Review of Dayton A/C & Heating, Austin Texas

I had the vintage air conditioning system (25 years old) at my house replaced a few days ago by Dayton Air Conditioning and Heating, out of Austin, Texas. The entire experience, from having the company owner out to give me a free non-binding estimate, right through the billing, was characterized by hassle-free, professional, courteous service. Everyone knew his (or her) stuff, and nobody once tried to hard-sell, harass, lecture, or in any other way pressure me. They didn't try to up-sell a system, and didn't try to perform services that were not required just to get a bigger sale.

I cannot more highly recommend Dayton A/C & Heating to anyone who needs an air conditioner in the Central Texas region.

I found them through a random service I tripped over on the Internet, that was supposed to send my contact information to 3 companies which would give me a quote. I am glad Dayton was one of them. A few minutes later, they called me and we set up a date for them to give me an estimate. Coy Dayton hisse'f came out to inspect the place and work up a quote. He showed up in a wrapped company truck, well after normal working hours. He was ready to listen to what I wanted, and ready to make suggestions when it came to things I didn't mention. He did not try to push me into a 'better' system that would also be 30% more expensive. He did not try to push me into signing on for upgraded blinker fluid. He looked around the house, asked appropriate questions, and went out to his truck and worked up an estimate for the installation of my new system. UNLIKE every other one of the five companies I had give me estimates, Coy gave me actual model numbers and a break down of exactly what he thought was required to do the entire job. The only thing he insisted on including was his warranty agreement, and he only insists on selling it (to everybody) because the cost of it is thousands of dollars less than the cost to replace the first major assembly, should one ever fail. Nevermind (God forbid) the second, or third major failure. I agreed with him and eventually called him to get the system installation appointment set up.

The install crew arrived (on time) in a spiffy company van with everything it would be foreseeable they should need to to the job, and then some.



Their work order was a carbon copy of the same form Mr. Dayton had filled out and given me to think over. The men (it was a two-man crew) were clean, courteous, and competent. Everything the did told me they were in business to do a/c work, not to "do" customers. They wiped their feet clean on a doormat while the ground outside was moist. They laid down heavy moving blankets to protect our flooring. They even entertained my questions and suffered my presence looking over their shoulders for the whole 5 hours they were at our house. They worked quickly when possible, but took their time when it came to the detail work. A great deal of care was taken to get the old equipment out safely (safe for them and for my house) and get the new stuff in properly. Before they even knew I was going to need a new pad, they were talking about leveling he ground under the concrete pad under the condenser (that is, when it was the prospect of doing it right meaning more work, for less money). The duct work upstairs is a little bit of a nightmare in one corner, and they went to extra trouble to seal it all up tight as a drum.

Have a look at this. It's my new furnace, air handler, and cooling coil, in a space barely larger than the unit itself, freshly installed by Dayton's people. On the right you see the return air duct. The exhaust plenum (to the house ducting) is hiding on the left side by the wall. Not shown is approximately two feet of deck width on the near side of the unit. Not shown, because these are close quarters.



Note that the power and control wires, gas line, drain pipes, and even the new flue pipe are all dressed so that they are as neat and out of the way as possible. The connections on the outside unit are even more tidy. Also note how the new system has about a tub and a half of mastic sealing the ducts, vs. the tape-in-place job on the old unit. Then look at the floor beside the new equipment.

Look at the floor beside the old equipment:



They left the place CLEANER than when they got there.

There was some difficulty with our telephones, but still the billing lady was cheerful as she took me for $5600. That would be, exactly the cost of the estimate plus a fee for credit card service.

As for the equipment, what do you want? It works, of course, but it was just installed. I would be shocked if it didn't work. Time will tell the tale of reliability. One thing I can say, Mr. Dayton was enthusiastic about the reliability of the Amana equipment he sells, because every single dollar of labor on a warranty service call comes straight out of his pocket. I had a peek inside and everything looked fairly high quality. Compared to what we used to have, it's all new hotness.

Here, I'll make it easy for you: No scrolling up required! Dayton A/C & Heating, a company that did a good job for me.

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Full disclosure: I paid full retail price for the entire job, parts, labor, and all. No discounts, no nada from them motivated this post. They were that good to me.