The Most Important Call.

It seems that many of you out there won't call me until you have a major break down. Now I am not unlike you in that I would probably put off calling me until then too. But this is your encouragement to call me about your air conditioner before that major break down. We can work in a service call and clean and check and charge (if needed) very quickly and have you set for the season. All it takes is a call. If you mention that you read about this on my blog, I am offering a $49.00 discount. That is a great deal and makes it worth reading this from time to time. I also offer some of the best deals going. Preferred Client Club memberships. Basically this is what I call my service agreements. Rather than bore you with the details, you can go to my website and read about all of the benefits of being a Preferred Client Club member. This is a very good deal. Check it out.

www.mcconnellphac.com

Random Thoughts.

This post does not really fit my profile per se but I am going to post it anyway. Being in business for yourself can sometimes be very disheartening. Especially in times like these when the government is dishing out bad judgement call after bad judgement call. But what can we do?
I know that the only way to stay the course and win is to keep your head up and dig in. This is what all of the inspiring Americans do. They don't throw their hands up and quit. We can make it if we continue to fight. Life is not easy. I have concluded that long before all of the economic downturns. But allowing discouragement, has no place in a sucessful person's head. Push forward and create. Think new thoughts. Ask different questions. Never loose hope. I know that this post is really about a pep talk to myself. I hope that if you are reading this maybe in some way it will help you too. When I listen, God always inspires me. He has never told me to lay down and play dead. He is my glory and the lifter of my head. He speaks in the most encouraging ways. At times when I am trying to sit down like a donkey, He is always out in front pulling- no yanking the rope and calling me to get up and move forward. Forward motion seems to be the prefered direction. Why does sitting down and staying where you are always seem like a good idea at first?
These are just my random thoughts and if you are reading them, then you must not have much else to do. Thanks for listening to me blather on and on.

Summer time blues with your frost-free hydrants.

So often in the spring, I get many calls about frost-free hydrants that have frozen and burst. The reason is because they had left either their hose on or an quick couple adaptor causing ice to back up into the hydrant and cause it to burst in the wall. Many of my clients call me year after year having the same thing happen. Fortunately, Woodford Hydrants has now made available a hydrant with a spring in it to absorb the ice expansion. It is guaranteed not to freeze and burst. The bad news is that it costs about $15.00 more than a regular one. For those of you who cannot seem to remember to remove your hose in the fall, now we have your solution. One other problem that crops up is that we sometimes has a false start to spring and people get their hoses out and then we have a freeze. You know what comes next. Don't forget to remove your hoses in the early spring or the fall.

http://www.mcconnellphac.com

Those who own the classic new two story house built on a concrete slab.

I have been asked many times about how a client can improve the comfort of the heating and cooling system found in so many of these new homes that are built on a concrete slab and are two story. In most cases these duct systems are very poorly designed and cannot easily be changed, however, this does not mean that we are powerless to help you be more comfortable.
Most of the problems are with the great deal of temperature found between upstairs and downstairs. The easiest way to correct this problem is to install vacuum/pressure actuated computer controlled dampers and separate the upstairs from the downstairs. We could then add an upstairs thermostat to control it separately. We can generally get the temperature closer to 2-3 degrees instead of 10 degrees difference. Each house is different but we would be glad to assess your specific house and give you a free estimate. Let us know what we can do to serve you.


http://www.mcconnellphac.com

What about these no salt water conditioners?

I know many people have asked me about the ads that they have heard about a no salt water conditioner. They are wonderful in certain conditions. First, you must understand that they remover nothing from your water. They are not to be confused with a water softener which removes through ion exchange particles and minerals of certain types. A water softener uses the salt to rechage the resin bed while then attracting those minerals to the resin and flushing them out during regeneration. The "Easy Water" system on the other hand does nothing to remove anything but it does a very good job of changing the mineral structure so that if you are only dealing with hardness, they do a great job of making those minerals not stick to pipes or fixtures.

If your only concern is hardness, then an "Easy Water" is a great choice. However, if you have iron or other issues, those would need to be addressed by a different type of system. I think an "Easy Water" system is a great way to protect a water heater and your fixtures. The other obvious benefit is that they use no salt and require no maintenance. The cost of an "Easy Water" is about the same as a water softener.

http://www.mcconnellphac.com/

Why Should I Buy a Service Agreement?

Service agreements (at least my service agreements) don't just provide our customers with two cleanings, one in the spring for the air conditioner and one in the fall for your furnace, but they also provide our customers with priority service status and a 15% discount on any service performed on your equipment. But let's set aside the priority status and the 15% discount for a minute and examine the other benefits. First, a service agreement is priced at a very discounted rate for the services performed. That means that if you were to call me for a furnace cleaning and not have a service agreement, it could cost as much as the price of the entire one year service agreement but would only get a furnace cleaning. On top of that you get the other benefits. Why would we offer this discount? Because we can schedule the cleanings on our time and keep our schedule full when we have off times. Plus the service agreement ties us to our customers and gives us the opportunity to serve our customers better. I would invite you to visit my website and click on the Preferred Client Club tab. That explains our service agreements in detail. As always feel free to contact me through my website.

http://www.mcconnellphac.com

What happened to the days when your word meant something?

I often get mistified by the fact that some clients of mine are so appreciative of the fact that I simply return a phone call. I just have to think, that that is what you are supposed to do, isn't it?
Well obviously these days that is a rarity. I have always treated people the way I wanted to be treated. And I don't want to have a call not returned. But what about doing what you say you will do?
Well, this too seems to be something that is harder to find. When I tell someone that we will do something, we will do it. I don't make false promises. Now this seems to be simple common sense and of course, something that everyone should do but, I find this too to be not so common.
If you struggle to find someone that you can trust with your mechanical systems, there should be no question who to call. We will treat you like we would want to be treated. Our word is as good as gold and you can take it to the bank.

http://www.mcconnellphac.com