I have to apologize to Hargrave for the extreme lateness of this review. They were great.
The short review: Terrific, hire them with confidence. Very friendly management, knowledgeable sales team, and their installers were gentlemen. Their price beat the competition and there was no fuss about a difficult installation in a finished basement. The Carrier Infinity furnace purred along happily for the remaining 4 months of winter.
The long review (and long story): Our formerly-usual guys called us to come in for a routine inspection the Friday before Christmas. We said ‘ok why not,’ and the little so-and-so decided to red-tag our furnace for no reason. This left us with a 2 week period over the holidays to replace a furnace that didn’t need replacing! Nincompoops! The furnace was nearing the end of its life, but you just don’t do that do people. Suffice to say that our holidays were less than restful. Then they quoted us a lower tier furnace for 50% more than our Carrier! They’ll get no more work from us!
Then the first guys we tried to hire showed up with the wrong furnace and air filter. And sent their ‘best guy Tony’ to try and force it down our throats! The worst tradesman I’ve ever seen stormed into our basement with barely a ‘hello’ and started telling me how much extra the installation was going to cost. Needless to say, he wasn’t ugly enough, and I sent him packing.
Then I called Hargrave and was pleasantly surprised when Tim returned my call the very same day. And from a family vacation at Disney no less! He sent Steve to see us the next day. I am a technically minded and detailed consumer, and I had a lot of questions to ask before I was satisfied. Steven was knowledgeable and the few fine details he didn’t know he found out for me by the next day. I feel like I made an intelligent decision and am still very happy with the purchase.
The basement is finished and Steven checked it out thoroughly before quoting the job. Sure enough, the installers came and did the installation with barely a word. Fast and neat. I have seen a few awful tradesmen come and go, and I wouldn’t hesitate to have these guys back. They were brisk, quiet, tidy, and most of all polite.
The carrier furnace (59TN6B) is great. I was surprised at how much quieter it is. You don’t know how loud something is until the noise is gone. The old furnace, though still functioning, was at the end of its life, and the carrier made that clear. Like night and day. The new heating was immediately noticeably better.
We saved a little money on gas, I didn’t expect the whole-nine-yards. It was more like 10% or so. Its hard to tell in half of one heating season. Next year will be the real test. At any rate, it’s a new house, so I don’t expect a whole lot because its built properly.
We also installed an air filter; the Infinity HEPA – MERV16 and it is amazing. We were very concerned about indoor air quality because all of us have allergies and chemical sensitivities. The next day when I woke up, the air was noticeably clearer. Hard to describe. Like looking through a window you just cleaned! It has been excellent, and it still seems to be working well after 5 months. Hopefully the filter will last a full year as advertised. If it even gets close, its still way better than the usual 1” filters that everyone fights with. It certainly out-performs them, and if it costs more, so be it. My health is more important. I am happy to pay for something that works this well.
Absolutely hire Hargrave with confidence.
I hope this review helps. If it does, tell them Jason sent you. Maybe I can hit them up for some kudos….:)
J.
