potentially purchase a new unit. Do companies like American Home Shield cover the replacement of an entire unit? I don't imagine that I'll be in this house more than a couple more years.

---

You have a leak in the coil, but we fixed it. Call us again in a month and pay your $60 again and we will fix it again.

Shame to hear about Arctic...Used Mike about 5 yrs ago and was beyond impressed...he was friendly, explained everything to me like he cared and in a way I could understand, and seemed genuinely thankful for all of the Texags driven business he rec'd. A guy was shadowing him and Mike informed me that he wasn't going to be servicing my area himself anymore. Came back on here and gave an outstanding review like so many others had.

Then about 2 yrs ago he had some younger guys come out to fix a pretty simple problem...they got it fixed for a fair price, but they just had a somewhat shady vibe to them. It's possible that I was reading too much into them, but they were no Mike.

I understand businesses grow and you can no longer be on every call and have to trust in your men to get the job done, but Mike was the company to me, and the only reason I used them. If a guy like that is going to take a back seat, he better be very careful in the hiring process and also better have a solid training process.

While I understand what you guys are saying about growing a company, I don't think that's entirely the case here. Mike himself doesn't back his own company's work and backed out on his "word" several times. His actions (and emails) prove to me that he is not to be trusted. Not Artic, not Mike. He hung his hat on his "word" but when it came down to it, he screwed me and his "word" was worthless. I think anyone that pays for his services is rolling the dice. I'd play it safe and stay away.

FWIW, his employees are indeed trashy. I almost had to knock one out in my own home after he started yelling at me. They lie constantly too. That company just sucks from top to bottom.

https://www.yelp.com/biz/artic-air-houston

1agswitchin4lanes said:

---

I had Artic replace a unit for me in 2016. His price varied and I had asked a bunch of detailed questions (suggested by TA) and he was little flabbergasted that I knew what to ask and look for. Eventually I told him I was going to get a few other bids and they came down $750.

Before that, they were fairly honest and easy to work with, but the owner, Mike, rarely goes on jobs anymore. He relies on his 'guys' to do it. They didn't really give me the warm fuzzies, but I kind of thought if Mike hired them, they should be ok.

After they installed the new unit, they told me I had to have them come out once a year to do a checkup and 'maintain the warranty' at a cost of $70.00. The last time I called them, they were here less than 10 minutes. One guy climbed into the attic, shined his flashlight around (I followed him, and he didn't open anything) and the other guy went out the back door to the side to look at the outside unit, but didn't remove any covers or check refrigerant levels (as caught by Arlo camera).

When they left,one of the guys that came along on the call walked onto the side of my house and triggered the Arlo camera. He was looking in the bed of my truck and then at the gate to go into the back yard. He was there for almost two minutes, so I walked out like I had some trash to take out and I startled him. Asked if he was ok, and he muttered and walked to their truck and they left.

I wont use them again.

---

This.

We've worked with Mike for several years and always had a good experience, just doing a few repairs to make the downstairs unit hang on a while longer, stuff like that. Mike told us he didn't expect our downstairs unit to last too much longer (it was a year 2000 model). Yep, it went out last week, and our first call was to Mike at Artic Air.

He sent a couple of guys that I'd never met. Pretty much right off the bat, I didn't have a great feeling listening to these guys. I felt like they were trying to upsell me. Yes, my unit needed to be replaced, but did I really need duct work in the attic to be re-positioned? They quoted me approximately $5K. I told them I was going to get additional bids, and called Ben at Polar Express. At this point I wasn't even really sure the unit needed to be replaced, but Ben confirmed that it was dead and there was nothing that could be done that would fall in the "cheap" fix arena. He did a lot of the same things that Artic did, getting in to the attic to check things out but did not try to upsell me on any additional fixes/service. $2800 for a new unit, and now my house is cooling again.

We are done with Artic Air.

I just found out that I have a coil that is leaking. I called Richmond Air (based on Yelp & Google reviews) and they quoted me $5k.

Our house is running tits cold thanks to enviromax

In for page 1.

jetch17 said:

---

Our house is running tits cold thanks to enviromax

---

Rule 1 on tits.

I still like Artic Air (replaced my outside unit last fall), but that is solely predicated that Mike comes to the job.

I have had a good experience with Jim and Environmax. They installed a new unit and I paid what I felt to be a fair price after discounts that Ryan gave after discussing it with them. The initially spec'ed out a thermostat that was the wrong one and replaced it with the correct one that cost more but I wasn't charged for it. There was some noises that was in the unit after it was installed and they came by to take care of it. All and all, I was satisfied. I got a nice Carrier brand I think and it was definitely more that what is quoted on the board, but you get what you pay for. Other ones I hear are reputable are:

1) Gulf Coast HVAC
2) Premier HVAC
3) Indoor Comfort Specialist
4) Construct Air