Rising HVAC repair costs blowing up Coloradan's budgets
Triple digit temps have us running inside to beat the heat, but many people don't acknowledge their A/C until it stops working. Now is a terrible time for your system to break down. Not only is it the middle of summer, but repair shops are busy and the cost of service is rising.
Marcus Fauth, owner of Great Guys Heating and Cooling in Littleton, says repair requests keep coming.
"Last Saturday the phone didn't stop ringing. I had 76 individual emails requesting service in addition to the phone nonstop," said Fauth. "A service tech generally runs anywhere between four and six service calls per day. The challenge is most HVAC companies, including my competitors, just can't service as many requests that come in a timely manner."
Fauth says they've spent a lot of time and money recruiting workers to do the job. He says skilled laborers across home service fields have been hard to come by.
He says many of the calls he gets for repairs could've been avoided by doing preventative maintenance.
"If there's a lack of preventative maintenance done on a system, and then you experience exorbitantly high temperatures, of course that takes a toll on the system. It's like driving a car without changing the oil frequently. You're going to experience breakdowns if you don't do proper maintenance," said Fauth.
The pandemic created supply issues nationwide that made getting certain parts needed for repair difficult. Fauth says it's a problem some customers are still running in to.
"Most of the manufacturers are resolving their post COVID supply chain issues on the residential side. Commercial is a different story," said Fauth. "I've got one particular customer who owns a large restaurant and he's going to have to wait till the second quarter of next year to get his new rooftop unit."
The supply that is available is becoming much more expensive. Inflation has hit the HVAC industry hard. Material costs are rising with the temps and it's trickling down to customers.
"We had one of our manufacturers actually had about a 23% price increase in a matter of less than 90 days. It drives the cost up not just repairs, but also of replacement of equipment as well," said Fauth.
Chris Van Meter, a project manager for Golden West Plumbing, Heating and Cooling, has seen dramatic price increases on certain parts.
"This piece used to be $4 to $5 each. Now it's $33. It really ripples through the rest of the pricing," said Van Meter. "The biggest trick is trying to keep our level of quality high and still delivering the price point that our customers need."
Van Meter recommends having a professional contractor come out and evaluate your systems before the summer starts. They might find ways to bring down your energy consumption and prevent you from paying thousands for a fix down the road.
"This is the kind of think people forget about until it breaks. Then it's a rushed situation. So just like anything you own, the preventative maintenance will help it last longer, run better, be more efficient, hopefully break down less," said Van Meter.