A.D. Const

It's not like that at all. You are comparing two different trades, an HVAC contractor does not order materials to be delivered on site, like builders do. If profits where that good everyone would be an HVAC Tech. In short $200 is more than a fair price for what he did.

Verbal

well if it was that late. with the diagnostic, after-hours charge, and 5lbs of 22, and at least a dye pack insert. i would have had to charge $457.00. and yes we use soap bubbles and a wand. the dye pack is a last resort.

__________________
Best line from a customer "you here for the tune-up? the tank of 22 is in the shed, let me know if you need more."

hvactech140

Yes $200.00 Isn't bad, But wow these prices are just insane. I am a contractor in Alabama with a large sized company. Yes I have overhead, Insurace, tools, vehicles, Etc........ I only charge $20.00 Lb !!!!!!! Yet still see considerable profit from that. I dont really discuss prices but this is one for awareness.



Quality dosen't cost, It pays !!!!!

XanadooLTD

I charge tree fiddy

NickTech

service call = $180
5 lbs r-22 @ $40/lb = $200
yer looking at at least $380 for that work, which is definately on the low end. apperantly this is a friend hooking you up. please do not compain or question the validity of that price, it would offend him.

beenthere

How much a company charges for parts/materials. Varies with where they load their overhead.
You may load all your overhead on your labor.
And charge $175.00 an hour labor. So you can pay your guys with 5 to 8 years experience more then just 20 bucks an hour. And your 15 plus year experienced guys 30 bucks an hour. And so you can pay their 3 weeks paid vacation.

bitbit814u

No one has mentioned pulling the system in a deep vacum after the repair to see if the repair holds & this will remove air and non condesables which will damaged the system even more.

bwalley

According to the post, the unit was charged, the system wasn't repaired.

flashheatingand

The issue was never about how to fix the leak. Most of us are aware of the proper way to handle a leak.

If the service guy came at 6:00 added 5 lbs of freon and dashed, he did not do a favor to the homeowner, unless they are going to reschedule a time to do a leak search. And, upon finding the leak, he will replace the lost refrigerant at no additional charge. Obviously, he will charge for the time spent searching for the leak.

At 6:00 or late evening, it would not be ideal to do a leak search. As the tech is likely to be tired from a full day and the A-game is gone.

bwalley

The guy did do the client a favor, he did a recharge after hours and said he would come back later to look for the leak.

Why should he work for free later, by replacing the lost refrigerant?

Many times the source of the leak will be a schrader valve that didn't seat properly, that is one reason I put a metal cap with an o ring on the service ports.

A friend of mine had a leak in his system, I charged it and have checked the pressures a few times since then, and either the leak is real small or it was in the service port schrader valve, as the pressures are right where they should be, this was about 8 weeks ago.

flashheatingand

If the source of the leak is something simple , like a shrader valve, cool. I am talking about a sitaution in which a tech needs to dive into the coil box, or something in which access isn't easy. Never did I mention that he should return and do the work later for free. If the leak is slow (the system was holding a charge) and not empty, I would re-charge and return in a day or two. Then, he would be billed for the leak search. Yes, I would eat the cost of the lost refrigerant. It's likely the loss would be minimal.

If the system was empty. I would re-schedule and not bother charging the system since it is likely the refrigerant would be lost soon afterwards.

Unless the sitation is dire, there is no sense in spending a lot of time repairing a system after hours. One is not on top of their game after a full day, and it isn't fair to bill a customer overtime rates for an overused mind & body.

beenthere

Lots of service calls are done after hours/on overtime.
Atre you saying service calls shouldn't be ran after someone has 10 hours in.

flashheatingand

If the tech is spent, then it isn't fair to the customer to bill them o.t. rates if the guy isn't doing A-Game work. A quick repair is one thing (contactor coil, capacitor, adding a little freon). But often times mistakes are made due to being overworked. Especially when it gets hot.

As mentioned earlier, if the situation is dire, sobeit. If the afterhour calls come in on a regular basis, I recommend scheduling the work load so that you have a guy to work the swing shift. That way, you can do o.t. with a guy who is able to do A-game work as well.

beenthere

Its not practical to have the schedule set up that techs aren't working overtime of 4 or more hours a day, for a couple weeks at a time.

Its just the nature of the biz.

You can't meet everyones schedule. With a tech that hasn't worked 8 to 10 hours already.

Having a guy stay home during the day. To do repairs at night time. Just puts more load on the other techs.

Okewhat

If it is an after hour call then after hour rates are what are called for he did this guy a favor if he didn't charge him after hour rates. Since he will have to empty the system he should have asked the home owner what he wanted. 1Tell him there is a leak. 2Do u want it to work until i can come back to find the leak? If he says yes then bill him full marked up price for the refridge it is his choice Then the question was never asked when was the last time his units were serviced. How much does the system hold. After three pages of fourm you would think pros would ask those questions. Without knowing the answers then u don't know how big of a leak u r talking about. Am i right or am i right or am i right? R-22 if a license holding only product so if it cost him $6 a lb damn straight he is going to mark it up. FYI it is not appreciated that people want to tell how much our products cost us. We aren't talk about a 2x4 that any idiot can go buy a lowes. There is a reason why plumbers, finish workers,etc. show the GC their material/labor cost break down. Because HVAC is a specialized field. U can't buy without a license. If you aren't happy with the prices being marked up and the labor being expensive maybe u should go get yourself licensed. Do u complain when your auto mec charges $70+ an hour? No because u don't know how to do the repair and he does and he will be liable if the repair is done wrong and causes damage and u would rather just pay him. It a business!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NickTech

i love the HO who accidentally throws his service switch off shutting down the appliance, Calls you w/o heating or cooling looking for help, when you arrive,figure its just the switch, turn it back on and it fires it up and you're filling out the bill, they're like "well hell, i could of done that!" and i'd say.." butcha didnt, didja. ya called me and i fixed it, you didnt....heres my bill!"

flashheatingand

As Okwhat Says, it is a business. There is no doubt to that. A major part of business is customer service. If I don't make it out to the house afterhours, someone else will. Short-term, you will get paid, but in the long term, it is likely the customer will have bitter feelings if the bill is alarming. The goal is to have a win-win situation so that you make some money, and they spread the word.

We don't have to do the work, we get to do it. The customer is not an adversary.

thesidingpro

I think you need to look up the defintion of "Profit".

My best friend owns a HVAC company and he would have been around 300.00 or so. 150.00 trip charge and 30 a lb.

He just filled my parents up to get them another month or so for 20 a lb and that was yesterday on a sunday afternoon. That was friendly deal there.

__________________

flashheatingand

I think you need to look up the definition of friend. If it were my best friend's parents, I would have went out there and charged them a case of beer.

Seriously, with cell phones, e-mail, microsoft office, ...etc. It is a lot easier for a person to run his own one man shop, eliminating many expenses (I am not eliminating licenses, insurance,...etc.), so that you do not have to charge the rates you are talking about.

Hey, this is a free country, you charge as much as you want. I certainly don't have the right answer on how much to charge. But, if you charge too much today, it is likely there will be no tomorrow.

beenthere

If, IF you have a good accountant.
He will tell you your logic is wrong on several points.

A one man show. Should charge like they are paying an employee to do the work.

That includes figuring what it would cost to pay an employee for his vacation time. Holiday time. His workmans comp, etc.
And then figuring out how much you would have to charge to make a profit after paying that employee.

Big mistake made is. People charge based on a 40 hour work week.

You work far more then 40 hours, to bill 40 hours.
But, that extra time is time customers don't see.

And if you track your actual work time on job sites, and service calls.
You'll see that you never have 40 hours billable a week. that you aren't working a min of 50+ hours.

And some weeks you may only have 20 or so hours.

Your labor rates should be based on what you average in work/billable hours a week for a year.