Southern Iowa Heating, Cooling & Plumbing Division

Russ W.

As a brand new resident of South Central Iowa and as a resident who took possession of their home in late November, it was important to learn how to turn on the ""Gas"" heat. Now, gas, to someone who has never used it before, is really a bit concerning. Need to make certain the gas is on, connected correctly and the like...who better to call than the HVAC company less than 2 minutes away, right? Logical, green choice, let's dig this.
Called and spoke to a pleasant lady who said there was no one available, but that if someone were to become available towards the end of the day, why, she would call to make sure I was there...great.
Call came in. Wonderful! Someone will be right out to help you. Beautiful. There was no discussion as to the price, type of service being provided, just small town caring for a new neighbor with heater who wanted to be shown how to turn it on properly. Now, to me, with no internet, simply used the map app, and called there should have been made mention SOMETHING regarding charges for traveling less than two minutes to help a new resident on fixed income.

Two young, very nice, young gentleman stopped by and we went to the basement to have a look. They showed me how to turn on the unit and discovered in less than ten seconds that it wasn't firing up. The covers to the unit were off in preparation for their arrival so basically they just walked in, looked and started it up. Now, it wouldn't come on because a small induction motor wasn't""t turning properly according to them. I am as watching and there was movement, but apparently not enough. Gentleman tried to free up the motor some more by turning it and decided it was burned out and had to be replaced. Didn't pull it off, just decided that it needed replacing, didn't open it to inspect it for possible repair, simply decided it was burned out ""from the inside""and made a parts call on speaker.

Gentleman says he has the part, pops it off speaker, to get the price (hum?) and we're about 3 minutes into the visit.
He tells me, ""It's expensive"" and says it'll be around $300 plus $200 to install it (from my view, 3 screws and two wires, right up front chest high and easy to get to without even having to pull a panel, literally the easiest part to remove short if the cover plate.).

If I want heat and that there may be quite a few other problems after this. (Scare tactic) The other gentleman then proceeds to offer to sell me a new furnace (this one was used by the previous owner just fine but had been sitting for a while) just what someone in a new country farm house wants to hear on a cold day after driving in from Florida. ""It's an older unit"" was mentioned as a sweeping generality to further the rational for installing a new unit. I politely asked to have them let me think about this.
$500 for this, heck I could purchase quite a few electric space heaters for the price if this 4 inch little induction motor. They had gone and I called them to let them know that I'd not like to have the cost of a hotel and that let's hit the pause button for now on this for now, cancel the follow up and I would get back to them. Simple, right? Get a few space heaters, blankets and we're good. And we were! Slept like a baby in the new Iowa country farmhouse! Nice
Please stay tuned for what happened the following day.
Gotta sleep now. More later.