ECONAR Geothermal Heating and Cooling: I have dedicated a whole web section on geothermal. I am very excited about it. It is great for the enviroment and can save you a lot of money on your heating bills. Please click on Geothermal to learn more.

Specializing in the small towns and country: I have lived in this area most of my life. I grew up on a farm outside of Genoa. I love the country and small towns of the area. I know that it is hard to get good service (and sometimes any service) in the country and small towns. That is why I am dedicated to give you the best service possible. I think you should be treated as well or better than a person that lives in Rockford or Chicago.

Respect for Your Clean Home: When I come to your home I understand this is your special place. You don't want dirt tracked in, garbage left on the floor or anything different than before I was there (except of course your furnace or air conditioner working properly). I am very conscious of that and will show the utmost respect for your property.

Servicing most makes and brands: I repair just about every type of furnaces and air conditioner out there. From the ancient to the new high efficient condensing furnaces. From the small mobile home to the multi unit home units. Give me a call I am sure I will be able to get your furnace or air conditioner going again.

New Installation: I am a dealer of American Standard, Heil, Goodman furnaces and air conditioners. If you are ready for a new unit American Standard is the top of the line. Consumer Report magazine rated American Standard furnaces as having the least number of repairs (Feb. 2005). A few years ago I worked as an Application Engineer for a company that supplied a major component to Trane (American Standard owns Trane and uses many of the same resources). I was the engineering contact for the development of their new model using this component. So I had the opportunity to see their engineers at work. They are very thorough and made sure it was designed to last. As a supplier to them they were difficult to work with because they wanted the best, but for this same reason you want to be on the other end and own their equipment. Heil also makes good equipment and there are many of them installed in homes in this area. Goodman is one of the largest and least known brands. They are second in size only to Carrier. They do very little advertising but because of this they keep their prices low. Give me a call for a free estimate. I will look at your current unit and let you know what the benefits are with getting a new one. Occasionally I talk people out of getting a new furnace. Some times what you have is fine and it is more cost effective to repair rather than go with new.

Direct / Up Front / Informed Pricing: I don't keep pricing a secret. For repairs my hourly rate is $72 for the first hour and $50 every hour after that. Most common repairs are completed in the first hour. I will not charge you for an hour's labor if the job only takes ten minutes. If it is a simpler repair that takes less than an hour, I will clean and check the components of your furnace or air conditioner to complete the hour. I do have to change for a minimal of an hour to pay for the expense and time of driving to your home. Once I have determined the problem, if there are any parts required or if there is a choice of how the repair can be performed I will let you know and give you the prices and options, then you decide how to proceed. I also believe in charging for what the job is worth. If the repair takes unusually long I will discount the rate. For longer duration jobs, such as a new installation, I discount my hourly rate. If you are thinking of a new furnace or air conditioner, give me a call. I will give you a free estimate I think you will be happy with. I will also be happy to help you with a home environment problem such as: a cold room, a hot room, too low of humidity, too high of humidity, stale air or dusty contaminated air (allergy causing).

Respect for "You" and Your Time (There when I Say): I have been astonished by stories of people taking off work to meet a service man at their home and that service man being hours late or not showing up at all! You are the paying customer and You deserve better than that. I will not overbook appointments and I will do my very best to be on time. This business is somewhat unpredictable though. A job I predict to be an hour may turn into three hours. If I get hung up I will give you a call before or on the time of our appointment and let you know what's happening. I will not leave you hanging! But if I am not there at the appointed time please give me a call right away. Rarely but sometimes when it gets busy I will misplace an appointment.

Family owned and operated by Bob Dorn: When you call 'A Polar Bear Air' you get the owner of the business. I also do the repair or new installation myself. I take a lot of pride in this business and my work so it is not "just a job" for me. I grew up in this area on a farm near Genoa. I attended school in Genoa-Kingston and college at Kishwaukee. Currently I live and run the business near Irene (between Belvidere, Cherry Valley and Kirkland). I started the business in 2003. For twenty years before that I worked in the manufacturing industry. First as an electronics technician, then in electrical maintenance, and then in engineering. To make sure that I was competent in the HVAC business I earned a 'Basic Vocational Specialist in Heating AC & Refrigeration Level 1 and Level 2' from Elgin Community College.

Debug the Problem with instruments (no parts swapping): ): From my experience as an electronics technician and engineer I have found that blindly swapping parts and hoping to find the problem ends up being time consuming and costly. Also by disturbing the machine, a marginal defect may actually look like it is fixed but will not be. Later the same problem will show up again. The best way to make a repair is to debug the problem in a logical manner without disturbing or changing anything until the problem is known. Since the problem can't usually be seen, the only way to do this is through the use of instruments such as: a DVM, Electronic combustion flue gas analyzer, pressure gages, temperature sensors and fuel gas sensors and gages. Once the problem is found only the faulty component is replaced. The advantage for you is that you don't pay for replacing parts that were OK and the actual problem gets fixed. Also, in an air conditioning system blindly adding refrigerant can damage the compressor (the heart and most expensive part of the system). It is very important to know the pressures and temperatures of the system and charge it based on superheat or subcooling temperatures.

Complete competent repair (No short cuts or sloppy work): ): Once I have completed a repair you shouldn't be able to tell that I have been there. Craftsmanship seems to be a dying value. When I work on a piece of equipment I can usually tell if it had been repaired by someone else before. Loose hanging wires, crooked valves or missing screws are just a few sloppy jobs I have seen. I actually get a little upset when I see this.

Safety First: The majority of furnaces in this area are Natural gas or LP gas. This is usually a very safe and efficient means of heating. But if the furnace is not functioning correctly or was carelessly setup or repaired it can be dangerous or unhealthy for the people in the house. When Natural or LP gas is allowed to completely combust it burns very cleanly. There will be almost no carbon monoxide produced. But if the flame is impinging on something or the combustion air is not correct carbon monoxide will be produced. Under these conditions if the flue or heat exchanger is leaking this carbon monoxide will enter your living area. I do not want to cause undo concerns here or use scare tactics. As you can see several things have to be wrong to be dangerous. The point I am making here is that a properly working gas furnace is safe and clean burning but it should be checked regularly and respected for what it is. I suggest your furnace be checked professionally once every year. It should also be visually checked by you every month of the heating season. Your monthly check should consist of a visual check of the burner flame, a conscious check for any natural gas or LP gas odors, also listen for any odd noises while the furnace is running. One of the most important things the homeowner can do themselves is to check and replace the air filter monthly. This is not so much for safety (it will improve the air quality of your home) but to prolong the life of your furnace and to keep it running efficiently. This will also keep your air conditioner evaporator coil (on the top part of the furnace) clean so you don't have problems with your air conditioning in the summer. Everyone should have a carbon monoxide detector in their home. Just like a smoke detector this is for just in case the unthinkable happens. Carbon monoxide alarms are very reasonably priced (usally less than $30).

Furnace Tune up: As mentioned above, your furnace should be professionally checked every year. Most heating and air contractors offer a "Clean and check" service. I go beyond that. I call my service a "furnace Tune up". I do all of the standard checks and clean the burners and the bottom of the heat exchanger but I also do a computerized combustion gas check. The flue gases Oxygen, Carbon monoxide, Carbon dioxide, temperature and pressure is monitored. Also the pre combustion air temperature is measured. From this the instruments computer determines the combustion efficiency, excess air, carbon dioxide and the CO air free. These checks can not be done visually. An instrument must be used to determine if the furnace is running properly. From the results of this check such things as a cracked heat exchanger, improper combustion and blocked flue can be determined. The actual efficiency of the furnace is also determined. This tells you if you are using more gas (money) than you should be for the heat you are getting from the furnace. I also check the manifold gas pressure. Your furnace is designed to operate with a specific gas pressure to function correctly. With the invoice, you get a print out of all of these results. I also keep them on record. Over the years this is valuable information at each furnace tune-up to see if the furnace's performance is changing. When I first started doing this I was surprised on the number of potentially dangerous problems I found. In about 1 out of 12 tune-ups I will find a major problem, such as a cracked heat exchanger. These would not be noticed visually. This service cost only $72. Ask about my preseason special low price (September and October).

Air Conditioner Tune-up: When I first studied refrigeration I was very surprised of its complexity. An Air conditioner's function is to move heat. This is done by moving a refrigerant (Freon is a term commonly used, this is a trade name of one type of refrigerant) from inside the home to the outside of the home. The refrigerant is changed from a liquid to a vapor in the evaporator (the coil in your furnace) and back into a liquid in the condenser (the outside coil). This 'change of states' of the matter from a liquid to a vapor and vise versa is what moves the heat to the outside of the house and makes your home cooler. This is accomplished by a fine balancing act of pressures and temperatures on the refrigerant. It is extremely important to have the correct amount of refrigerant in the air conditioning system. Too much refrigerant (charge) will have the effect of not allowing the refrigerant to change fully to a vapor before it enters the compressor (pump). This is called slugging the compressor. Since the compressor is designed only for vapor this will eventually cause it to fail. On the other hand too little refrigerant in the system will not move the heat correctly and not cool your house efficiently. The refrigerant will change to a vapor in only a small portion of the evaporator and not move as much heat as the system is designed to do. The reason I mention this is because there is a lot more to it than just 'adding some Freon'. There are two methods of charging a system: The first one is to accurately weigh the refrigerant and put the specified designed amount in the system. The second, and most practical approach, is to measure the temperature of the refrigerant lines going into the compressor and measure the pressure of the refrigerant in these lines. From this the superheat or subcooling of the refrigerant (which one is used depends on the type of system) can be determined. Refrigerant can be added or removed to adjust this to the design limits. I have read up to 70% of refrigeration units are not charged correctly. I use pressure gages that are accurate to 1% and a digital temperature meter accurate to one degree. Most technicians use gages that are only accurate to 2 to 5%. Temperature meters are usually also not very accurate. So even if the technician does everything correctly the system could still be out of specifications due to inaccurate measurements. One other point is also worth mentioning. To do anything with a refrigeration system a technician must be EPA licensed. This is because CFC and HCFC refrigerants have been found to harm the atmosphere. A good technician will take great care to release a minimal amount of refrigerant to the atmosphere. There is special equipment needed to reclaim refrigerant. There are fees and even the possibility of imprisonment for purposefully releasing refrigerant to the atmosphere. A refrigeration system also has to be kept completely free of contaminants. Even just a drop of water will cause acid to form in the system and cause premature failure. During a tune-up I will also check the moisture condensate line (where the water from the removed humidity from the inside air goes), the compressor current, and clean the condenser if needed. My price for this complete service is $72. If there is refrigerant needed or the condenser is extremely dirty there is an added charge. Ask about my preseason special low price (April and May).

Billing: What's in a bill? Lots. You should be able to look at your receipt and know what you paid for! I am usually amazed and disappointed at the bills I have received for a service. The only thing you can easily decipher is the bottom line cost. When I do a service for you (work for you!) you will know what you paid for. Your invoice will be a record of what was done and any suggestions for future improvements. If a furnace's combustion gas efficiency check was performed all of the readings from it will be on the invoice. If refrigerant was added to the air conditioning system, the amount will be indicated on the invoice.

Work is Guaranteed: Any parts replaced during a repair and labor to perform the repair is guaranteed for one year. Some components may have a longer warranty through the manufacture.

Licensed and Insured: I am EPA certified to work on all types of refrigeration systems. For your piece of mind I am fully insured for liability.

Thank You: I appreciate you considering A Polar Bear Air. If you have any questions please give me a call at (815)544-5424

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