All reviews for Hilo Air Conditioning & Refrigeration

Great 👍

Very friendly and helpful :-)

Great and honest owner with hard working techs

needed an odd little part and they had it . Real nice and helpful people .

Best AC company on the island! These guys are beyond reproach.

Always great quality work, fast response, and really nice technicians. We never hesitate to call.

Great service, knowledgeable techs, and friendly people with perfect products for our Big Island environment.

Above and beyond reproach. A1 customer service and definitely the best AC & Refrigeration company on Big Island.

What a great business from beginning to the end product. These guys are on it! Also, very nice gentlemen! They take a lot of pride in their work. I am a customer for life. Thank you!

These guys were awesome. Reclaimed the refrigerant from an old residential refrigerator so I could repurpose it! They were very professional yet friendly and likeable. Price was nice ESPECIALLY since they came out to our place.

Great response! Dedeicated to getting us up and running when others wouldn’t give us time of the day. Great communication, fair and reasonable, even expedited air freight from mainland. I will continue to use and recommend Hilo Air Conditioning

-Brian K.
Big Island Distributing, Inc

Emphasis is on making sure you are highly satisfied with their work and service..I was! The Fujitsu AC they provided is quiet, efficient, reasonably priced for high quality received and installation was highly professional.

We had Hilo Air install our Fujitsu A/C system, consisting of 7 indoor and 2 outdoor units. The shape of our house is unusual so I needed a great deal of guidance about all aspects of the installation. They were prepared to assist with the analysis of the types of units, their proposed locations and the size of the various units, while keeping me in the loop and “tutoring” me regarding the logic behind the analysis. We have also had them install air purifiers as add-on’s subsequently. They even arranged the electrical work (we needed a new 220v circuit)! The service and cost were simply outstanding. Over the years, we have had a number of service calls, all of which have been handled promptly and efficiently at a reasonable cost. I highly recommend their services.

Jose and Kahinu are awesome!

I was worried I was going to need to replace my outdoor condenser unit because it was so rusted out.the fan was clanging making a huge racket.

Jose got things fixed up for me so I can keep going on the same unit for a good while to come.

One thing that I've noticed that others haven't mentioned yet is service after the sale. Our system is a bit long in the tooth at this point - 10+ years old - and it's starting to show signs of wear.

The unit in the master bedroom began leaking profusely indoors due to the high humidity. I called Mitch to ask for advice. He told me what to do to prevent further damage and said that someone would be there tomorrow to fix this.

I was skeptical that they would be able to do this given that it must be high season for them, but they surely did! I am sitting in a cool room right now, thanks to John, Manai and Mitch for their supurb help for us under duress!

I received excellent installation service for my new A/C units from Mitch and his team. The cost was also significantly lower than the estimate I received from another company. I highly recommend Hilo A/C!

We decided to call Hilo Air Conditioning & Refrigeration based on their amazing reviews to service our restaurant’s walk-in refrigerator that was unable to maintain its temperature. The technician, Jose, came to diagnose the condenser unit. While diagnosing, he was careless when trying to put dye in a valve. He applied too much pressure and broke it. This made the whole walk-in refrigerator inoperable. We panicked because our restaurant cannot operate without it. However, we found ways to manage with many inconveniences for a month so we could pay our utilities, expenses, and rent. We spoke with the manager, Mitch, asking what the options were. The options were to replace the valve or to replace the condenser unit. Mitch couldn’t find a valve, so we had to resort to replacing the condenser unit. After installing the new unit, the walk-in fridge still couldn’t function properly. They found the original source of the problem was a leak somewhere else. They repaired the leak, but the total cost of the repair and installation of the new unit was $7,087.54. The unit only operated for 2 weeks before it shut off by itself. The unit was reset and temporarily fixed for three months. Hilo Air & Refrigeration stated it was an electrical short circuit problem and not a poor installation. They stated they didn't want to work with us after this.

We decided to get a 2nd opinion from a different technician, who stated it’s not an electrical problem. We called Hilo Air Conditioning & Refrigeration multiple times about the 1-year labor warranty that is part of the agreement. They ignored and hung up on us when asked for it. So we decided to go to their office to ask about the terms and conditions of the 1-year labor warranty that is still valid. They refused to work with us. We also asked for information on the part’s warranty for our condenser unit from the manufacturer they ordered from. We asked for this because they are refusing to help us. This information would be useful to a new technician who is willing to work with us. Unfortunately, they refused to provide this as well. The owner, Nick, asked Mitch if we paid. Mitch responded that we paid the full amount. Nick’s response, based on his body language, was to get rid of us since they got our money. After discussing with them for 10 minutes, they threatened us to leave by calling the police. We left after we heard them talking to the police over the phone and giving our name and the location of our restaurant to arrest us. Thank God the police didn’t show up.

We decided to review our invoice, which we paid in full, and found that they had hidden fees. They were charging us the condensing unit for $3,504.00, when they bought it for $2,293.38 from the manufacturer. The shipping we paid is $300.00, and they paid $30.00. We found the receipt for the condensing unit that they forgot to take out of the box while they were on a 2-hour smoke break in the shade.

Mitch, the manager, often boasts about how great they are. I wish they were great. What could have been about an $800 repair became a $7,087.54 repair that is still broken. I pray others have better experiences than we have.

****Respond to Hilo Air's Response****
Thank you for your response Mitch. We are being honest. We wouldn’t be writing this review if we didn’t have such a bad experience. Also the unit is not 40 years old, it's 26 years old because the business started 26 years ago. It’s these small errors that cause larger problems like our unit. The rest is an act of God. Thank you.

I called and left a message. No return calls . I wanted an estimate to install air conditioning in my home.

AC went down about 4 weeks ago. Multiple attempts made to get someone on-site to evaluate and repair, after many calls and emails, someone finally came out with the wrong part. According to tech, new part was ordered that day and expected to arrive a few days later to which they would be in to replace it, that was over a week ago. Multiple attempts made again to reach company with no response to call, text or email.

Beware! This company cares more about money and being "right" than actually helping their customers. The absolute lack of communication from the technician to me and my husband was highly frustrating. There were multiple unnecessary times the technician had to come to our home to fix the SAME EXACT problem...with little to no clear communication on what was actually going on with our AC unit and why it wasn't working the way it should. And when, at the end of it all, when we reached out to the owner of this company to get some type of solution before we pay our bill and even having questions of our bill, he basically told us that he's sorry we're not happy with their services, merry Christmas, go somewhere else to get ur AC fixed and oh yeah...here's your bill. I was pissed. All we wanted was to have their tech communicate effectively to us what exactly was going on with our AC unit instead of getting the information from someone miles away in an office and not at our home..seriously the tech was right there and he didn't tell us we needed to replace a part for our AC unit, we had to hear it from their dispatcher who wasn't even there. And the audacity of the owner implying that we were sooo difficult, that we should look elsewhere for our AC problems (which we have no problem doing) and merry Christmas, pay this bill. Instead of actually helping us understand what was the problem and helping us find a better solution for everyone involved. Very unprofessional. I wouldn't recommend this company to anyone. They will waste your time and bill you for every single time they have to come out to your place trying to fix a problem they either created or didn't fix.