Located between Belvidere, Cherry Valley and Kirkland to
Quickly and
Conveniently Serve the Northern Illinois towns and country of:
For ECONAR Geothermal Systems
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.
Hallowell Cold Climate Heat pumps: Looks like a central air conditioner but also heats your home. The amazing thing is that it will operate down to minus 30 degrees. Please click on Hallowell 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 we are dedicated to give you the best service possible. You will be are valued customer if you live in Rockford or in the country.
Respect for Your Clean Home: When we come to your home we understand this is your special place. You don't want dirt tracked in, garbage left on the floor or anything different than before we were there (except of course your furnace or air conditioner working properly). We are very conscious of that and will show the utmost respect for your property.
Servicing most makes and brands: We 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 us a call we are sure we will be able to get your furnace or air conditioner going again.
New Installation: We install Goodman, Heil and American Standard furnaces and air conditioners. 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 us a call for a free estimate. We will look at your current unit and let you know what the benefits are with getting a new one. Occasionally we 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: We don't keep pricing a secret. For repairs our service call price is $75. This includes a tune up of the furnace or air conditioner, diagnostics of the unit and the repair of the unit if it is under an hour and there are no parts needed. Most common repairs are completed in the first hour. A lot of the time the tune-up takes longer than the repair. So even if it is a simple repair you are getting your moneys worth. We insist on including the tune-up with the service call because even if your furnace or air conditioner is functioning it may not be running correctly. It may look visually ok but could be dangerous. I sleep better doing a full tune-up on everything we work on. We also believe in charging for what the job is worth. If the repair takes unusually long we will discount the rate. For longer duration jobs, such as a new installation, we discount our hourly rate. If you are thinking of a new furnace or air conditioner, give us a call. We will give you a free estimate you will be happy with. We 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. We will not overbook appointments and we will do our very best to be on time. This business is somewhat unpredictable though. A job we predict to be an hour may turn into three hours. If we get hung up we will give you a call before or on the time of our appointment and let you know what's happening. We will not leave you hanging! But if we are not there at the appointed time please give us 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 most of the repairs. In the summer of 2008 Casey Drechney and Marty Flint joined up with me. Casey was in the new installation and duct work end of the business for many years. Marty was in construction. They are both very consciences of their work. I personally take a lot of pride in this business 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 we have completed a repair you shouldn't be able to tell that we 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. We go beyond that. We call our service a "furnace Tune up". We do all of the standard checks and clean the burners and the bottom of the heat exchanger but we 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. We 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. We 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 $75. Ask about our preseason special low price (September and October).
