Mckinnon Heating Cooling

Should be Mckinnon Heating and Terrorists.

I have been a Mckinnon customer for 15 years. Two days ago I called them because the heat exchanger in my boiler was blocked. I needed it repaired ASAP so I could turn the heat back on. The temperature outside was -15C and my house has 100 year old "insulation".

Upon arrival, they immediately red tagged it and disconnected it from the gas supply. I asked if they could please repair it for the short term and they said it was not worth repairing. I asked that they please keep the gas water heater running and they said they could only do that if I agreed to buy a new boiler from them. I said I was not looking to shop around and they left it running.

They then sent their salesman over to sell me a new $9000 system. They also said before they would work on a replacement I would need to remove some asbestos, install a newer chimney liner, build a small furnace room in the basement etc. Then they lent me some small electric heaters from Canadian Tire.

I contacted another company for a second opinion. They said that although the unit was quite old, what it really needed was a good cleaning. I asked Mckinnon to do this and they again refused saying it was not worth it.

I had the heat exchanger cleaned and restarted the heating system. This was just in time as the water pipes to our top floor had already frozen. If the pipes had burst it would have done substantial damage to our property.

The next morning I woke to find Mckinnon trucks in front of my house disconnecting my gas at the meter. They not only turned off my heat, but also shut down my 3 gas fireplaces and water heater. It seems that if I am not going to buy a new system from them that I am not allowed to have any heat in the house at all.

I then contacted another company - Laird and Son - who was able to send someone over immediately. Their technician inspected the whole installation and found no problems. Then then turned the gas meter back on and ran several computerized tests before certifying it as safe.

The moral of this story is buyer beware. Seek a second opinion. While Mckinnon focused on finding problems and holding me hostage, Laird and Son found immediate solutions and worked through the problem. In future, I will be giving my business to Laird and Son.

I gave Mckinnon a "1" only because the salesman left the small electric heaters as he bolted out the door. I would give "Laird and Son" an "11" if the web site would let me go that high.

After moving into our home and running our furnace for a year we decided to get it checked out as there was a hint of gas smell in the air (and you should do it anyway).

We called and got a few quotes (both time and cost) and McKinnon visited us and did a full inspection determining that the gas valve was leaking. McKinnon tried to find a replacement part - even aftermarket, but as the brand is no longer even sold (it was a Shomar, Sears furnace brand until the early 90's) could not find one.

For the replacement we got several quotes including one from McKinnon and ended negotiating with them to get a two stage variable speed Colman (same as a York model I was quoted on, just different badge) installed plus relining our chimney. The installation was made trickier by the fact that I had asked them to run the intake and exhust pipes to a hard to access place.

The serviceman who did the installation, Suari, was a true gentleman and answered all of my questions throughout the day. Suari ran some of the neatest PVC line that I have seen, out of the way, and exactly to where I wanted it. Beyond that, and this is what impressed me the most he stayed from 9:30 in the morning until midnight (there was a lot of conversion required from the old furnace to the new duct work as well as extensive PVC work) to make sure that we had heat for the night and hot water in the morning.

AS can be expected with that kind of day there were a few small things that needed to be addressed - the condensation tube needed to be re-run as he did not have enough length to reach our sink and he jury rigged something for the evening, he ran out of silicon and so had some minor caulking touchups to complete and the cementing around the new chimney duct needed to be redone as it had sagged). I left an e-mail with Barry our sales rep when Suari left so he was aware of the great service that we had provided and to ask when they would be back to complete the job.

Suari showed up at 9:30 the next morning (I had received a call at 8 letting me know he was coming) and quickly did a bang up job of finishing.

These guys arrived on time for everything, did great work, and were very communicative throughout the process. I highly recommend them.

.Hired Mckinnon Heating and Cooling to install a furnace and ac unit. Both pieces were done on time and they cleaned up after. A perfect job.

They completed the paper work for rebate programs for us and we are completely satisfied with everything they did. I would recommend them highly

I recently had my 60 year old, oil burning furnace and electric water tank replaced by McKinnon. Before installation they made a consultation visit and explained the installation of a new gasline into the house, pipes and venting that were required installs - where, how and why. The whole process of removing the old furnace, oil tank and water heater and installing the new equipment was painless and efficient. Special thanks to Barry Martin and Michael Nepom for their extra attention to detail and follow up post installation. And big thanks to servicemen Tony, Paul and Sal who were curteous, competant and expained the entire process while they were doing it. They were clean and respectful of my home during the installation - laying dropsheets, cleaning up and ensuring that I understood how everything worked. I have already recommended McKinnon to a neighbour who has to replace their furnace. Other companies could learn a few things about customer service from McKinnon: I am in the service industry and rarely see the excellent service that I received. Cudos to McKinnon.

If only this site was around 3 years ago, I would not be out $900 dollars.

I called McKinnon heating and cooling to fix an air handler in my condo unit in 2005. Air handlers are a heating system that uses water from the hot water tank.

McKinnon was a spectacular failure in every possible way. The technician who initially responded improperly diagnosed the problem, determining that a new pump was required for the unit ($500 part).

Four more appointments had to be scheduled to install the new pump. The technicians failed to show up three times.

When the new pump was finally installed 5 weeks later, it only temporarily resolved the problem - the fix lasted about 12 hrs.

I called McKinnon to come back and fix the problem. Again they did not show up to the appointment. At that point I realized any attempt at resolution was futile.

I wrote a letter to Michael Nepon, the President of the company, explaining every detail of the situation and asked for a full refund.

Mr Nepom refused to give me a full refund. He challenged my story, and told me that my facts contradicted facts that he obtained from his staff. When I emphasized that my facts and statements were honest, he lost his temper and accused me of calling his staff 'l*ars'. He offered a 50% refund which I told him was not reasonable given all the lost work time waiting for his techs to show up, and the fact that a 50% refund would leave me with an air handler that was still broken and $450 out of pocket.

I called the manufacturer of the air handler to inquire about the issue and to see if they could refer me to a maintenance company in the GTA. The company rep I spoke to on the phone was extremely helpful (Enerzone out of London, ON) and after hearing my description was confident that I could fix the problem myself. He talked me through it over the phone, and after about 15 minutes the problem was fixed. Turned out to be a very common problem and one that any competent technician should be able to identify. The Enerzone employee sounded shocked that any tech would think that replacing the pump would fix the problem.

I thought about taking McKinnon to small claims court over the $900, but decided it was not worth it in the end as it would take too much of my time and would probably not result in a full refund.

Home owners beware. McKinnon is a bad company to do business with. They mishandled a thermostat swap which resulted in my home being 14C for weeks during November, December and January. Their techs were late or didn’t show up at all. They were not knowledgeable and they made false representations about my heating system. Now I am seeking judicial remedy against hundreds of dollars of unauthorized charges.

I called about a lack of heat in upstairs radiators.

Their first attempt at diagnosis and treatment (after a no-show on the appointment) was to replace a pump, even though it seemed to be fine. Sure enough, the new pump did not fix the problem.

The second attempt involved two guys spending several hours fiddling with boiler settings and googling on their blackberry(!) trying to figure it out. The problem was finally solved by cranking open a stuck valve they had overlooked.

Multiple messages about the bill that later came off my CC - without an invoice - went unreturned. Dates when the manager promised to get back to me after 'looking into it' came and went without a word. When I did get a response, his story about what happened changed several times. Things hit their low point in a surprisingly unpleasant phone call with the owner.

We called Mckinnon for service on an older A/C unit. Based on the age and the problem we were told that it was not worth fixing. We were told that if we purchased a new unit through Mckinnon that there would be no charge for the service call. We were very pleased with the service technician.
We purchased a new unit and were told again that there would be no charge for the initial service call. The unit was installed promptly and we again were very pleased with the service.
The dissatisfaction came when the initial service call was charged to our credit card. I spoke with Glen twice and was told that it would be refunded. The third time I called and was angry with service. The fee was finally reversed to my visa - a month after the initial charge to my card.
I wouldn't recommend Mckinnon based on the follow up service - unless you want to spend hours chasing them down!

We had a furnace that was not to building code (not enough maintenance clearance space) and the new furnace had to be rotated 90 degrees in a confined space in order to be to code. The air return had to be rebuilt and everything reconfigured for the new layout. The space was cramped! McKinnon heating/cooling came up with some unique, clever solutions to a very challenging installation. Workers made everything so organized, tidy and clean we were amazed. Thanks especially to Tran!
PS - We recommended McKinnon to neighbours for AC and they're happy too.

Mckinnon installed a new condenser unit at my home for about $2000 three years ago. It never worked. I have been told by other contractors that it was poorly installed and that my original problem was improperly diagnosed.

After sending a clearly unqualified technician to have a look, McKinnon simply stopped returning my calls altogether. I ran out of steam and gave up on them at a loss. I am having their "new" unit replaced this week by [another company].