Blue Flame Heating & Air Conditioning

Claimed

I'm going to take some extra time to offer up a cautionary tale on Blue Flame based on my own experience.

After a Blue Flame technician came to my house, I did a bunch of research on these guys. There are a lot lot of tales of woe on the Internet that tell the exact same story as mine: hugely inflated parts costs, inflated/unnecessary maintenance costs, poor maintenance (broken/damaged furnaces), extremely steep furnace replacement costs with expensive air filters added on.

Should you call them to address problems with your broken furnace, this is the most likely scenario:

(1) The parts that are actually broken will be listed out with wildly inflated markups.

For example, the quote i received for a cracked Ptrap was $652 ("Standard Rate") or $570 ("Club Rate"). The actual Ptrap cost (for the part itself) is about $50. Replacement of this part is trivial (it's a small plastic box mounted to the front/outside of the furnace and would take 5 minutes to replace).

Another example: I received a quote for "PVC Repair: $425" for what is actually a repair that requires $1.50 in parts and 10 minutes in labor.

Any new motors and/or pumps and/or valves will be added with a "Standard Rate" and a "Club Rate", with the "Standard Rate" about 20% higher than the "Club Rate".

(2) They'll find things that aren't broken nor need be addressed and add them to the repair estimate.

For example "seal ductwork" and "clean blower wheel". These will be added to the list of actually broken things with their own hugely inflated markups (each was quoted at hundreds of dollars).

(3) The inevitable conclusion will be "This repair is awfully expensive, you're better off replacing the entire furnace".

(4) You'll then be quoted some new furnace prices, along with some really expensive air filter options (which add $3k to the price of the furnace). At this point, you're likely to be well north of $10k in out of pocket costs to replace your furnace.

(5) You'll then be offered various discounts. For example, if you're ex-military, or a healthcare worker, or a member of AAA, or a member of AARP. The whole discount thing is disconcerting. If they go to such great lengths to try to apply a discount, why not just quote prices at a less inflated rate?

(6) Then you'll get the upsell on the Club membership (the "Standard Rate" is very inflated, relative to the "Club Rate").

They grease the skids with these "Offers" which incentivize you to get them to your house. For example: "$55 off any HVAC Service or Repair". It's all to get you to call them out so they can generate the new furnace replacement estimate.

One deeply suspect aspect of this is that you can't call the main Blue Flame phone number if you want to accept the offer, you have to call the technician himself/herself.

I was also told the "exterior vents might need to be replaced" (at a cost of almost $900). This quote was almost absurd in it's markup. The exterior vents are fine (they're relatively new), they're not particularly expensive, nor are they particularly difficult to replace, and this is all rendered moot by the fact that they didn't have to be replaced.

The technician came out to diagnose problems with my furnace (which was working when he arrived). He spent ~60 minutes poking around inside of it, removed (and put back) some stuff, and then handed me a ~$3k repair estimate (and told me I needed to replace my furnace). He then literally pulled out a pen and paper and started writing down furnace replacement costs. Later that day, my furance stopped working. It showed an error code indicating that some kind of valve was stuck open, and so it would only vent, it wouldn't heat.

I never started the furnace again... I had it replaced (by someone else).

I'd avoid these guys at all costs. The only upside is that they can usually come out for an inspection/repair the next day .. so if you have an emergency situation (and cannot get anyone else), they'll come out.

The problem being: they may leave you with a broken furnace.