Texas AC & Plumbing Specialist

Vagabond U.

My A/C stopped working, the technician from this company was called. He just poked the multimeter to two leads and without doing any further tests concluded the compressor as blown out and recommended replacing the whole A/C with $2500 upwards estimate.

Luckily I had same day appointment from another company that I forgot to cancel and they showed up. Those guys spent some time to do some thorough checks, replaced the capacitor and contactor and my A/C is as good as new for a fraction of cost. Narrowly escaped from being cheated by this guy. I'd not trust Texas Air Conditioning Specialist company, will not use their services or recommend to anyone.

Steve O.

Overall, unimpressive for $6000. Brian in sales was fine, but the techs/installers were mediocre and as far as customer service, I've had more attention given by my hair stylist. Below is some more detail:

History:
In 2007, my original Carrier a/c evaporator coil was leaking freon after 5 years (thanks, Capital Pacific) and after 3 freon fills and the phasing out of R22 to 410, I began looking into new units. In 2010, decided to go with this company after calling and comparing 5 companies. The discussions were fine, warranty seemed decent, and pricing was comparable to others. I went with a Carrier 16.5 SEER 3 ton unit for just under $6k.

Installers:
Installation day came and I kept the guys hydrated with water. There were about 4-5 of them and only 1 seemed to speak some English. They eventually got it up and running, but not without some issues. They had to remove some trim from the attic opening and didn't put it back together correctly. The installation in the attic was a mess with wires hanging and just overall sloppy. The outside area was the same with a handfull of wire nuts lying all around the unit. It took them a while to figure out how to install the digital thermostat, but eventually got it working. Inside sounded like a wind tunnel so I called and had to have someone come out to check. After 2 visits, they figured out that the installers had a setting incorrect and corrected it.

Performance/Customer Service:
Since then, the unit has been working fine. Never had a follow up by the company in 4 years, which is disappointing for the amount of money spent. Hopefully this unit will last.

Savings:
Comparing 1/2005 - 6/2010 vs 7/2010 - 8/2014, here are some numbers. Total kWh savings per year average 4220 or 21%. At $.10/kWh, that's $422, which gives me an ROI of 14 years, excluding the annual $160 of freon refill on the old unit. Including that charge and assuming it would not increase, the ROI would drop to 10 years. Other considerations: habits have mostly been the same and the average Austin annual temperature difference between those two periods had increased 0.56 degrees (srh.noaa.gov & usclimatedata.com).

Summary:
The company is unimpressive so I would probably look around some more before spending that kind of money. With comparable prices and warranties, there is nothing that makes them stand out. And based on the quality of the installers, I would definitely look elsewhere. If the unit lasts 20-30 years, as they used to and should, I will be pleased.

Max Y.

A/C dripping water all over place over weekend.
called them 8:30AM, tech arrived around 10:30. Fixed problem in 15 minutes.

No pushy sales stuff.

I like them.

Jeff C.

I always feel hesitant calling a "specialist" in on something I know very little about. Mostly because I know I'll end up shelling out a couple hundred dollars and still not be fully convinced everything done was absolutely necessary. After reading reviews, and hearing about the free service call I gave Texas AC a shot.
I called at 8 AM and our service tech, Thomas, was at my house by 10 AM. He looked at a few things and explained how certain parts of the units worked and got our AC working in 15 minutes. He advised me on what to do going forward and headed on his way. I asked what I owed him, and he reminded me again of the free service call and to call again with any questions.
Thanks Texas AC, and especially Thomas for being so quick, professional, and honest!

Jason H.

Blown fuse on my A/C on a 100 degree Sunday afternoon. These guys came out within two hours, fixed it, and charged me a very reasonable weekend service charge. Recommend.

Kolin H.

I called Texas AC Specialist because my house wasn't cooling fast enough. It turned out that my AC unit was under sized for our house. Domingo (our specialist) then went up in the attic to inspect the furnace as well. It turned out that we had unnecessary air filters on the furnace that were starving the system of air. He removed them and then told us to monitor the temp and let him know if that fixed the issue. He also suggested that we replace the AC unit with the appropriate size once our current one stopped working. No service fees and no pushing us to buy a new unit. Just an honest assessment of our situation and steps that we can take to improve it. I respect that and appreciate the service I was given. I will use them again.

M W.

Ok, I'm a little obsessive - I had six companies give me bids. Texas Air Conditioning Specialist was by far the least expensive. It made me a little nervous to go with them because of this, however I had heard good reviews for them on my neighborhood website. They had heating/air conditioning certifications that other companies didn't along with an Angie's Super Service Award. I went with them. Was installed next day unlike some companies that were going to make me wait over a week. Two problems initially. Heat part wasn't working - they hadn't opened up the gas line. A couple of days later, air conditioning wasn't cooling - they had overfilled the unit and had to adjust the puron. Heard that can be common. Entitled to a $300 rebate. Tried to get the information needed to complete the application right after installation. Desk help was not helpful. After several calls, they finally said that they submited that information to the electric company. Waited the 8 weeks, the maximum it takes to process. Called electric company. They hadn't received the application, time period to get it had passed (60 days). No rebate. Three hundred dollars gone. I did get a nice unit at a lower cost but don't expect much help on getting any information you need to get your rebate or have them submit your application for a rebate.

Paul N.

We had our furnace go out in the middle of the coldest Austin winter in memory. After-hours too, of course. I called and left messages with a couple places who *never* even bothered to call back at all. Tory not only got back to me right away but he came out, found the problem and helped me clean out my intake grill, all at a crazy reasonable price, especially considering he basically had us over a barrel. We knew then that our furnace was on its last leg. We had already known that we needed to replace our AC, beef up attic insulation, add a 2nd intake, move the condenser to the other side of the house, etc. So come Spring I called Tory to come check things out. He quoted me a fantastic price so work started almost right away. He and his crew did great, fast work, doing many extra small things that were above and beyond. I read one review here where someone complained about having a difficult time receiving their rebate from the city. We got ours within 2 weeks of the work being done! On top of that when the city inspector came the first time he said we needed a light installs in the attic before he could inspect the work. Tory came out and spent an hour himself wiring up a light at no extra cost. He also took extra plywood from the job and gave us quite a bit of extra storage space in the attic at no extra charge. In summary I could not have been more satisfied and would absolutely recommend him to anyone.

Jason B.

I had been using another local company for a number of years, but had a terrible experience (you can see my review!) and somehow found Texas A/C Specialist back in 2010 or so. They came out to assess no heat, and also suggested we replace the AC in addition to the furnace. They gave us what I'm sure were solid reasons, but we were renting the place, and chose not to do the extra work. Sure enough, less than six months and the AC needed to be replaced as well. I would have saved a good bit if they had done all the work at the same time.

Then, I wound up with another rental property, which was only a few years old. Despite it being "the model home" of the neighborhood with all the upgrades, the AC died after only 4 years. I was told that I had a cheap "contractor grade" AC, with a 5 year warranty - and as bad luck would have it, the manufacturing date was just over 5 years ago! They replaced the AC at a fair price. Since then, they've come out a couple of times for a freon leak or to replace a worn part - all under warranty.

My tenants are happy with them, I'm happy with them, and would recommend them to anyone.

Also, we are absentee landlords, don't really want to set foot in the property unless we have to; and lived out of state for a few years. They are great about picking up the phone to ask me questions, and always email me a copy of the invoice right away. I pay them by credit card over the phone, which is very convenient.

Jennifer C.

A/C stopped working yesterday. Checked all the breakers and nothing had tripped, so we called TX A/C Specialist this morning. They had someone out to us the same day. Domingo Rios showed up - very courteous and quickly found the problem - we had a broken fuse from a recent storm. He was able to find a spare part in his car and replaced it for us free of charge. Great service - doesn't get better than this. Will def call again when I need them!