Welcome back to GoGaddis Real Estate Radio right here on AM 920 The Answer. My name is Cleve Gaddis and I appreciate you sticking with us through the break. In this segment, after this long hot summer, don't know if it was, but it felt like one of the hottest summers I've ever experienced, what do you need to do to maintain your HVAC system?
Not just after a hot season, but in all four seasons. Because one of the things I'm learning... The older I get, the longer I own homes, as the more care I take of my HVAC system, the better that thing works. Now remember, if you want to connect with us, it is easy. Go to gogaddisradio. com. That's G O G A D D I S radio.
com. You can ask questions, make comments, you can just go to the contact us tab if you want, and say, hey, the nice guy that was on your radio show, who's an H V A C expert, have him contact us, and we'll do that. Without further ado, I want to introduce Tommy Francis. Tommy, it's been a while since you've been on the show.
You're the owner of Northeast Mechanical Services, and Ann Daniels, who helps me prepare the show, and who has been with me for... 17, 18 years. She thinks you are da bomb when it comes to HVAC repair. And I have to fully disclose that Ann is not easy to please. She sets high standards. She wants people to do the right work.
And if you can pass muster with her, you can probably pass muster with pretty much anybody. Welcome. How are you? I'm going well and well, and thank you for that awesome introduction. Hey, and if you don't mind, I'd hate to get your personal business on the air, but congratulations. I know you just had a new baby, and that is so exciting.
Thank you. Thank you. That is so exciting. Uh, so that means you're probably working on very little sleep, if I had to guess. Definitely tired. It's amazing. Two weeks ago, right? Two and a half weeks. Two and a half weeks ago. Boy or girl? Congratulations, man. That is so exciting. So I sold my home, uh, Tommy and John's Creek, which was, uh, you know, a three story, including a basement home in, in, in the city of John's Creek, I had all new heating and air conditioning systems, a kind of a high end, I think it was a high end Linux system, not the highest end Linux, but, but not the base, you know, just a couple of steps up had put in.
All three floors, three years ago, long story short, after about a year, my top floor, it just wouldn't cool correctly. And it was the weirdest thing because it, not only would it not cool, but it literally felt humid. So when you would walk from the second floor up to the, well, from the main floor up to the, to the second floor, you could feel the humidity.
I don't think I'm exaggerating, Tommy, when I say I had... Four or five different companies come out there and look at it. I had the one who installed it who was replacing things under warranty, some of the things I had to pay for. I had other people just come out and give me a clean bill of health until I called somebody that knew what they were doing.
And I'm gonna actually say until I called somebody who cared. And this gentleman, when he got there, learned that I was trying to make sure that everything was working perfectly for a buyer and he thought, You know what? It's not too common for people to want to do that, to care about a buyer. We gotta help this guy.
And long story short, two return lines, which I guess connect to the plentum, am I saying that correctly? Yes, sir. The plentum. Yes, sir. Had come loose. Yeah, they were not even connected and which means they had not been connected for two years. That was causing my problem. Yeah. And so, and I know everybody who's listening probably has some type of story about HVAC troubles.
And I only mentioned that to say that, you know, if you're going to have someone come out and service your. HVAC systems, you need to get somebody that is really, really good. Tell us about what issues you ran into most during this past hot summer season. I mean, really just getting to the customers in a timely manner.
Um, you know, it's so hot and everybody's stressed when they get home from work and they got a hot house. They want us right now. And when hundreds of people want you right now, you're spread thin. Yes, that is so right. Well, so let me ask you this. If it is 97 degrees outside and the sun is shining, cause it would not be 97 if the sun weren't shining.
You can't get your house down to 68 degrees or 70 degrees. You can't really get it there under any circumstances, right? Even if you had a commercial cooling system on top of your house, you might not be able to get it that cold. What, what kind of temperature spread can you get between outside and inside?
So, real quick, I can get your house down to 68 degrees, but it's 110 degrees outside. Really? My house can prove that. Oh, wow. So you have to have, okay, that's good to know. So I would assume you have to have. Some upgraded you have to have some amazing equipment. Yeah. Yes 100 percent amazing. It's the carrier infinity line We can oversize it and everything's variable speed so we can ramp up and down to give you exactly what you need Wow But basic equipment your 20 degree 20 degrees is our magic number.
Perfect. If you have basic equipment And if it's 90 degrees in your hou outside, you should be able to maintain 70 inside if's. If it's 97. Yep. You should be able to maintain 77. Yep. Exactly. Exactly. Well, and so now my girlfriend loves a place warm, so 77 would be heaven for her. 77 would be like me being.
Possibly gonna meet the devil here in just a few minutes. It's so hot I don't know that I can stand it. And so it is it is so interesting So and by the way Thank you for that good tidbit of information that really you can do whatever you need to to get your house as cool as you Want it to be Tommy if somebody is listening and needs to have their HVAC system Serviced or they want to talk about buying a new system.
How would they reach you and in your firm? They can call us directly anytime at six seven eight eight six three 0946. Um, we're on Google, we're on Facebook, Northeast Mechanical Services. We're easy to get a hold of, we're easy to find. We don't hire from nobody. Perfect. And do you do business all over Metro Atlanta?
Or are you mostly concentrated in the Northeast Atlanta area? We try to concentrate outside of the perimeter, uh, Northeast. Okay. Um, we do, we have dozens of customers in Atlanta. Yep. We'll go down there. Yep. Um, we're, we want to make sure our customers are taken care of as fast as possible. And it's hard to guarantee service same day.
When they're in Atlanta, we got to battle the traffic. I know. I totally get it. And that's good. So if somebody's Northeast Atlanta, uh, you know, Roswell or peak street corners or Norcross or Duluth or Lawrenceville or Buford or any of those areas, Gainesville, I would assume. Um, you know, it sounds like Tommy is, is probably your man.
Okay. What is the most common problem, in your opinion, that you find when you go out to service a system that is not working, let's say, in the summertime, and then I'd like to ask the same question If in the winter, so good, great questions, by the way. So I actually just posted a video about a month ago on our Facebook page of what the most common thing is.
And I showed a video of how a customer can correct it themselves. So to save them some money and obviously time with, with us not having to go out there, clogged drain lines. Oh, yes. As the AC runs, it condensates. That's the humidity being removed from your house. Yep. If it gets, if that PVC pipe gets clogged, it overflows into your drain pan.
There should be a float switch on said drain pan. That'll turn the system off and it's extremely simple to flush the drain line. You can do it in three minutes my 70 year old mother could do it. Okay Easily with a water hose. And so let me let me ask you so the the condensation line actually runs outside of the home.
And so it deposits water, something usually typically fairly near where the, where the exterior, you know, condenser compressors are. And so are you hooking a hose up to the outside and blowing it in? Are you taking a hose to the inside and starting closest to the system and blowing it out that way?
Outside the home is nine times out of 10. I mean, obviously you got to look and make sure there's no tease with a cap missing or something like that. You don't want water rushing to your attic. Oh, right. But Just put the hose up against the PVC pipe outside. Use your hand as like a gasket, so to speak. And just count to five and release and watch what comes out of it and do that.
You just continue to process till it's clear water. Oh, so you're just running water up, maybe the first time 10 feet and letting it run back out. Then you run it up 20 feet. Okay, got it. Well, and I understand that it is recommended sometimes to run some bleach or something through there to kill algae. I don't know if that's accurate.
Is that accurate? It is. Yes, it can definitely help. Because that's what builds up in your system. Dust, debris, algae, mildew. Okay, so, for, if your system stops working, check and see if your condensate line is plugged, and you'll know it because the actual little pump will be full of water, right? The little reservoir in the pump will be full of water and it can't pump it out.
Well, so your drain pan will be full of water. Drain pan, okay, got it. So we're not, well some of them have a pump that actually pumps that condensate stuff up, right? That would be in a basement? It would, if it's below grade, got it. Got it. Okay. And clogged up inside of those. Yes. Yes. Interesting. So, okay.
What would somebody, if they, the heat stopped working, what would be the most common thing that you would find during the winter? If it's a gas furnace, um, really dirty filter, probably that or an igniter. It's typically on gas systems. It's something minor on a heat pump, an array of things. So change that filter.
Change that filter, and then the igniter, cause they're electronic today, right? So it's like a computer going bad, right? When you're, the system that ignites it, or no? Some are. Some are, okay. A lot are, some are just glow plugs, basically. Oh, interesting, interesting, and they just go out. Yep, they're made of a carbide material and they crack every time.
So, I have, uh, three systems in my house currently, cause I have three floors. And, what schedule should I follow for maintenance? Should I have... The system maintained before we go into the summer months and then before we go into the fall and winter. Is that how we do it? Yes, sir. We call it spring maintenance for AC and fall maintenance for heat.
Got it. And then, can, if I wanted to have, for example, like a maintenance contract, an annual contract, could I pay for it annually and then you guys would just come out twice, uh, during the year to take, to take care of that? 100%. Got it. And, and how does that, if you, I know it's probably different, but how much would it cost for three systems?
Oh, open book across the board. I don't care where you are. If you're in our area, it's one 80 for the first system, a hundred dollars for each additional system. Okay. And that's good for two. Spring visit and fall visit. So I'm 380 bucks and have everything fully serviced. I think I will be calling you back sometime this week to get that set up for my home because I'm in your service area and I really like that.
And we've only got about 45 seconds left in the segment. What's one of the funniest things that's ever happened to you when you've been out on a service call yourself? Today, a donkey licked me in my face. I love that. I got a picture on my Facebook to prove it. Now, were you trying to kiss the donkey? Or this was the donkey's idea?
The donkey was very sweet. Oh, I love that. And I assume you were outside and a donkey just walked up to you and licked you? It was their pet, literally. Oh my gosh. That is such a great story. Thank you so much, Tommy. You're a wonderful guest. You've got tons of great information. I really appreciate it.
We'll have you back on sometime soon. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back in our next segment, how do you choose and then work with the right contractor? And then can you believe this, that an agent was fined 15, 000 for drinking milk out of the refrigerator of a home he was showing?
Stick with us. We've got that and more. We'll be back.