American Vintage Home Heating, Cooling & Plumbing

I had a consultation with Alejandro from American Vintage Home, and it was a great experience. He was very informative and took the time to thoroughly diagnose the heating issues in our condo with steam radiators. I really appreciated the care and attention he put into explaining what was going on and helping us understand our options. Thank you, Alejandro, very pleased with the service!

We engaged American Vintage Home to replace the sump pump / backup-pump, battery plus control-unit. It wasn't cheap, but it is an insurance, we live in a flat area and the water has to go somewhere. Tony did a great job, explained what he intends to do, gave us an estimate and days later he had all the parts and installed the new setup to our satisfaction. We picked the wifi-enable version to keep us updated on what the sump-pump does, or not. I feel better now with this old house we recently bought, great structure, but our previous owners did less than nothing and unfortunately the sump pump fell victim to their previous negligance. Glad we replaced it with the help of Tony, now we can afford not to think about it (kind of).

Had our regular HVAC maintenance and Bautista did a fantastic job! Was very thorough, answered all my questions, and provided helpful information about keeping our furnace in good shape for the future. Leo also did a great job inspecting our plumbing system. Highly recommend AVH!

just had them here for an annual checkup on our furnace. I've never had one of these where the technician didn't change the thermocouple as part of the routine service. the technician said he didn't do it and it was just about to go bad but it would cost an additional $185 on top of the $199 service call. I've changed them before myself and it's a $10 part that installs in a couple of minutes. I doubt I will use this company again. it seems I paid $199 for him to come over to find various things to overcharge me for. Along with the $185 thermocouple he pointed out various other things that were "worn out.". I just feel I cannot trust them.

Deceptive service fee. I was quoted $109 for a service fee, when the tech arrived he explained that fee was simply for arriving and that to assess my radiators would require an additional "exploration fee" ($290) which was not mentioned when I scheduled the appointment. Had this "exploration fee" been explained prior I would have chosen another company, as it was I paid the service fee and sent them away, a waste of my time and money. When I told the tech I was sending him away due to the lack of up front communication of these surprise extra charges he said "we get that a lot" Here's the thing, if they get that a lot you would imagine they would change the procedure to address the problem, that they do not suggests a disregard for the homeowner at best and a scammy racket at worst. In the end I'm glad it went this way, the odds of unscrupulous billing further along in the process with this co are highly probable, I likely dodged a bullet. I hope anyone reading this does as well.

Service has gone WAY down. I've been a customer for 7 years. I have their service agreements on both heating and air conditioning units in which they come out in the Spring and Fall to do general maintenance. They installed a Spacepak unit for me 7 years ago and I could not have been happier with it. Two or three years ago the SpacePac went out and they came to fix it. The guy said he reset the unit which had "tripped" but could not replace the warranty part because the office would not as he could not duplicate the problem, but if it happened again, he would replace it. I had them out in April to service the unit for the coming season. They did their stuff and in May the unit went out again. The tech came out and said he could not find anything wrong and said it might be the cut off switches but that they were working fine and was leaving without repairing anything. I asked if he has those switches on the truck and he said yes, so I told him to replace them. He went back up in the attic and came down a bit later and said, no he found the drain was plugged so he cleared that and everything was fine but as he was leaving told me the condenser had a pound too much of referigent in it and that it would cost XX dollars to remove it. I blinked and said if there is a pound too much, then you guys put it in there. He left without removing it and later a "supervisor" called asking how the service appointment went. I said fine and after some probing questions on his part told him the whole story. I asked if checking the drain was part of what he should have done to begin with. He said yes and that they need to change a few things. I asked what about the guy who came out a month earlier to do the Anual checkup. He said yes that guy should have checked the drain too. As to the pound of refrigerent, I was told it was probably too cool for the guy in April to get an accurate reading, but not to worry, it should not be a problem so he would not be sending someone out to remove it. Now keep in mind I had already rescheduled one April appointment because the temperature was too cold to service AC units, but I had to call them, they did not call me to say it was too cold to service. And the day we rescheduled to, they did come out the temp was OK. So last night the unit went out again. Same problem, the fan would not even come on manually. I called at 7am and they said as I had two AC units in my home they would not come out today. No matter how I protested, Chris kept repeating the same thing. You have two units. And I kept repeating but the one that was working does not service the office or sleeping area. I called another HVAC company with a 4.9 Yelp rating and they said they would be here this afternoon. THIS COMPANY HAS GONE WAY DOWN. I called them back and cancelled my service agreement. I'm done with this company which is a shame as they were once a good a VERY GOOD company. Sad to go. (Just for the record, the second system also was out, though at the time I did not know it. The circuit breaker for the condenser had tripped. My new ac guy found that out in the afternoon.)

*2022 update - AVH installed a new high-efficiency boiler and instant hot water heater a couple of years ago, and again, it was a great experience. They’ve been servicing my units (heating & cooling) ever since, and their staff are always professional and efficient. Today, Remon serviced my boiler, and he explained everything that he was doing to me. I feel more knowledgeable about my system because he was here. Great job! Original review: American Vintage Home (AVH) recently installed a SpacePak central air conditioning system in our 103 year old Bungalow in Jackson Park. My wife and I sought estimates from a few different HVAC contractors, and AVH was by far the very best at every touch point. First, the schedulers who took the initial call were pleasant, which wasn't our experience with some of the other companies (who shall remain nameless). When Marek from AVH arrived at the scheduled time to provide an estimate, he began by asking me probing questions about the problems that I'm having, and displayed a deep knowledge of heating and cooling systems. In addition to measuring our home for the air conditioning estimate, he provided several suggestions for ways in which our radiator heated home could operate more comfortably and efficiently in the winter. I was impressed with his knowledge and professionalism, and AVH stood out for me as the other estimates came in. Marek even took a look at my boiler and made specific recommendations (we'll take him up on those suggestions at a later date! We need to space out the expenses!). A "sales person" from another company came a couple of days later, and I found him to be quite arrogant and not at all informative. He was convinced that I'd go with his company and spent more time putting down competitive HVAC companies than demonstrating the merits of his own. I could have save a couple of hundred dollars, but there was no way I was trusting such a sophisticated system in the hands of a company that would send out such a person to meet with customers! I had no confidence that they would do the job right. Our installer was Mike K., and I cannot say enough good stuff about him! Mike was very nice, extremely professional, and very good at his job. He and the entire crew treated our home with the utmost care and respect. Additionally, they must be some of the tidiest installers on earth. Each night, it was very difficult to tell that we were having any work done at all! Their attention to detail was obvious in the result of their work as well. In one unfinished room, I can see just how neat the flexible vents were installed. I can tell that Mike is a real master craftsman. I highly recommend American Vintage Home to any homeowner considering having work done. If your experience is half as positive as mine, you will not be disappointed. Every interaction was an absolute pleasure- from scheduling to estimate to installation to post-install inspection. This is how a company should be run. I wish some of AVH's customer-centric service was more prevalent. Sincerely, Keith & Angela Chicago

I've had enough bad experiences with this company to never use them again. The first experience was alright, with a tech that knew what he was doing. But that first call kinda forced my hand to get on the monthly payment service plan, since they give you a "discount" for signing up and the cost is spread out over a year of monthly payments. First year is all good, then we call for annual boiler maintenance the second year. The tech that comes out basically just says your boiler is old and you should replace it. Doesn't even do any annual maintenance like cleaning the heating coils, even after I specifically asked. Hey, I get that it's old, but why did I pay you $144/$12 month for you not to maintain it? We are asked if we want a quote for a new boiler in case it fails. Cool. We get one and keep it moving. March 2020 happens and our boiler fails on a Friday night. As it's still quite cold out we frantically call AVH that night, leave a message with their answering service, and sleep in the basement with an electric space heater to keep warm. At 6/7 AM the next morning, Saturday I repeatedly leave messages, wondering what happened to 24 hour service and my supposed VIP status being in the service plan. By 10 am there's still no answer so I start calling other companies saying I need a new boiler today. Once I finally get someone else scheduled to come through, someone from AVH calls me back and asked if anyone called me back yet. I say no, but don't worry about it someone else is on the way, and please cancel my worthless service plan. Another company replaces our boiler for about 500-1000 less than AVH's quote for off-season to regular pricing that they gave us last fall. I seriously was under duress, would have paid AVH's overpriced quote to have heat, and a random company who's never heard of me picked up the phone and made the sale instead of them. All while being on their service plan. Sadly, that wasn't the last time I used them. It's fall 2020 and I stupidly thought I'd give them one last chance since the company who installed the new boiler went out of business. The tech they sent seemed like he no idea what he was doing and AGAIN almost didn't clean the coils of the boiler until I insisted that should happen for my $144 service call. We wanted a thermostat but they wanted a ridiculously high price to install it so we passed. I didn't feel confident in what the AVH tech did so I called another company to re-check the boiler and install the thermostat. I'm so glad I did, since apparently AVH had set my boiler hydrostat temperature settings so high that it probably would have gone into emergency shutoff. AVH sent me a text after to rate my experience. When I rated it badly all the next screen said was to give them a call. Wouldn't you try to call me if you cared? It's clear to me that they do not care about good customer service, and after 3 years of this it's too consistent to be a fluke. Never again. Edit: they tried to call me after leaving this review but honestly it's too late. Enjoy my $144.

I've never written a negative review for any business before but due to my recent experience with American Vintage Home, I strongly suggest that homeowners, businesses, and landlords should do careful due diligence before hiring them. We had AVH expand our hot water boiler system about 5 years ago. The work consisted of installing three pumps and three heating units on our hot water boiler system to cover two rooms that were previously heated by an obsolete forced air system. We liked their design solution and didn't bother to compare costs at the time even though it seemed expensive. Since then we had them do additional expensive work on our system and even signed up for their maintenance plan. Recently we woke up to a cold house. I discovered a major active leak dripping directly onto our boiler, thoroughly soaking the unit and shutting it down. Water was coming from a faulty connection on one of the three pumps installed by AVH 5 years earlier. I called AVH and a technician arrived many hours later. Most of the water in the pipes had already drained out onto the boiler by the time the leak was repaired. I was then told that the control board and pilot assembly had been destroyed and it would cost $1,650 for them to replace. I objected, explaining that the damaged equipment was directly caused by the poor workmanship of an American Vintage Home technician 5 years earlier. This technician explained that he had discussed the situation with a manager and this was their solution. In effect, AVH was taking no responsibility for the work that they did 5 years ago. This damage was caused due to poor workmanship, a failed connection that should have outlasted the 10-15 year life of the pump. I called AVH to speak to a manager to object to their solution, leaving detailed messages over the next few days. In the meantime, I called two other heating companies for comparative quotes. I sent model numbers and photos and received quotes of $1,000 and $1,300 from the other companies. I then realized that AVH was not only avoiding their responsibility to repair the damage caused by their own shoddy work but were overcharging me a whopping 30% to 60% more than what other companies would charge! A manager finally returned my calls and offered to reduce the repair cost down to $1,000, the same as one of their competitors. I declined the offer and canceled my maintenance plan. In summary, know that AVH will not stand behind their work. I understand that mistakes can be made by anyone but I expect mistakes to be resolved amicably and responsibly. Also, make sure that you get at least three quotes, especially if you consider American Vintage Home for any heating, cooling, or plumbing work. I regret not getting other quotes on work that we hired them for in the past and assume that we paid considerably more than necessary. The more quotes, the better.

[update 1] I'm not quite ready to delete the below review because it is indeed what happened, but an update is needed. About 5-10 minutes after my review posted, I saw AVH calling my phone. I was hesitant to pick up, but am glad I did. It was a manager calling, who was very frustrated, not with me or the review I left, but rather with the experience I had. He was apologetic for the experience and frustrated on my behalf. He said for sure there is no reason I should be charged and that he would make sure a new technician comes by today to take a second look. He was also upset that the other representative was so casual about losing me as a customer. I feel reassured in my previous choices of using AVH, as the conversation I had with the manager is the level of great service I had become accustomed to experiencing. AVH lost a good, honest customer today. After calling for a service due to an alert on my thermostat, AVH was able to send someone out the very next day. The tech came, he was mostly unable to explain the issue in a way I could understand, and then left, explaining this was not an issue with the HVAC system, and the alert was nothing to worry about as it relates to the furnace, but rather the chimney. For context, I used AVH to install a new furnace and AC system in 2018, so I had been a repeat customer. About 4 hours after the tech left, I started getting the same alerts on my thermostat. I called AVH to ask them to send someone again, and we agreed on the phone there would not be another $89 service fee because it was the same issue. Then I get a confirmation email saying it would indeed cost another $89 for them to send a tech out today -- for the same exact problem their tech was unable to properly diagnose the first time. Speaking with their dispatch team the first time this morning, the person said it would be a free visit. About five minutes later, the customer service rep (who had lied on the phone to me that today's second visit would be free but then emailed to take back his lie) called to say that the other person was wrong and that there would still be the service visit fee. When I explained to this person I am a loyal AVH customer, that I chose them to do my installation, and that they were about to lose me as a customer forever if they were actually going to charge me two days in a row for the exact same problem their unskilled technician did not properly diagnose less than 24 hours ago, the agent did not seem concerned whatsoever about losing me as a customer. Clearly, AVH does not need my business today or in the future, so they clearly do not need yours. Furthermore, they don't deserve it.

The problem with American Vintage Home, is that they work with some technicians who are shady AF. I'm giving this review three stars because I had a good experience with this company for installing my SpacePak, but then shortly thereafter, I had a nightmarish experience with an HVAC technician they sent to my house for my very 1st annual winter maintenance cleaning & check after moving into my house. If this review was based on that 2nd visit alone, it would be 1 star. I hate to run a company's name through the mud, but it might be helpful for other people to be on the lookout for this type of thing. So here's what happened: The HVAC technician American Vintage Home sent to do the cleaning & maintenance on my boiler (for radiant heat) straight up lied to me and told me the boiler was emitting dangerous levels carbon monoxide and he had to "condemn" it--which totally freaked me out. Then he sent another tech over who tried to sell me a very expensive new boiler (like upwards of 15K). I quickly learned that the tech(s) had lied to me because I got a 2nd and 3rd opinion from other companies who showed me that the boiler, although old, was working fine and not emitting dangerous CO. WTF. Another fun tidbit--the American Vintage Home tech, after putting a "condemned" sticker on my boiler, told me that he would "do me a favor" and lower the pressure on my boiler so that it would not emit dangerous levels of CO and I could have heat in the meantime before I replaced the boiler. I later learned that this would've been illegal for him to do if my boiler was truly emitting dangerous CO levels. By law, he would have had to disconnect the boiler. This is the craziest violation of professional ethics I can think of--he made up a lie and preyed on my fear for the safety of my family just to sell me a new boiler. I reported it to American Home Vintage and they were apologetic and told me the technician didn't work for them anymore. But still, it left an awful taste in my mouth. I don't know how they vet their technicians or what sort of sales incentives they have, but clearly something went awry here. On the bright side, as a newish homeowner, now I know how shady people in this industry can be. Safe to say this put a fire under my ass to learn as much as I can about how these systems work so I'll know when someone is feeding me BS next time.

Deceptive Practices / Fraud Alert DO NOT HIRE American Vintage Home (AVH) has engaged in deceptive practices in order to charge me more money than initially quoted. It appears they are using a bait and switch method where the initial quote was lower in order to secure the contract; however, the ensuing work then "uncovered a new problem" that more than doubled the initial quote. AVH was hired July 20th 2021, to complete a comprehensive inspection of a sewer line repair that resulted in a work proposal of approximately $8,000.00. As part of the contract to complete the work, AVH was supposed to provide video recordings of the work prior to and after the work was completed. During the work phase, AVH used a camera to scope the entire sewer line on four separate occasions; each time I was told the entire sewer line was in great shape and did not need any repairs beyond the original proposal. After multiple delays, the plumbing supervisor Kris Kauth, met with me on site on August 9th, 2021, to review the completed work. During this review, Kris used a camera to view the entire sewer line and reported all of their proposed work is complete and the entire sewer line was in intact. Kris also suggested that they would use their "jetter" to clear out a little sludge left in the pipe from their work and once they completed that task, they would collect the balance for the project. Again, I asked Kris to provide the copies of the video and schedule the jetting of the sewer line with me so that I could be on site and review the completed project. Kris refused to provide the recorded video. I attempted to schedule the jetting on 3 separate occasions but I kept being delayed. Kris then called on 11/4/21 saying the work was done but they "uncovered a new problem" that would require $10,000.00 to fix. Kris advised they jetted the sewer line on 9/2/21 WITHOUT notifying me. Kris again denied my request for the videos stating they never recorded their work. AVH either caused the damage or intentionally withheld the information! To date, I have not received any offer or assistance from the business in resolving their colossal failure.

This company are a bunch of crooks. They try to intimidate people into paying for unnecessary services. They are dishonest about pricing and when I tried to cancel my annual service agreement, they agreed but continued to charge me for several months. I've still not received the promised refund after several phone calls. Do yourself a favor and go anywhere else. To respond specifically to your question, Rich: After working with this company for two years, I can say without question that your entire business model consists of unnecessary upselling to the point of being almost criminal. I've been told to update my working AC unit ASAP!! this year without the "tech" even looking at the unit. Then he offered to clean the unit site unseen for a mere additional $600. Umm.. what? All other quotes to clean or replace my HVAC were less than a third of what you charge. Three months ago I asked for a refund of what I've spent on the annual maintenance plan for this year and to cancel my existing plan as I do not agree with your shady business practices to which Kevin agreed on the refund of what I'd paid for the year and the cancellation of the annual plan. I've continued to be charged every month since. I've had to call your company no shortage of 7 separate times and this is still unresolved. The person I spoke with today said I was wrong about the agreement to refund me more than 2 prior months and wanted evidence of this agreement. He didn't care that I was going to post a bad review. So here we are. Look out for my reviews wherever your business is advertised. To customers.. Do yourself a favor.. avoid the headache. Go literally anywhere else.

We have employed services from American Vintage Home for years and typically find their services menu to be well aligned with the needs of our older and sometimes complex situations. Their sales people have been professional and organized. Their installers and technicians can be haphazard -- they caused a leak which they blamed on my system and we had to redo thermostat configurations and controls. While mistakes happen, it was disappointing that they didn't take any responsibility for what it turns out was their error that cost me $thousands to have fixed with other companies. They are presently one of only a few SpacePak installers around, and SpacePak recommends them. (Note: SpacePak seems to be losing the battle on technical capabilities, quality, and service to Unico for high velocity HVAC -- look with care before choosing a system.) After several experiences with American Vintage Home and others, we eventually called Abt to service our air conditioning systems, and the results are remarkably different. We had assumed that the installer could do the best work efficiently and that Abt would likely not want to service another company's installation. Abt found issues with the systems quickly, and offered reasonable corrective actions (not the replace-major-components approach that we had heard from others). Everything that Abt did has performed better than ever since. *Suggest reaching Abt if quality, reliability, and capabilities are priority.* American Vintage Home is still a viable option with the knowledge that other good choices out nearby.

I contacted an HVAC contractor, American Vintage Home in Evanston, IL on 12/20/23, to get a second opinion regarding why my furnace was not working. When the tech arrived (name: Idir Louli), he told me I would need a new flame module and said he had one in his truck that he could "just give me." He then proceeded to install it without telling me what the cost would be. Then, after installation, he told me it would be $895. I was flabbergasted and upset but, by that point, I did not have any choice but to pay it. I immediately called three other, local HVAC dealers and these were the prices they quoted me: GMS Heating: $318, installed Wolf Mechanical: $435.72, installed NextGen Mechanical: $599 In subsequent discussions with the Service Manager, "Christian," and his boss, they reduced the price to $700, which was still higher than the highest quote from one of their peers. I asked Christian to, at least, adjust the price to NextGen's quote but he refused. I filed a complaint with the BBB citing this vendor's predatory business practice. Before he installed the part, the tech should have quoted me the cost involved but he did not do it until he put in the new part and he refused to take it back, claiming the part had become "used." What's more, American Vintage falsely claimed to the BBB that the tech told me the cost up-front, which is an outright lie! I had to post a star rating so I gave them one star but they do not even deserve that.