Blog

“Craftsman” is a word that is rarely thrown around these days. In a world where folks shop online and are always searching for the cheapest price or the most reviews, sometimes the quality of products and skill level of contractors may not be the most important thing.

George Ninemire has always been the exception to that thought process. A true craftsman in every sense of the word, he concludes an incredible career that saw him leave his mark in many homes and businesses in the Kansas City area. City Wide Heating and Cooling is pleased to announce the retirement of George Ninemire after a 35 year career with the company.

George grew up in the Kansas City area, and after high school spent 4 years of active duty in the United States Air Force. He was a jet engine mechanic, and they had a hard and fast rule – if you lost a tool nobody goes home until that tool is found. The idea being that a tool left inside a jet engine could be catastrophic for the pilot.  That is where he learned the importance of being thorough and meticulous.

He entered HVAC Trade School soon after that, and spent a few years with various companies in the Kansas City area.

He joined City Wide Heating & Cooling in 1986. He began his City Wide career working with Ted and Chris Duval installing replacement systems in residences throughout the Kansas City area. In 1998 he started working with Doug and Nick Duval in the Sheet Metal Division. This group installed ductwork and systems for both residential and commercial customers, so George was able to expand his level of expertise in all phases of heating and cooling development.

In 2008 he stayed with Doug Duval and starting focusing mostly on residential heating and air conditioning systems, and has worked on this side of the business through 2021.

George had a certain way of doing things: you do things right the first time. But he also took things further – George wanted things perfect and nothing but the best. He not only did this for the customers but he also did this for himself – it HAD to be perfect. Anything less than that was not good enough.

He learned these traits from his grandfather and father. Both men were mechanically inclined but also preached the right way is the only way to do things. George also attributed this to his German heritage, where perfection and pride is a required tenet of life.

George leaves an incredible legacy of work that is present in many homes and buildings in the Kansas City area. If you have a George Ninemire installation, you have a work of art. Everything always aligned perfectly. Everything was nice and level. Everything was symmetrical so when you looked at it you knew it was done well. George has always been a craftsman and always will be a craftsman.

City Wide Heating and Cooling is proud to have George as part of our company for 35 years. He will be missed, but in his time here he has also been able to pass a piece of his knowledge to other installers in the company.

We wish George well in his life of retirement. Congratulations…and thank you George!

It’s time to get the furnace maintained in your Kansas City area home. With winter approaching quickly, keeping your heater running is really important. But have you ever wondered what actually happens during a furnace tune-up? Read below to find out!

A Standard Furnace Tune-Up Checklist

The furnace in your home has a lot of components that are checked for safety and functionality. During your yearly furnace maintenance these are the common areas a technician will check:

• Ignitor. Modern furnaces have electronic ignition, and over time that ignitor can start to wear down. Replacing these before they fail keeps your furnace firing on the coldest days.
• Heat exchanger. The technician also checks the heat exchanger, which heats up when the natural gas fires in the combustion chamber. This is also where dangerous flue gases pass through when in route to your furnace flue. Over time that heat exchanger can weaken and crack, which can then cause a carbon monoxide issue. The technician will always run a carbon monoxide test on the system.
• Blower motor. The tech will check for amp draws on the motor, and check the electrical connections of the motor itself. In addition, they will check for noises and vibrations that might indicate pre-mature failure.
• Safety switches. Your furnace also has limit and safety switches that will shut down the furnace if it gets too hot. Those switches are checked to make sure they are working properly.
• Gas piping. The technician will also check the gas piping around the furnace to make sure there are no leaks.
• Flue venting. The flues are checked to make sure they are drafting properly and that there is no visible damage that could hinder the flue gases from leaving the home.
• Burner assembly. The tech also checks that the burners are releasing the gas cleanly and efficiently. They also clean the burners as well.

In addition, there a few other things the furnace technician will do during a standard maintenance:

• Humidifier. If there is a humidifier on the furnace, they change the humidifier pad and make sure it is on and operable.
• Furnace filter. Changing the filter is one of the most important things for your furnace. It helps keep the heater clean, which means the blower doesn’t have to work as hard.
• Dampers. If your home has dampers in your ductwork, the technician will make the adjustment from Summer to Winter so your air flow is maximized for the winter season.
• Drain lines. The technician will also clean the drain lines for your humidifier and your high efficiency furnace if applicable.

Contact City Wide Heating & Cooling at 913-384-6006 the next time you need service. We provide furnace tune-ups in Overland Park, Lenexa, Shawnee, and all cities in between.

With Covid-19 running rampant in the Kansas City area, people are staying in their homes more. With winter approaching, there are some things you can do to your heating and cooling system to help filter the air.

There are a couple of different systems that can work at eliminating airborne germs and viruses in your home. Both of these systems work in conjunction with your furnace and air conditioner system and are designed to work with the fan running all of the time.

Electronic Air Cleaners Provide Whole-Home Filtration

An electronic air filtration systems works with your heating and air conditioner system to constantly filter the air in your home. This type of system captures and kills 95% of the larger particles in the air by utilizing an electric field in your filtering system.

This system also inactivates 99% of select airborne germs and viruses that includes:

• Coronavirus
• Influenza
• Common Cold
• Bacteria That Causes Strep Throat

An electronic air cleaner then takes those particles and they get captured by a MERV 15 air filter. This enables the system to also reduce pet dander, pollen, dirt, and other particles.

Air Purification Systems Clean Your Air

This type of system is installed in conjunction with whatever filtering system you have in your Kansas City home.  This is an air scrubber system and is installed in your duct system above the furnace. It utilizes a couple of technologies to purify the air:

• PX5 technology consists of UV light energy combined with a 5-metal, quint-metallic core to scrub the air. This core reduces viruses, odors, pollutants, smoke, mold, bacteria, and VOC’s.
• Bi-polar ionization system, which uses positive AND negative ion technology that gathers the small particles together so they can be filtered out.

This system was tested against Covid-19 in a hospital setting by putting masks worn by Covid patients in a room for two hours with this technology.

After two hours the pathogens were removed, while masks in an untreated room showed no improvement during the same period.

In addition, this type of system has shown the ability to reduce other pathogens such as MS-2 Bacteriophage and Staphylococcus Epidermidis.

Contact City Wide Heating and Cooling for more information regarding filtering the air in your Kansas City area home.

Here in the Kansas City area there are plenty of heating and air conditioning companies. When it comes time to repair or replace your system, most people go to Google and search for someone to help them.

But how do you choose the best one that is going treat you fairly and honestly?  That is a very good question.

Start With The Basics – Is The Company Qualified?

There are some basic qualifications to look for when hiring the right furnace and air conditioner company. These are simple questions to ask and should be easy for a reputable company to answer:

• Are you a licensed heating and cooling company?
• Are you insured?
• Are your employees background checked?
• How long have you been in business?
• Are your technicians sub-contractors or company employees?
• Do the technicians wear shoe covers when they enter the home?
• Do the technicians have experience?

In addition, with Covid-19 being around these days, there are additional questions to ask regarding their policies and procedures:

• Are the technicians wearing masks?
• Will the technicians wipe down thermostats, door handles, and hvac components in the house?
• Are the technicians leaving service tickets or can they be emailed?
• Are the technicians using hand sanitizer before and after leaving the home?

All of these questions are important as a baseline to choosing the best heating and air conditioner company for your Kansas City home. Once you feel satisfied with these answers, it’s time to figure out what else is important when choosing someone to service your home.

All About The Service or The Sale?

Customers today all want the same thing – to be treated fairly when it comes to maintaining their homes. Most folks don’t know how to repair an air conditioner or maintain a furnace. So they rely on their local companies to be honest with them. But how do you know when they are being honest? A couple of ideas:

• Are you getting upfront pricing? Each repair for your system should have a price that the technician gives you before doing the repair. And that should be the final price that you pay.

• Does the technician push for a replacement instead of a simple repair?  A lot of heating and air conditioning companies pay commissions to technicians for referring service customers to their replacement department. While this can make some sense on older systems, it is not the case for every system. The expected lifespan for a heating and cooling system is about 18 years in this area. So if your equipment is less than 15 years old, it may make more sense to repair the system. And if your system is less than 10 years old, it makes no sense to replace it.

• Does a technician seem to “find a repair” every time they come to your home for your annual maintenance?  Believe it or not, some companies instruct their technicians to find something that needs a repair and then pays commission on that repair to the technician.

• Is the company locally, family owned and operated? Family ownership is important because families take care of families, especially in a city like Kansas City. This area is known for taking care of each other, and that means treating people with fairness and respect. Customers are their neighbors, and friends, and fellow church goers. And maintaining those good relationships are important for personal and business reasons.

• Will the company really listen to you and address your concerns? Every situation is different when a service company is allowed into the home of a customer. An honest and fair company will listen when there is an issue and do what is necessary to make sure their customers are treated fairly. Companies that have been in business a long time understand that customer service really is the key to creating a company that employees and customers want to be a part of.

To sum it up, people these days want experiences to feel good. They want to feel that the company that showed up treated their homes with respect and their wallets fairly. People want to feel that the company that they support actually appreciates that support.

Family businesses are built on those relationships and wouldn’t exist without them. When you can become part of a family, it makes both sides have a mutual respect and understanding that they have each other’s back. And that the company will always be there to take care of your home, and that the customer will always be there to support the company. That’s how you know you have chosen the best heating and cooling company in Kansas City.

As summer starts to wind down, cooler weather (and then the cold weather) is on the way to the Kansas City area. That means that it is almost time to turn on the furnace to keep us warm.

The question is: will your heater be ready the first time you turn it on? And when it does turn on for the first time, will it work and will it be safe to run?

A furnace check up is a good idea to answer those questions. Here are a few reasons why regular furnace preventive maintenance is really important!

Furnace Maintenance Keeps You Safe

Furnaces in the Kansas City area mainly use natural gas to produce heat. So one of the first things that technicians will check is to make sure there are no gas leaks in the furnace or the gas piping around the unit.

Burning natural gas also produces carbon monoxide, which typically leaves your home through the vent pipes. The tune-up will check to make sure the furnace is venting properly, and also checks to make sure there are no cracks in the furnaces heat exchanger.

A Heating Tune-Up Helps Identify Problems

It always seems like our furnace breaks down at the worst possible time. It’s either the coldest day of the year or on a holiday right before family is supposed to come visit.

Regular maintenance can help identify potential issues before they happen so repairs can be made in advance. Some of the things that can be checked include:

• Blower motor and capacitor
• Gas valve
• Furnace igniter
• Blower wheel
• Inducer motor
• Burner assembly

In addition, the technician will also change the filter and check the humidifier.

Your Furnace Can Last Longer

By performing regular preventive maintenance, your heating system can actually last longer. Regular cleaning and checking helps the system run more efficiently. Consequently, the moving parts don’t wear down as quickly. This means your furnace may last a few extra years, which saves you from having to replace your furnace frequently.

In addition, you can actually save a few bucks on your utility bills, because a clean furnace with a clean filter will actually use less natural gas to heat your home. Which will save you money on your gas bill!

Contact City Wide Heating & Cooling, Inc. at 913-384-6006, and we will be happy to dispatch a technician to maintain your furnace. We maintain furnaces from Overland Park to Kansas City and all areas in between.

Warmer weather is right around the corner here in the Kansas City area. Consequently we will be turning on our air conditioners soon. And unfortunately, sometimes that air conditioner will need to be repaired.

Here are some common air conditioner issues and the possible repairs.

Your Air Conditioner Fan is Not Spinning Outside

This could be a couple of things. One of these is that the condenser fan motor has gone bad. This can happen over time, especially in an older air conditioner unit. The fan motor can simply be replaced and your air conditioner will work again.

The other possibility is that you have a bad capacitor. The capacitor is a cylindrical part that stores electricity to help start your air conditioner compressor. It also works with your condenser fan motor as well.

This part will go bad, and sometimes you will hear a humming sound outside near your air conditioner. This is also a relatively simple air conditioner repair.

Your Air Conditioner Is Making an Awful Noise

This one is one of the more scary situations. Your air conditioner comes on and all of a sudden you hear an awful noise like metal clanging against metal.

What usually happens is the fan blade on your air conditioner has gone out of balance, so the blades are hitting against the other parts of your air conditioner. If this happens, shut off your AC immediately and call for a repair.

Your Air Conditioner Just Won’t Turn On

This could be a combination of things, including the parts mentioned above. It’s also possible your AC breaker tripped in your electrical panel, so you’ll want to always check that first.

The other possibility is that your compressor has gone bad. This is the main part of your air conditioner because it pumps the refrigerant into your home. This is also one of the more expensive repairs to an air conditioner. If your compressor has gone bad, there is a good chance you may just be replacing that system.

This normally happens on an older air conditioner, so it may have been time to replace anyway.

Contact City Wide Heating & Cooling if you experience any air conditioner issues in your KC area home. We will send a technician over and get you cooling again!