Choose a Saskatoon Furnace Expert you Can Trust

Who can you trust? Choose a Trusted Saskatoon Furnace Expert.

Not too long ago I received a call from a gentleman asking if we offer financing. “Absolutely we do; what can I do to help?” I asked. He told me that he’d been without heat for 10 days and had tried to replace the furnace with another company but was denied financing. He told me that his furnace had been “red tagged” and wouldn’t work and needed to be replaced. After hearing this I went directly over to his home. He had one small electric heater in the house and thankfully it was enough to keep his home at least around 15C cold but not frozen thank heavens. I went down to the furnace and although it was dirty, it didn’t appear to be in the condition that it needed to be replaced. I also noted that I didn’t see the red tag. After many decades in the furnace industry, I would consider myself a Saskatoon Furnace Expert.

Here is where I should explain what a “red tag” is. In Saskatchewan, although most of us buy of natural gas from Sask Energy, gas inspectors are hired through Sask Power. The gas inspectors are men and women that have worked in the trade and are ticketed red seal gas fitters themselves. When a gas contractor comes across a hazardous situation that contractor can fill out the “red tag” indicating the type of hazard and shut off the gas or appliance if necessary and report the condition immediately to gas inspections. A part of the “red tag” document must remain attached to the appliance that has the problem. There are two basic ways in which a tag can be hung. The first is high hazard. This means if the appliance is left running it poses serious health risks to the inhabitants of any structure. The second is a low hazard. This means that although the appliance is not posing a direct hazard to the inhabitants of a structure it has the possibility of failing in the near future. In the case of a furnace, this means that the furnace can still be used to heat the home but it should be replaced before it fails and hurts somebody.

Now, back to my story. There was no red tag hung at or around this furnace. I called gas inspections and they had no record of any red tag hung at this address. I priced the furnace out because the homeowner asked me to. After I did this he informed me that I was considerably lower than the other company (by about $1000) and he would like me to replace the furnace even though he really couldn’t afford it. I suggested to him before we go any further would he be willing to allow me to send one of my technicians to come over and check this furnace to ensure that there is a problem. I showed the homeowner the sticker on his furnace that shows it was manufactured May 2008 and this isn’t really old in the furnace world. I told him if we are able to repair the furnace we will check for any heat exchanger failures and also use our CO detector to ensure that there is no CO coming from this furnace. If there was, then I would proceed with replacement, but if not, then why replace it? The other caveat I added was he had to install a CO detector in the house. In my opinion, this is as important as a smoke alarm. They save lives and all houses should have them.

We had our technician over to his home in about 2 hours. Chris quickly identified that the thermostat was defective and he replaced it. JOB had the furnace running in less than 30 minutes. We tested the CO in the house and there was none. We then cleaned his furnace; this took some time because we had to remove the blower and burners to do a thorough job. Needless to say, this homeowner was super happy. He said we saved him thousands of dollars. Really, all we did was tell the truth. So many times, I have seen many people from all walks of life get snowed by a company and sold items that they really didn’t need. Although I personally believe this behaviour is fraud, the perpetrators almost never get prosecuted. In fact, Sara Wheelwright, the founder of Trusted Saskatoon was a victim of this type of behaviour, and that’s when she said there has to be a better way to find trustworthy good companies to deal with.

At JOB Heating and Air Conditioning we strongly believe that we do every job as if it was in our mother’s house, and we treat our customers with that same core value. We believe that this approach will earn us customers and those customers will stay with us for years. If you ever ask “what do I do if I have no heat in my house?” Call JOB Heating and Air Conditioning and you can be insured we will do the right thing for you.

If your system is beyond repair or if you just want to upgrade or update our wonderful staff will be more than happy to provide you with an estimate for any home comfort improvement that you have in mind. We are an independent Lennox Dealer. We also offer training classes at your personal site for maintenance and we also offer home heating tune-ups.

You can be assured that J.O.B. Heating & Air Conditioning will be there to help. Choose a Saskatoon Furnace Expert you can trust.