Are you in the market for a heating and air system? Maybe you're shopping around. You're talking to contractors. You're getting some quotes in this video I Want to go through some of the top mistakes that I see homeowners make when buying a heating and air system. Unfortunately with heating and air unlike even a car or even a house, a lot of folks just don't do it enough. They don't stay up on the new technologies or information out there. A lot of folks are trying to cram a lot of Education in a very short amount of time learn what they can before they purchase that next heating and Air system. So if you've caught this video, let's go through some of the top mistakes I See you homeowners make when they're buying their heating and air system. Number one going with the cheapest bid or getting only one bid I Tell folks even at Griffin Air when I have customers I have no problems with them getting multiple quotes. Sometimes that means we might even lose their business. but I do have confidence that we have a great product. We have some things that no one in our area offers that only we offer. and sometimes I understand that even as great as some of those things are like the best warranty in the area, homeowners may not want the best warranty in the area. Maybe they just want the cheapest bid they can find. So I encourage homeowners all the time, go ahead and get more than one quote more than just us and go with who gives you the warm fuzzies. But even when you do get multiple quotes, I Would highly recommend. In a lot of cases, you're getting what you're paying for instead of going with the contractor that did give you the warm fuzzies. A lot of folks will just go with the cheapest bid that they received and again, sometimes you might be getting what you're paying for. I'm not saying that you should never go with the lowest bed, but if you get say four quotes and three of them are this amount of money or in this range and one of them was half than the rest, there's probably a good reason for that for three companies to be significantly higher. Maybe this company's missing something. Maybe they're about to not just install a heating and air system for you, but also give you a whole lot of headache. So I Just would caution you if you're getting multiple quotes. Be careful. don't always just go with the cheapest bid, know what you're paying for, and make the best long-term decision, especially if you're going to be in that home for any amount of time after that number two. I See this one so much? I Probably caution against this one thing more than any other thing and that is I See homeowners worrying about Brands More than anything else, they cared way too much about which brand they're installing now. Do I have brand preferences? Yes, just like when I'm buying a car, Do I have certain car brands that you know I'll avoid and certain ones that I like to buy. Yes, based on my experiences or things that I've heard or whatever, there are certain car brands that I have preferences on and that's what I'm going to purchase Well, Heating and Air is the same way with a lot of heating and air guys. But what I would cost against is you as a consumer, you as the homeowner. I would worry a little less about the brand and more about the contractor. I would find a contractor again. that giving you a price and they gave you the warm fuzzies. They did everything right. They are super busy I Always tell folks I Don't care how big the company is, you can go with a gigantic company or a tiny company. I Think there's pros and cons to all companies, but it's like my dad used to say, if there is a line out the door of the restaurant, there's probably a reason for that. They probably have really good foods. If you've got a contractor that they, this is just kind of their side business. They don't stay busy with it. it's not really their thing if you will, and maybe I might caution you to stay away from them. But once you do find that right contractor and you have gotten those warm fuzzies and you're going to pull the trigger, go with the brand that they recommend. the one that they know and love, the one that gives them the warm fuzzies, and the one that they're going to stand behind after they install it in your home. So worry less about the brand, worry more about the contractor, and then just major in the majors. Don't major in the minors, right? Number three: Not getting enough quotes I See this? Uh, probably quite often, especially when we're helping folks with our new HVAC guide where we help homeowners through the process of buying a heating and air system. I'll give you a really good example: I Was helping a guy just last week and he had seen some videos online and he had a specific brand and or product that he wanted. He was very adamant. Problem was only two companies. Now don't get me wrong, he lived in a ginormous area. He lived in a city that had multiple contractors. He had lots of folks to pick from, but he only had two contractors in his area that even sold the brand that he wanted. and I Remember talking to him I was just like, why are you going with this particular brand Maybe there's not a good supplier in your area for that brand and he had his reasons, but the point is he could only get two quotes or get quotes from a companies that don't necessarily love the brand that he's wanting. They sell this brand over here most of the time, but we want your business so we'll sell that brand. No, in my opinion, you want to go with a company that's drinking the Kool-Aid They love the brand that they're installing for one reason or another Again, that guy was pigeonholing himself one brand. But if you're keeping your options open and you're getting multiple quotes, I Would recommend no less than three If you've had a company come out and they told you hey, your compressors failed or your coils leaking or whatever it is they've told you that has made you decide to pull the trigger and buy a heating and air system. I Would recommend getting at least two more quotes in addition to that company. That way you can have a front row seat and know what you're buying, see the different quotes, see what they're offering, see what they're saying in their fine print, and go with again the company that gives you that good feeling inside a lot of times you're marrying this company for years to come, so why not go with somebody you like? number four not getting a heat load calculation done and I probably see this, uh, quite often, way more than I Should a lot of folks think? well, shouldn't that have been done when the house was built and you would hope that it was done? But I Can tell you as somebody that's been in this trade for quite some time that it isn't always done on new construction projects. In fact, I Would even go so far as to say maybe not today, but just a decade ago. I Would dare say that houses were built with heating and air systems installed without heat load calculations. More times that folks did do heat load calculation. I Would not go by that now I am a realistic guy I am a common sense kind of guy. If you always had a two-ton system in your house and if you didn't have moisture issues and it heat and cooled just fine, then most likely if you were to do a Helo calculation, it's going to come out to that size. but what if it doesn't right? So newer systems are more efficient, they're going to be able to save you energy. Why not get it sized right? Even if you have to pay to have someone to do a proper Heat kilo calculation, it might be in your best interest to do that. There are companies out there that will do them for free. One thing I'm seeing is folks saying well listen, you know we're not going to just take the time and the effort. money uh, to do this Helo calculation for free and then you hire someone else. You gotta hire us first and then we'll do one seeing it done different ways by different companies. But Ultimately, however, they handle it again even if you have to pay for it. I Would highly recommend. Go ahead do the heat load calculation and get it done right. So that way when you do install that system, you know it's sized correctly. You're not going to have those issues and it's going to run as efficiently as possible. Number five: Not getting accessories with their heating and air system. I'm not going to dive into this too far on all the different types of accessories you can get and when I say accessories I Mean like all the things that aren't the heating and air system that you can install with the heating and air system. So things that can clean the air and make it safer to breathe. things that can protect your heating and air system like surge protection or brown app protection. things like newer Technologies Wi-Fi thermostats. Some of those things can help save your energy and on and on and on. I Could probably do a two hour video on all the different types of accessories you can get for your heating and air system. A lot of homeowners make the mistake of either a going with a company that doesn't offer accessories at all or B even if they go with a company that offers them, they don't do their homework. They don't ask questions. I Think it's okay for you to say to your technician or contractor what would you install if you were in my home if we were family? What would you tell your own family now I Know that wall is up. If you're the homeowner and you think that the heating and air technician is just trying to sell you stuff, that wall is up a little bit. but maybe they have a good reason why. You say hey, what do you recommend for my home and they say oh, you should have a dehumidifier in your home Let me show you why. Let me show you some pictures of your crawl space or you should have a UV light on your evaporator coil. Let me show you what your old one looked like. They might have good reasons why they would recommend one of those accessories and help you make a good decision on something that again, you're making quite an investment and sometimes some of these accessories. Adding them could just improve the performance and so much of your new system. And then finally, number six. The biggest mistakes that I see homeowners make when buying heating and air systems. and that is going with a company that either A doesn't offer an extended warranty or even if they go with a company that does, they don't get the extended warranty. Companies do this different ways. Some companies like we at Griffin air some of our installations We automatically include an extended labor warranty. Some companies you have to pay for it. Somebody's got to pay for it Right In the end, some folks are like oh well, you're just being deceiving. You're not telling the homeowner that you're actually paying for it, but I think that in a lot of cases that we find Value in it. And so we include it with our price and we're still competitive on our pricing, so it just makes sense. But again, if you're in the market for a heating and air system and you're about to spend all this money I Can't tell you how many times I've seen folks spend thousands of dollars and then all of a sudden, just a couple years later the compressor fails and they have to spend thousands more to pay for the refrigerant and the labor to put in a compressor that's actually covered under the parts warranty. So you know, look at your warranties. There are Brands out there right now that offer all kinds of warranties. We did a whole series of videos where we compared different warranties from different heating and air manufacturers. We even did like a fun little tournament and definitely check that out and my library of videos if you want to see who won that contest. But some of these companies are offering warranties like a whole new system. If certain things fail, whole new unit. if this fails or that fails, some of them offer labor warranties from the manufacturer right out the gate. Just look at that. If you're buying heating and air system, see what the different contractors are offering, Feel free to ask them. hey, do you have any extended warranties or warranties that you're not offering me now I See guys all the time they'll say to me well I live in a certain part of the country where it just doesn't make sense for people in my market to go with anything other than the cheapest heating and air systems that I can find that the math doesn't work for them to go with a higher end system because the energy is so cheap and they should just go with the cheap systems. And what they don't realize is they're doing their customers a disservice by not offering some of the higher end. Brands Because it's not always just the energy that it's going to consume. A lot of times people go with higher end systems for reasons like extended or better warranties and of course reasons like how quiet the system is and how much real estate it takes up. Maybe it's a smaller system being able to hang off of wall brackets up high or whatever the scenario is I Would just say A again check the warranties, shop around, feel free to ask and make a good decision when it comes to that. Do you have anything that I missed I went through the top six that I see. but if you've seen mistakes made in the heating and air industry, maybe you made one I would love to hear that. Please comment down below. Thanks for watching Hit that subscribe button. We'll see you next time.