BelRed Energy Solutions

With the purchase of a Trane home furnace in November 2019 BelRed sold us a Trane Clean Effects Air Filtration system for a cost of over $1200 that was improperly installed. As a result according to the companies own admission upon inspection by one of their service representatives in September 2020 the system was not operating to clean our indoor air quality. This was of particular concern to us since we have a child who was under the age of one in the home with a developing respiratory system.

The furnace and air purifier were installed in an externally accessed utility closet attached to the home. Gaps in the duct work around the air filter where identified by the BelRed service technician in September 2020 meaning that the improper installation of the air filtration system was resulting in air being pulled from a dirty utility closet and blown into our house for nearly a year. Thus not only was our air not being filtered it was made considerably worse by the negligence of BelRed in their faulty installation. This could cause unknown health effects to us or our son.

Furthermore this issue only came our attention as wildfire smoke began in September of 2020. When attempting to activate the air filtration system to clean our indoor air we unknowingly we're pulling wildfire smoke into the house through this air filtration system and blowing it into the house for a series of days causing further unknown health effects to myself, my wife and our son. When we started experiencing respiratory issues and smelling smoke we stopped using the air filtration system but also we're unable to operate our furnace so we're without heat for a period of days.

After contacting BelRed it took 3 business days until they could send out a service technician who acknowledged fault in improper installation and corrected the issue of gaps in the duct work. Upon completion of this repair and further contact with BelRed customer service they disputed the findings of their own service technician and claimed the issue to be less severe. They also claimed that the repairs were not affecting the operation of the air filtration system which contradicted the findings of their own service technician. They were dismissive of our health concerns and our request for refund of installation services and equipment that was improperly installed.

If we had not noticed this issue on our own we would have paid over $1200 for an air filtration system that was improperly installed resulting in not only not cleaning our indoor air but worsening the quality of our indoor air and potentially causing severe health effects after decades of dirty air being blown into our house with a young child with a developing respiratory system. BelRed took zero accountability for this issue only offering a one time $199 credit for future services which we will not be seeking with this disreputable and dishonest company.

To Whom It May Concern:
I recently hired BelRed Energy Solutions to repair our 5 year old heat pump. The timeline of service is below:

1) June 17: Called BelRed to schedule service; error message from our heat pump unit.
2) June 19: First BelRed service home visit
Payment postponed until job complete.
3) June 20th: Second BelRed service home visit
Charged $196.31 for refrigerant refill
4) June 23: Called BelRed to schedule service: BelRed fix failed to work.
5) June 25: Third BelRed service home visit
Charged $1,075.72 to assess leak location)
6) June 27: BelRed Sales visit to home to estimate new outdoor heat pump unit; decision made to repair instead of replace, requested appointment for repair, and was told would receive a call from BelRed
7) June 27 – 30: Waited for phone call from BelRed
8) July 1: Called BelRed until they ordered a repair part
Charged $50.00 as a part ordering downpayment
9) July 16: Fourth BelRed service home visit
Charged $1,586.02 but BelRed failed to complete work to the heat pump
10) July 21: Fifth BelRed service home visit, fix appears to be rectified as of writing this letter
Charged $1,485.32 to complete the work on the heat pump even though BelRed was responsible for errors.

Below you’ll find facts about each of the phone calls.

1) On June 17th, 2020, I initiated a phone call to BelRed, the company responsible for our heat pump’s warranty, due to error message on our thermostat that the cooling system of the heat pump was not operating. Mark from BelRed scheduled an appointment for June 19th. I specifically asked if the fee to have the appointment was used to then cover any of the repair costs. I was told that the set-up cost was rolled into any repair costs by Mark.

2) On June 19th, Justin arrived at our home, assessed what he thought was the source of the leak, gave us the option of doing a leak test (quoted at over $1000) or repair the screw-cap at the reversing valve and refill the system with refrigerant. We chose to repair the screw-cap and refill the system. Justin did not have all the supplies on hand, so was unable to complete the repair.

3) On June 20th, Justin returned with refrigerant and the cooling system seemed to work after the refill. When approached to pay the bill, the bill included the full cost of the appointment setup, plus the work done that day. This was contrary to what Mark had told me on the phone when setting up the appointment. I explained to Justin what was agreed upon when setting up the appointment with Mark. Justin called the office to verify, because Justin said he had been working at the company for “over 10 years,” and this had never been the policy; that I must have misunderstood Mark (blaming the issue on me). Justin and the office were unable to verify the recording of the conversation I had with Mark, but did remove the added cost of the appointment from my bill. Final bill for this service call was $196.31 for 1.5 hours of labor and the r410a refrigerant at $18.82/pound (overpriced 6x). On June 21st, two days later, the error message re-appeared on our thermostat stating the cooling system was not working.

4) On June 23rd, I called for another appointment. BelRed’s first available appointment was June 25th.

5) On June 25th, Justin arrived and recommended the leak check to find the source of the leak, explaining that a full check of the entire system would be done. After finding the leak near the starting point of his check, he stopped and explained he though the source of the leak was the reversing valve. He initially quoted me close to 2,000 dollars to do a reversing valve replacement after attempting to solder over the leak to prevent more cost to repair the unit. Justin had to interrupt his repair during the day for almost two hours due to lacking material to finish the repair and having to run out and get them. Justin revised his quote to us by removing some costs of work that had already been attempted which lowered the quote to just under 1,500 dollars. I requested a hold on the repair in order to get an estimate to replace the entire heat pump since our heat pump was at the end of its warranty. Justin assisted with scheduling an appointment for June 27th for that estimate.

6) Ben came out in the provided window and provided an estimate to replace our outdoor unit. After receiving a quote for 6,993 dollars which included a leak search credit since we’d already paid for one with the current unit and two discounts for costs already paid on the current unit. The unit we purchased 5 years ago was very similarly priced so instead of paying the cost of a new system we chose the repair option. We phoned Ben, five minutes after his departure with our decision to repair the unit we have, and he replied that someone from BelRed would get back to us by the end of the day to order the repair part.

7) We waited for the rest of the day that Saturday through the following Tuesday for a phone call from BelRed on ordering the part. A phone call never came.

8) After waiting for a call that never came as well as phone tag, and an unreturned call on BelRed’s part, I called BelRed and asked about ordering a part. Up to this point, all of our appointment reminders had come to my updated/correct phone number and e-mail address. The customer service rep, however, told me that I hadn’t called them back after “repeated voicemails.” It turns out that even after I updated my contact information with BelRed and they used my correct phone number to contact me, BelRed called an old phone number. In spite of poor records keeping at BelRed, I was finally able to authorize the replacement reversing valve order with a 50 dollar down payment. It was explained to me at this time that I would not be able to set up the appointment until the part came in. It was late in the afternoon and the part would not be ordered until the following day (Thursday the 2nd) and to expect it to come in early the following week.

9) After receiving a call that the part was available on July 6th, I temporarily postponed the repair to get additional quotes on the repair due to the exceptionally high estimates. On July 6th the person re-quoted the cost of the repair to around 1,600 dollars and for approximately 4 hours of work. I looked at the price of the replacement part online and found it to be only 160-220 dollars depending on the source. I calculated an hourly labor cost of ~350 dollars from the repair estimate. For comparison purposes, neurosurgeons earn roughly 300 dollars an hour. Unable to find the time to get alternate quotes for the job and facing increased discomfort in the house, I scheduled the repair with BelRed via phone call on July 14th for service on July 16th.
Brandon arrived to replace our reversing valve, but only charged us for the initial valve replacement because he was unable, in the 6.5 hours he was at our home to completely remove all contamination from the refrigerant lines. This was due, in part, to the fact he did not come prepared with enough materials to finish the job. When he finished, the office was already closed, so he asked that I call immediately the following morning to schedule the rest of the repair. We were still charged full price ($1,586.02) even though the job was not complete.

10) I called immediately on July 17th to schedule the remaining portion of our repair. I was told that the next appointment was not until the following Tuesday, July 21. I accepted the appointment and asked that it be as early in the morning as possible to prevent overlapping days again. Brandon arrived within the scheduled window and was at our home for 2.5 hours on July 21st. We were presented, at the very beginning of the appointment, with an almost 1,500 dollar estimate to finish the repair. The materials for the repair for refrigerant, again highly marked-up to $18.82/pound totaled 221 dollars. BelRed authorized a credit for 238 dollars meaning that on this particular day, the average hourly rate for labor was over 700 dollars an hour. Brandon proceeded to blame me for the need to decontaminate the refrigerant lines to justify the additional cost. We were charged $1,485.32 due to Brandon’s need to return to our home with supplies he should have had during his first attempt to repair the heat pump.

All phone calls and service calls are verifiable via phone AT&T phone records and bills charged to our American Express Credit Card. Total charges over the month that it took to finally have our problem resolved was $4,393.37. This was all for a reversing valve part that should have cost around 200 dollars and refrigerant (multiple times) that cost $221 dollars each time. The total time spent at our home fixing the repair totaled approximately 12 hours. Other parts and labor fees, if translated to an hourly rate, equals over 300 dollars per hour. After calling a few other heating/cooling companies in the area I found that some were unwilling to give a quote over the phone. A few others were willing to say at least that their quote would be significantly lower than BelRed’s, but were unwilling to give specifics. I believe that the solution to this problem is an investigation into area HVAC companies to see if price gouging is in play, certainly with BelRed Energy Solutions. HomeAdvisor.com lists an average heat pump repair cost to be as little as $65 or as much as $1400. I completely realize there will be outliers to these numbers; however, I present that $4,393 is price gouging and needs to be investigated. The State of Washington appears not to have any price gouging laws; however, BelRed needs to be high on the priority list for investigation. A similar report is being filed with the State of Washington to advocate for price gouging laws in the State.

Throughout this process, BelRed consistently attempted to blame me, the consumer, for the amount of materials it took to “decontaminate” the refrigerant lines. They claimed this was because I waited 8 days between receiving the high cost of the BelRed estimate on July 6th to scheduling the repair on July 14th despite errors on BelRed’s part such as:
-initially misdiagnosing the problem,
-twice coming to the home without enough supplies to finish the job,
-scheduling the “next available appointment” for four days after one of those instances in order to keep the same technician on the repair,
-2 days of dealing with BelRed calling the wrong number (even though they definitely had the correct number as appointment confirmations show),
-1 day in-between each of my four phone calls to have someone arrive at my house for the service call.
BelRed’s delays alone account for almost twice as much as my 8-day decision gap.

On top of this, after receiving a negative review on Facebook on their company page and a negative Google Review, the company attempted to discredit me by falsely claiming I attempted repairs myself during the 8 days of me making a decision to call for the repair on July 14th. This is completely FALSE. There is zero basis to this claim, and BelRed should be held accountable for their libel.

We purchased a new Air Conditioner from Belred in May for approximately $9400. The unit has had issues working correctly since the start. We called several times and were given explanations and suggestions such as setting the temperature setting to 71 so it could get a "head start", the new coolants weren't as good, etc. We were offered a visit by a tech if we paid $100.

The unit would not cool the house less than 76 degrees when the outside temperature was 86. The unit had to run 14 hours a day constantly during warmer temperatures trying to keep up.

After asking twice we finally got a tech to come out. He determined that a piece of insulation had come loose and was laying against the coils. The coils were covered in ice. He re-attached the insulation and told us not to run the AC until the ice had completely melted. We asked why the AC couldn't be run until the ice was gone and he suggested it might harm the unit. We asked if running the unit for one hour with ice could harm the unit, why wouldn't running it 14 hours a day for several weeks harm it? He wouldn't answer.

We asked for another tech to come and review the unit. A senior tech visited on August 5. In his own words to us "I'm not happy with how the unit is working." He said the compressor overheated during his visit. He said the unit sounded louder than normal during his visit. He told us that he would give his findings to Belred.

We spoke with Gregg F from Belred today. He said since the unit was working correctly when the tech left, they would not do anything. He indicated that since there is a 5 year "lemon" warranty we were covered. If the unit that is expected to last 12 to 15 years fails in year 6 because if was faulty from the start, and potentially ran overheated for several weeks, we are on the hook. We are taking all the risk.

Customer service wise we've been treated poorly by Gregg F but of greater concern is that we just spent $9000 on an AC that we expect to last 12 to 15 years and it failed within the first two months. It had insulation come loose that shouldn't have come loose for years. (What else wasn't put together properly by the person who assembled it?) The unit wasn't cooling our house properly for several weeks. It ran constantly resulting in higher energy costs. It overheated when their senior tech was onsite. It made sounds it shouldn't. In spite of all that, Belred has offered to do nothing to address these concerns.

In Nov we replaced our furnace with a high end Trane furnace, at the time of installation we complained that the furnace was VERY loud, the installer said we would get used to it in time,
After 5 weeks I called to complain, they sent a senior tech (Todd) and he agreed that indeed the furnace was very loud, he ran test and ordered a new gas control valve,
On the day of repair Feb 14 they sent 2 tech's, they decided that it was not the valve and realigned the gas manifold jets, it was better but still VERY loud, one tech agreed that the unit was still loud the other tech said that that particular furnace was always loud. Since that time I have made 13 phone called all documented, the operations manager Brandon R said he would contact Trane and have company rep contact me, the customer service mgr. Sharon L said she would call me every Monday and give me an update I have not heard back YET.
I spent 42 years as a builder and have had many furnaces installed, Trane was my preferred furnace but the installer I used no longer services the island I live on so I went online to locate a Trane dealer & found Bel Red,I realize that with the current virus that everything is moving at a slow pace.
Since the service call I have called 13 times and always get the same answer, we are very sorry and will get back to you, Sharon said she would keep me in the loop with any progress on EVERY Monday.
I have spent over $ 82000.00 and have a furnace that sounds like a jet engine during takeoff and a dealer that does not seem to take the problem seriously.
Any help you can assist me with would be greatly appreciated.
Our previous Trane furnace was extremely quiet and this is not a builder entry level model furnace.
Bel Red keeps a log of all phone calls so if they cannot verify my concerns I have documented all calls and e mails since the day of the service call.

The technician was friendly, very professional , and curious. I will not hesitate to get service from him again .( Chad C)
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We’ve used this company for several years and have generally found them to provide good quality service, professional and courteous, albeit at a premium price. A recent experience lead me to switch to a different provider. Here is my objective feedback, you decide for yourself. My Nest Thermostat indicated that my furnace was taking longer than usual to heat up the house. So I proactively called Bel Red to do maintenance on the furnace. After visiting they informed me that they think my heat exchanger is cracked. So I can either replace the heat exchanger for $3500 or invest in a new furnace. Being that my furnace was >20 years old, I asked for quotes on new furnaces. A young man came to the house and took lots of measurements and provided me with quotes for several different flavors of systems the next day. I also proceeded to get quotes from two other suppliers for comparison. Here is where my eyebrows were raised. Firstly the quotes for the Bel Red systems included a number of “optional” accessories which are not clearly marked as optional. So if you’re not meticulous in reading the details and asking questions, you’ll end up buying a bunch of stuff you may not want. For example: “New Air Filtration system”- $1200, Remy Halo Air Purifier - $1200, Pressure checking my ducts - $825. These items are in the quote among many line items requiring me to review carefully and ask questions to find out what they are and why they are included. I have an electrostatic filter that is working fine and my ducts were sealed and re-insulated just last year. Why do I need these? When asked I got response that if I have the receipt from when the ducts were sealed, then that would not be needed otherwise they need to be done! Really??? You want me to prove this was done or you’ll do it and charge me >$825? Secondly, even when I remove the optional items and compare the system with a comparable system from the other suppliers (2 stage variable speed, 95% efficiency furnace without bells and whistles), Bel Red’s price is literally twice the others. In addition, they did an analysis for me to show how much I could save per year and how quickly the system would pay for itself. The top of the line system they proposed was a whopping $24,000 system which would save me $2000 a year in gas and electric bills. The problem with the analysis? They estimated my current system costs $5,500 per year to operate! This figure supposedly came out of my utility bills. The only problem is that when I look at my own utility bills, the total cost of gas plus electricity for my entire house is only $2600! That includes my gas furnace and gas stove, gas fireplaces, barbecuing all summer and all electrical appliances, not just my furnace and air conditioner! I email to let them know I’ve decided to go with another supplier who gave me quotes for nearly identical system for half the price only to get a message back that they would like to try again. This time their quote was very competitive. Unfortunately, now I am left with a decision. Do I reward this kind of behavior where the vendor gives me a bloated quote hoping I’ll just go with them? In my case, NO. I actually chose to go with another vendor whose price was slightly higher than Bel Red's revised quote because of how turned off I was by what I saw. You decide for yourself. But I encourage you to always get other bids on any service.

Fast professional team helped us when we were screwed over from *** will definitely hire again!

First. It gripes me to no end that some people want quality service for next-to-nothing! Usually these customers get angry and complain, without truly listening. There needs to be some personal responsibility here.
My spouse and I LOVE Bel-Red Energy Solutions! We had a number of other companies that cost less to come out here, but wouldn't or couldn't fix the problem. They cost us LOTS of money for nothing! Or how about the company that charged us $423.00 to just turn on a gas valve? Or the guy who cut our phone wire that was underground? Or the guy who didn't like gay people like us? Or the guy who came to work on my generator, then said he had to leave early before the football game started! He literally told me I would have to go get the battery that was needed myself!
Remember, you usually get what you pay for! It's NO problem for us to pay a bit extra for HIGH-QUALITY service! We've never had to have a Bel-Red technician return, because a job was done incorrectly. And if we did, we would take the responsibility to make sure to ask for a different technician.
Yes. We do pay an estimation fee. Most companies charge the fee. We found Bel-Red was cheaper than some.
Yes. Bel-Red mentions maintenance contracts and other things, but it's up to me to say "No". No-one at Bel-Red has ever pressured or forced me to accept anything they offer.
When I've mentioned the fact that some things seemed a bit expensive, I was shown photos and such that showed the HIGH-QUALITY fixtures and parts they use. Bel-Red refuses to use lousy-quality items. In the end these parts will last longer and they have been perfect so far.
Every single technician that's come to our home as been professional, yet almost feels like a good friend. They all explain EVERYTHING to me and how much it will cost.
I've also learned that the better a company trains and treats their employees, the better it is for me as a customer. And the employees need to be paid well! Of course there's the overhead, etc. etc. Maybe the owner/s are wealthy. I figure if I wanted to be super rich, I'd have started up a company like Bel-Red. So, let's stop blaming Bel-Red for every little thing.
We LOVE Bel-Red and we WILL remain loyal customers of them for years to come!

Ray B. and Kyle G. were the techs that removed and then installed a new furnace for me. They were on time, friendly, and took the time to answer my questions. I appreciated the fact they protected my floor by wearing their booties, and took extra care not to ding my walls and doors when moving large items in and out of my house. After they completed the installation, they took the time to review differences between the old and new furnaces. Great crew.

Wow, 1st time I got burned by Google reviews - expensive lesson learned. How can BelRed have a 4.8 rating is beyond me. Trusting the 2.5 Revdex.com and yelp rating or at least reading some of the negative reviews could have saved me lots of money.
They came out to service our heat-pump/electric furnace bc the air-handler stopped working and also to discuss upgrading to a higher end Bosch system. Hearing the quotes for the upgrades ($14k for the outdoor unit+ airhandler upgrade?!) quickly dissuaded me from that option and should have clued me in on what to come.
The tech quickly diagnosed the issue: bad blower motor. He quoted me $1192+tax, which I thought was expensive, but I was not expecting it so out of line compared to other service providers, so I accepted it. I was also quoted (and declined) $421 for annual maintenance (2x my previous costs) and $336 for a condensate pump replacement.
I read the negative reviews (postmortem unfortunately) regarding price gouging and their standard response is that they're upfront with the quotes, which is true. So lessons learned:
- never again accept a quote w/o research
- never hire BelRed ES again

I was enrolled in a yearly service contract with Bel Red Energy to maintain the furnace and plumbing at my main residence and also my rental property. I was on a monthly payment plan which automatically renews every year. In July 2019, I cancelled my service. However I had paid several months towards next year's maintenance. According to the cancellation policy in the contract I signed, I am due a refund for these payments. However I received no refund. When I called their business office and explained the situation, I was told I was due no refund. Thus I am now pursuing the matter here through the Revdex.com.

I have the original copy of my signed service contract, which clearly states:
Policy may be cancelled on written request by customer. There is a $25 non-refundable fee for cancellation of this agreement. Any other refunds will be pro-rated on a monthly basis.

I recently bought a house where Bel Red had installed a new furnace a couple months before. Shortly after moving in, we found that the connection from the new exhaust pipe to the existing exhaust pipe wasn't properly sealed, causing it to leak water. Thinking they would stand behind their work, I contacted Bel Red to have them come fix it. Instead they said they would charge at least $98 to send someone out to fix it. So much for their supposed "100% guarantee".

We requested that we would be getting a filter box put in with our furnace and the price we were quoted was $250. We were then told that could not be done because the flue pipe went up the front and they manufactured a filter system that does not properly allow the filters to be installed without being bent up. When we called to let them know that the filters have to be bent and the flue pipe did not go up the front and we could have the filter box we were then quoted a price of $361.19 to put the filter box in. They also did not purchase the permit for installing the furnace until 12/27/17. The furnace was put in 12/18/17, I thought permits needed to be purchased before the installation? I called to talk to them but no one called me back, I had to keep calling the company to try to get them to make the situation right. They also left the hole where the flue pipe was supposed to go in the front open with no cover - a paper was laid on top of the hole. They finally came out and cut a piece of sheet metal and taped it over the hole this week. I have not been so disappointed with a business and the way they honor their business practices and customers.