Overlake Heating and Air Conditioning

Monday evening… Me: Honey, I smell something burning… Do you? Him: No… Me: Come upstairs and try again… Him: Still no… Me: Okay.
Tuesday morning… Me: Honey, I smell something burning and the house feel cold. Can you come upstairs and tell me what you think? Him: Sure. [Comes upstairs]…I don’t smell anything… Me (looking at tstat), thinking… this is NOT the temp I set stuff to… Me: Honey, don’t you think there’s a problem with the furnace? Him: No, the filter was just replaced and I just checked the new one… it looks fine.
Me: Okay [secretly I go and look up troubleshooting tips for our furnace]…
Fast forward past a couple of really busy days and a gradually cooling house… [now about 64 degrees]… Me: Honey, I found these troubleshooting tips for the furnace… Can we try them to see if they work? Him: Sure… [troubleshooting ensues… to no avail…]
Friday morning: Me, waking up to an upstairs that is a cool 61 degrees, I am feeling… cranky… now…: Honey, this is crap. We’ve tried the ‘layman’ tips, they didn’t work. Time to call in the cavalry… Him: Okay, tell me who you want me to call and I’ll take care of it. [Me, thinking… PHEW!!!]
I do some quick Unilocal checking while feeding our newly adopted senior mutt and bounce that against the company that last serviced our furnace. Both seem good and reputable. I give the husband the choice of whom to call (meaning who can come out the soonest). Overlake Heating and Air Conditioning won that race.
Fast forward an hour or so… Husband IM’s me saying that ‘they’ will be out in about an hour; gives me generic-​y ‘emergency’ type dollar figures for a call like this… It’s fine (I’d rather be warm than have money…)…
Brian K. from OHVAC comes out… talks to the husband (I’m at work [husband works from home] and don’t know the extent of the convo here], tells the husband that it is basically a dead capacitor; husband relays this to me… Now I’m thinking «CRAP, this’ll cost a TON».
Imagine my surprise…
This did NOT cost an arm and a leg!!! Total cost for the ‘emergency call’ and fix was… wait for it… $ 180.00…and the wife came home to a WARM house!!!
So, for promptness, honesty (Brian K. did NOT try to upsell on ANYTHING!!!) and a warm, functional house… these folks get my 5 star vote!
Thank you very much!!!
Signed… A now warm, formerly cold and cranky wife!

The whole experience was very pleasant and welcoming, from the price estimate, intro, explain atom, scheduling, installation process was excellent.
Not pushy at all, Rob gave me all the options from different brands, stages, efficiency and let me decide. I hanged up the phone, thought about it and call back to schedule.
I have used several other companies in the Bellevue area for my properties and I regret I haven’t found them out years earlier. I would have saved a lot of money and hassle.

Excellent service and great price! I needed to replace an old furnace, it was also extremely loud by the air intake. I interviewed 4 companies, only Overlake was able to find the problem and fixed it. Turns out they just needed to replace the intake grid with commercial grade ones to eliminate the noise. They also got me a great price to replace my old furnace. Since my house is an older house, they were not sure if a high efficiency furnace can be installed or not, they sent 2 teams over with both equipment on the day of installation and installed the best one for the house. I have been using them even since!

I had scheduled a tune-​up on my furnace last month and the technician Daryl did a fantastic job, very knowledgeable and recommended to install an additional pipe to run to the outside which Jye, the guy who did the installing did an excellent job and was very nice and pleasant to work w. Overall I had a very good experience with them and will highly recommend them…
Chuck

Our furnace had not had a tuneup for nearly 5 years, so I went searching for a firm that was on the eastside and had good reviews. Overlake Heating/​AC did not disappoint. Scheduled an appointment for ¹²⁄₈. Roy gave the furnace a «once over» noting a number of issues. After ordering and receiving parts, they promptly scheduled the install. He advised me along the way as to what steps I needed to be taking to ensure that the system performed optimally. In summary, a big «thumbs-​up» for Overlake.

This company put in my AC in August, and that’s when I met Brian. He came yesterday to check out the heater and found me a FABULOUS, NEW, BRIGHT thermostat to replace the one I had to use a flashlight to see. He takes his time, answers ALL my questions (that, in and of itself, is amazing!) and recommends ONLY what I need. As long as Overlake employs Brian, I am using them! Great sense of humor, VERY professional – it doesn’t get better when dealing with equipment that makes life comfortable in this climate. Thanks, Overlake, and a BIGGER thanks to Brian!

I really want to recommend this people. I just moved into my new house two weeks ago. It is fully remodeled, they even changed the furnace. What happened was that it wasn’t working property, so I saw their name in the sticker on it and called them. They came right away to see the problem, even when they told me they didn’t install that furnace. We finally discovered they have installed the first one in the home, but the new one was installed by another company. No matter what, they came, they explained us why it wasn’t working but didn’t do anything because it was a problem of installation and it was better for us to call the people that did it in the first place. Anyway, I asked the lady on the phone if she could give me an estimate if we decided to go ahead with them and do everything Mike the technician suggested. She told me that wouldn’t be a problem and promised me to send it the next morning by email. The next morning was today, but she didn’t send me an estimate, she called me to tell me that she could found out who have installed the furnace. And then she told me it’d be better if I call them, cause they would do it for free and if I decided to go ahead with them, they have no choice but to charge me the job. So they are not only professional people, they are honest an really care about the costumers. I really appreciate her gesture and would definitely call them in the future for the upgrades I have to do (AC). Thanks, Patty, you were pretty helpful and gentle! Denise

no high pressure selling. .. . Rob just answers your questions and clearly explains the alternatives. What he promised he delivered and I’m very satisfied with the transaction. Some of the other sellers only sell one brand and these guys are agnostic on that point which I also liked. The quality and price beat the Costco offering quite easily. .. .

I have been using Overlake for my furnace and air conditioning service for 5 years. They have always been reliable, professional and courteous. I could write volumes about this company but will let you learn this on your own when you call them :)
Many thanks to this company, one that truly focuses on customer satisfaction.

My 40+ yr old heating furnace decided to take a permanent vacation and Overlake came in to troubleshoot, make recommendation, educated me in my decision process, installation of a new furnace and then a follow-​up troubleshoot on the system that stopped heating 2 days after it was installed. I was pleased with several facets of this adventure: the responsiveness, friendliness and prompt service of the staff answering the phone; the timeliness of scheduled service calls, from same day service calls to installation w/​I a week; the friendly & professional installation crew (Joe & Jye) who even positively interacted with my 3 yr old son several times w/​o missing a beat of their work; the reassurance that Overlake will stand by their work and serve their customer, their work & equipment — which was illustrated by their 1 hour response to the heating system not heating to resolve the issue (no charge); and helpful and educational communication throughout all interactions.
Thanks Overlake!

We just had them do our air conditioning. From the guy who came to give the quote to the guys that came to install it, every one was very professional and courteous. They did a great job, and fixed some ducting issues left over from the last company which had worked on our heating system. The quality is solid (as of one day), and they left the area exactly as they had found it. Will absolutely work with them again.

I’ve had an outstanding experience with these guys.
I bought an older home with a 25-​year old furnace. In the middle of the winter, faint smells of something burning started coming out of the vents, and that of course caused me to call an HVAC company. This happened on a Saturday night; I reached out to a bunch of places, but only Overlake responded within 1 hour and I had an appointment scheduled to get my old furnace cleaned and inspected.
When the inspector came, he took a 30-​second glance at my furnace and diagnosed the issue: core components were rusted and the furnace needed to be replaced. He said that he will not charge me for the visit (!!!) and instead gave me some sales brochures about possible replacements.
An experienced buyer, I of course called 5 other companies to get quotes. Overlake’s quote was the best by far, and they could do it at the earliest point — only 2 days later. This, combined with their excellent customer service so far, made me by from them.
On the day of the install — I ended up replacing both my furnace and water heater — two guys showed up EXACTLY on time. They’ve done an excellent job — everything looks immaculate — and left the job site cleaner than they found it.
I wholeheartedly recommend Overlake HVAC. They’re a typical example of why I love buying from small local businesses.

Despite having purchased a furnace, air conditioner and two fireplace inserts from Washington Energy Service, along with a multi-​year service plan, they failed to provide us reasonable service when our furnace stopped working. It sounded like a racket to me.
I called Washington Energy Service on a Friday morning and was told nobody could come out until Saturday at a higher weekend rate. I agreed. Later that Friday afternoon, I called back to reschedule because it turned out I couldn’t be home all day Saturday. She told me that the higher price would still apply on Monday, even though it was no longer a weekend or holiday. Confused, I asked for the next day they could just charge their regular service rate, and she said it would be two weeks later. Really!!! Told her to forget about it.
I then called Overlake Heating on Saturday and made an appointment for Monday morning. Their team fixed it quickly and professionally on Monday morning as planned. Both nice guys and both seemed to know what they were doing.
They even helped swap out an aging electronic air filter for a custom fitted solution using traditional filters that I had wanted to use.

Oh dear. Was just informed these guys were removed from Angie’s List for their hostile behavior. Just checked it out for myself, and sure enough, they were removed for just that reason. Say no more.

Rob the owner was very fair and explanatory.
His professional technician: Darryl, was exceptional.
I had an issue a few months after install and he diagnosed the problem and fixed it lickity split!
It was one of those weird things that you could probably only diagnosis it when it was happening and of course it was not happening when he arrived, yet since he seriously knows his stuff, tried something and he was SPOT ON!
I live on the Eastside they have been great. THANK YOU!

Our issue 1977 Ruud furnace pooped out on us once and for all today, on the coldest day of the year. Being the Monday after a 4-​day holiday, I was fairly certain that we’d be freezing our tails off for a few days. How wrong I was — thanks to the great people at Overlake — from Rob (owner?) to installer Jye, and even to the people working in the office! I called Overlake this morning, based on their great Unilocal reviews, and I must say that I concur with most other reviews here: the experience was first-​rate, from our first interaction to our final handshake. It’s 7:30 PM, and we are now toasty and warm!
When I first called Overlake, simply to obtain information, Rob gave me a 5-​minute mini-​training (with NO pressure whatsoever to buy) on furnaces. He then gave me a straight-​forward pricing estimates and asked me to send him a digital photo of our current furnace location so he could know if there were any obvious glitches that he should be aware of. I told him I was going to call around to get more bids, but truth be told, I didn’t. I knew from the reviews that Overlake’s prices were good and I (normally the thorough researcher) went on my intuition. No regrets!
Once I okay’d the proposal (simple as reply e-​mail with «sounds good!») I was put on Overlake’s schedule for THIS AFTERNOON! The office called to give me a heads up when Jye was on his way (earlier than anticipated) and once he arrived and introduced himself, he got right to work. He was here for about four hours. Once he finished, he gave me clear, concise instructions and was completely professional, yet personable. The price was precisely what I had been promised — no surprises, no pressure, no upsell (unless you call leaving coupons for future service «upselling»; I don’t!).
All in all, I have only the best things to say about Overlake. The little things matter, and from first interaction to final thank-​yous, Overlake is all about great customer service.

My 28 year old Payne furnace starting making monstrous death groans when starting up. Called Overlake based on my previous experience with their maintenance service. Tech came out and explained that my gas valve was going bad, and the interior of my old furnace was rusted out. It was pretty obvious he was right. Rather than try and repair the dinosaur with parts that might no longer be made, I decided to buy a new 95% efficient, two stage furnace (Bryant 925TA), especially given the PSE rebate. Old one was single stage and probably 60%.
Rob the owner worked with me to explain what size furnace I needed and what my options were. I have some tech knowledge and his recommendations were spot on and made sense. He never tried to upsell me on a fancier model. Never forced me into any extras that I didn’t want. I was able to conduct the entire installation process over e-​mail with only two brief phone calls. I’m sure Rob would have come out my home had I asked him, but it was very easy and convenient to do everything digitally. He was very patient with my numerous e-​mails and questions, and I usually got a next day reply.
Overlake was willing to come down (a little bit) on their already competitive price when I wanted to haggle which I appreciated.
The install was done in a day and very professionally. They took great care to do very neat work. At my request the installer even fixed the big air gap in my garage intake vent in 15 minutes with some very creative construction, and free of charge!
Patty who seems to be in charge of administration was extremely helpful with flexible appointment scheduling and also helping me with two rebates.
I was almost shocked when the total price was exactly what had been agreed upon, no hidden charges or extra fees.
When I had a problem with blower whine on the new Bryant furnace, Rob sent his two best techs to my home to diagnose and they were able to virtually eliminate it by adjusting the blower’s speed taps.
When I thought my new furnace’s combustion noise was unexpectedly loud given Bryant’s «QuieTech Noise Reduction» claims, Overlake quickly explained that new furnaces are not automatically quieter than very old ones because of different burner technology. Old furnaces with sword burners actually tended to be quieter than new ones with «jet» burners. Definitely something to consider: If you really want quiet, you’ll probably need the highest end variable valve unit. The furnace is under my bedroom, and while not bothersome to me or my wife when it fires on, you can definitely hear it even in stage 1.
The only other problem I had was with the new thermostat. I wanted a new one to control the second heat stage, but my options were limited due to only 3 thermostat wires present. Due in part to Bryant’s poor documentation, I received a Bryant stat (T6-​PAC) that could not control the second stage of the furnace. Not a huge problem since the furnace itself can control its staging based on timers, but I really wanted the stat to do it. Overlake was apologetic and helped me pick a different thermostat and let me buy it myself online to save money. They then not only installed my fancy new Honeywell Prestige IAQ stat for free, but also gave me a full refund on everything I paid for the original thermostat! Really love this new stat, and wish it had been offered as a choice originally over only a supposedly matching Bryant stat. To be fair, Overlake did say me getting a new stat was totally optional from the get go.
I have also used this company for maintenance on my old furnace twice in the past. The pricing was always reasonable, they have coupons, and there were never any hidden charges or attempts to upsell anything.
So what could be done better? Not much! I might have liked a discussion of the pros and cons of different brands of furnaces and stats before the sale, especially since they also install Lennox, and certainly picking the right thermostat from the get-​go would have been nice. Perhaps this was not done because I seemed very focused on price at first and Lennox is probably more expensive. It may have been nice to know ahead of time that a very old furnace with sword burners is going to be quieter than the newest technology when you would expect the opposite to be true. But they were willing to bend over backwards to make me happy, and that’s what counts! Spending this much money can be a stressful and scary proposition on an investment that’s supposed to last much longer than your car, so this kind of customer service is very important.
I might go with Lennox next time to try and get extra quiet fan and burner operation, but I’m sure the Bryant brand will be reliable and inexpensive to maintain. One thing is for sure, Overlake will remain my HVAC provider of choice.

The whole experience with Overlake Heating and Air Conditioning was first rate — from the first call with the customer service representative who extremely helpfully recommended to us that we check the filter and restart our furnace — potentially saving us the money of a service call — all the way through to the technician Michael who expertly diagnosed and solved our problem.
Bottomline — the board in our furnace was shot. We called at 8:00 a.m. for a non-​emergency visit and by 10:45 a.m. that same day the problem had been diagnosed by Michael, parts had been acquired in Factoria and the board replaced and the furnace tested and the technician had left for his next call. All for an extremely fair and reasonable cost.
Pretty impressive I would say, wouldn’t you?

Rob came out exactly at the scheduled time and walked me through the whole process. He explained the different heat pumps and the pros/​cons of each different brand.
I decided to go with them because of the general knowledge and seeming passion for the product/​service. Their prices were slightly under the other quotes I received but even if they were a little more, I still would’ve selected them.
They arranged the electrical work so I didn’t have to do anything at all. Basically it was a done deal after I told Rob to go ahead with the project.
The team arrived on time and worked throughout the day. They were highly professional and answered all the questions I had. The quality of work was also very good. I suppose that since it’s just sheet-​metal work in the garage it doesn’t really have to be perfect, but they made it perfect anyway which I appreciated.
The day of the fire-​up, Darrell came out to do a few final modifications, etc. He was a perfectionist from what I saw. He informed me that it would take a little while longer than he initially told me, which I was totally fine with. Note this was a Friday night (⁶⁄₁₃) and he asked if he could work late to get the job done; no problem. I can’t say enough good things about Darrell. So far, everything is perfect. They gave me all the information I needed to operate the system and it’s good to go.
Highly recommend as a quality contractor with highly competitive prices. Would go with these guys even if you get a cheaper quote from someone else. It won’t be the same service or quality as these guys.

After reviewing multiple companies and bids, along with much product research, I went with Overlake for a new A/​C installation.
No regrets. Work performed was clean, professional, on time, and came in underbid. Partnership with electrical company was fantastic and top-​notch; communication was excellent.
Overlake was the only company that took the time to educate me on Air Conditioning, discussed the project, and worked with me on the final design. Most everything else was just a bid thrown across the table.
Also, unlike most others I discussed the project with, they were comfortable with Nest and knew exactly what to do. Minor feature, but important to me.
They are my new HVAC partner.