Coretemp Heating and Air

We live in an older home in downtown Toronto. We were having issues with the strength of our AC this year - the system was working, but not it was very weak.

I called in another company (one of the top-rated on Homestars) and their technician looked at our AC unit and furnace and did some measurements. He insisted the system was working just fine, and could not find anything wrong.

A few days later I had another company come in (also top rated on Home Stars: AtlasCare). By this point, our coolant line had ice forming over it (which was a new symptom) and was in even worse shape. They were very pleasant and helpful. Clearly, something was wrong and they diagnosed the problem as insufficient air flow getting to our coil because of the unconventional (and not ideal) installation of the furnace and coil by the previous owner. They told me that I was at risk of a flood from the coil freezing over and that this problem was the reason for our poor AC performance. Their recommendation was a full replacement of the entire AC system and re-installation of a new coil into the furnace and change of airflow vents. This was a $5000-$6000 solution. I was worried about not having AC in the middle of a heat wave (we have an infant at home), so I almost said yes.

But, I called in CoreTemp to give me a second opinion. In 5 minutes they diagnosed that, yes, we had an air flow problem but the solution was easily found by removing the filter from an old, legacy (and redundant) electrical filtration system that was totally dirty and thus blocking the return air. Once they took out these redundant (and grimy!) filters, air flow improved amazingly and our AC has never been stronger. It has been one week and system seems OK. We will see how it does in heavy heat. So far, looks like they saved me $5000.

For the record, the first company that said everything was fine: I tried writing a mediocre review of them here on Homestars. They disputed the validity of the review and I could not prove it because I did not ask for a receipt/invoice. Lesson learned!

Thanks CoreTemp for your quick help and not proposing a major expense!