House of Heat

Great, fast service. All costs are known upfront. I had a wiring issue to a Taco zone valve that caused the thermostat malfunction. The tech came during the time window provided and he was quick in diagnosing and repairing the issue.

Our ancient air conditioner died during the last heat wave. We needed service, quick, so we decided to give House of Heat a try. Howard was prompt, courteous, had the part he needed and had our system up and running in a little over an hour. Great job! We highly recommend them.

We have used House of Heat for work on two Oak Park houses. In our first house, they replaced an aging (30+ years old) boiler and installed radiators to heat our recently finished basement. We got several quotes for the work, as well as several ideas from baseboard heating to radiators, and theirs seemed the most reasonable. The technicians did a great job, and the basement was always very warm in the winter. In our second home, they were able to quickly address some issue raised on inspection. I appreciate that they make an appointment time and keep it. Others I have called try to tell me they will «fit us in» for smaller jobs which means lots of waiting.

Installed Lennox high efficiency furnace and air conditioning in my house and I couldn’t be happier. The installers were top notch. As for inspecting the furnace, they do tend to be the replace rather than repair types, but as both my central air and heat were 30+ years old that was justified. As I have not had any repairs to my new system yet, I can’t comment on their responsiveness.

Mauro (sp?) from House of Heat was wonderful. He was on time, professional, and efficient. He found out our air conditioning unit was still under warranty, so the part was covered in full – we just had to pay him for his labor. He explained what was wrong with the air conditioner to me and worked quickly to complete the repair. He gave us a new air filter for free, which I know isn’t that big of a deal, but it was a nice extra step in customer service. We’d definitely call House of Heat again in the future.

House of Heat was a terrible disappointment.
First, we scheduled a routine A/​C unit check. While scheduling the check, I mentioned to the receptionist that we were interested in installing a wireless thermostat that Tony Martini and his «electrical specialists» were unable to install. We were assured that the technician would give an adequate estimate and assessment of the job.
The routine inspection proceeded as planned. The technician seemed to be honest and straightforward in his assessment of possible problems with the current HVAC unit.
The thermostat is a different story. I was told by Martini Electric that I needed a «c-*wire» or common wire ran from the upstairs HVAC unit to the thermostat. That seemed reasonable to imagine that the most adequate person to do this be an HVAC specialist. However, the HVAC specialist was either incompetent or rushed, because he failed to see that the unit had a «c wire» already and it was simply a matter of connecting the proper wire from unit to thermostat.
The technician that was sent out to complete the estimate did not bother to ring the doorbell. He just beat on the 120+ year old glass windows. When questioned about this, he stated, «9 out of 10 doorbells don’t work, I just beat on the glass until someone shows up.» Well, that’s great, except your visit coincided with the Orkin Man, and I was 1.5 meters away from the glass you beat on. Secondly, you were super unprofessional. The technician acted like it was a BOTHER to get a quote on a job. Lastly, the point were we lost confidence with House of Heat, was the phone call the technician placed to the PREVIOUS technician, berating him for not checking the 5^th or 6^th wire to the existing thermostat unit. He basically told him he was an idiot and questioned whether he actually checked the unit. All said and done, House of Heat wanted to schedule over $ 200 worth of additional visits to install something that should have been installed (per the estimator’s comments) 2 visits ago.
This is why we think almost all service providers are out for an extra buck with additional visits. Bottom line: Our thermostat still doesn’t work. And we just had a condensation unit leak, which, IMHO, should have been potentially identified by an adequate HVAC inspection.

These guys were great! I called at around noon because I was having trouble with my furnace the guy who answered the phone said he could send someone out that day!!! He said Howard would be at my house in the city at 3:00… Sure enough Howard was at the door exactly at 3:00… Very nice man and very quick and it wasn’t expensive! I will be recommending these guys to my friends & family. Thank you house of heat

We chose House of Heat to install heating and air to our three-​story 1906 Gunderson home last fall. The initial consultations and quotes were refreshingly informative and direct. Our options were made clear to us, relative merits explained and I really believed that they didn’t just want us to pick the most expensive approach, the most expensive machines, etc. What you don’t appreciate at that point is just how much control and discretion the eventual installer will have. Frank did the work on our place and was crawling around in nooks and crannies of our place for quite a few weeks — running ductwork through impossible spots, problem-​solving through every challenge the house presented. With other contractors, some were quick to sacrifice aesthetics to make their job easier. Frank seemed to be quietly determined to install this massive network of sheet metal without any visible changes to our home (except for the removal of dozens of space-​eating radiators and two enormous gravity boilers in the basement.) On-​time, flawless work, cordial, worked well with the other contractors… Frank did extremely professional work.
It’s a year since he finished and we’ve experienced a mild winter and a hot summer and continue to be very impressed with the work. Our house is evenly cool throughout on the hottest days and only the west-​facing kitchen can get a little warm in late-​day sun as the kids run in and out of the doors. The three furnaces have worked flawlessly, warming and filtering our air quite artfully. One a/​c unit needed some attention b/​c of a filter that filled up quickly (there’s been a lot of dust) and HOH was out next morning and fixing things free of charge without question.
Great advice in the beginning, great service throughout, well well well worth what we spent on something this important to our daily lives. This is not a contractor you want to shop for best price — you want to make sure they really, really know what they’re doing. HOH does. I wave frantically whenever I see Frank driving around in his HOH van.

I highly recommend House of Heat. My air conditioning went kaput on a 100 degree day. Marty showed up and had it fixed quickly and at a reasonable cost. He explained everything he was doing and was friendly and courteous.

They came when they said they would.
The technician was pleasant.
They fixed the problem.
They charged less than I expected.
All that and the technican’s name was Buddy, I am both warm and happy.

Unit ran perfectly all summer with no issues.

I am shocked at the number of House of Heat vans I see around the neighborhood. Our experience with them was very negative.
Two winters ago, our furnace broke down. It was very cold that night, so we called House of Heat, who we had out to the house a few times before for regular cleaning and maintenance. They came early the next morning and told us that our furnace required a new part that was not available in all of the Chicago area (and would have to be special ordered, which would take days). So, we would have to purchase a new furnace if we wanted heat any time soon.
We quickly checked out Angie’s list and found another heating and cooling company in the area. They came out within the hour and fixed our furnace quickly, apparently having no problem finding the part needed. (And two and a half years later, our furnace is still working fine.)
When the House of Heat person returned with his quote for a new furnace a few hours later, we told him that someone else had already repaired the old one. He had no response and just turned and walked away.
So bottom line, House of Heat tried to take advantage of us and the freezing temperatures by lying to us about the availability of a part to get us to buy a new furnace, rather than fixing our old one.

About 11:30pm last night while lying in bed reading. A loud banging, clanging noise started to emanate from the radiators. Uh oh. I went down to the boiler room and it was louder than heck with metal on metal banging and so on. It was about 25 out last night and I hated to turn off the heat, but had to because of the noise. Called HoH at 8am this morning, they were here by 10 and fixed by 11. It was a very reasonable price and our heat is back on. Wife is happy. Kids are happy. Life is good.

Based on my experience of 2 weeks ago, these folks were great. I called around 5 places to get estimates. Our upstairs furnace had died an untimely death, and it was below zero out. BRRRRRR.
Of course, it died on a Saturday, so I waited for Monday to call — slept on the couch for a couple of nights and felt like a rugged cowgirl.
The other places I called charged a $ 65-​$ 75 fee just for the special favor of visiting our house. WTF?
A guy came out from this place, was very polite and nice, did his job, showed me what he did, explained to me that we needed to change our damn filters more often, and was on his way. I paid a fair price (I thought) and I will call them again if need be. Maybe even if I don’t need them– maybe just for some idle chatter. I’m sure they’d be into that.