NBL - Air Conditioning & Heating

Bruno and his associate receives 5 of 5 star rating. All my questions answered professionally. Work area cleaned promptly. Thanks.... Vernon Wharton...

As was the experience with many people during this historic heat wave, our AC stopped cooling our 3-story house. We could not wait long, so I reached out on Yelp to several HVAC businesses. Ariel (the owner) replied almost immediately and had one of his guys (Alberto) come to my house within the half hour after informing me that there would be a $15 diagnostics fee. As I was desperate, I quickly agreed. To put this into context, the only other business that got back to me said they could not come until the next day, and that it would be a $129.99 diagnostics fee. Already I was glad I found NBL.

Alberto was very professional and inspected my outside unit, as well as the inside portion inside my attic. He explained what the issues were and that I would need a new condenser. As I inherited a 10 year old unit, he informed me that that is usually out of warranty for replacement. He also said that if I replaced only the condenser, it would be possible that if the inside portion continued to leak frion (which he showed me as green discoloration near my coils in the attic), I would need to get a new condenser again anyways. So I agreed to have the entire system replaced, which he discounted for being in the healthcare field and said he could have a team do it the very next day. After speaking with friends going through the same thing, I learned that the price quoted was a reasonable one for replacing a unit.

The next day, I discovered that the condenser I had would be covered by warranty but the other parts wouldn’t.I called Alberto, and he was understanding and gave me the option to wait 3-5 days for the covered condenser to come in, but then he couldn’t discount the rest of the AC unit, so it would still end up being only $1k less than just having everything replaced to the same brand with brand new warranties. So I agreed to proceed with a full AC replacement. Alberto and his team started early in the am and had just about completed the work by the time I came home around 3-4pm. His team installed filters I requested to be put in and showed me how to do it myself. Also, he replaced the old honeywell AC interface on my bottom floor with a brand new nest thermostat free of charge. He also informed me that I might need to get a new controller to regulate the zoning for each floor (allowing me to control the temperatures differently for each area).

Over the next day, I felt as though it took an abnormally long time to cool the house down. I texted Alberto, who reassured me that the first time would take awhile since the house was full of hot, humid air. I was skeptical and almost didn’t sleep at home since it was taking so long to cool, but eventually the home cooled, and even felt cold. Alberto came the next day and replaced our controller so we could control our temperatures on each floor, and since then, we have not had any issues. My only thing is that the AC unit doesn’t make much noise, so it’s hard to tell when it’s running, but some may argue that’s a plus since it’s quieter and more efficient.

NBL gave me a 1 year warranty on labor and a 10 year warranty on parts. I felt that Alberto was straightforward, responsive, and efficient with having my issue fixed. He gave a reasonable price and helped me troubleshoot even after the job had been paid. And he even threw in a new Nest thermostat (though lower end model, but still). I would recommend NBL and Alberto wholeheartedly and without hesitation, especially if you want someone who is responsive and are in a time-sensitive pinch.

BEWARE: This place tried to charge me $1,800 FOR LABOR ONLY to replace a circuit board and blower motor when the typical cost is $500-600, which is exactly the range for the the quote I got from Better Than Best A/C and Heating.