Member Reviews

5 Star Testimonial by Margaret Bouniol-Kaifer

Cardinal Heating just replaced my AC unit and they did a terrific job. Cardinal may not be the cheapest HVAC contractor but the customer service from the front desk, sales, scheduling, and the technicians have all been great. The installers even completed the job on the hottest day of the year with good humor and a smile.

Submitted by Margaret Bouniol-Kaifer on Wednesday, Jul 10, 2024

Cardinal Heating & Air

2 Star Testimonial by Aaron Hampton

A lot of the individuals working at Cardinal are busy, but pleasant, and seem to want to do a good job.But here’s the thing: when I pay $20k for heat pump installation, I don’t want a company with pleasant, well-intentioned people. I want a company that can do the job with minimal effort from me. That’s definitely not Cardinal. TLDR: If you’re looking for a heat pump installer, keep looking. You deserve better. -Inexperienced “comfort consultant” (guy who does the bids) did not bid the job correctly. I warned him that the attic was likely inaccessible and that the siding was asbestos cement. -Actual install day: a team of five guys showed up and milled around my yard talking about how the attic is inaccessible and the asbestos siding is dangerous. One insisted that they may have to call off the job. After three hours hanging out in my side yard, their supervisor arrived and explained that he’ll have to run the lines around the side of my house rather than the attic, ‘there’s a plan for the asbestos’, etc. The total lack of clear communication became a theme. -After the first day, the team was reduced to two, and they struggled with the job for the next three days. I heard them cussing on my roof and whining about the job the entire time. Total time to install a heat pump and 3 wall units: 4.5 days. It was bid to be a two day install. -Did not take away the existing forced air heater that they’d bid to remove. When asked, the installer was surprised that there was more to the job, and left without taking it. When I didn’t hear from the company for five days, I called to inquire about removal of the heating unit as bid. Finally, when prompted, they sent someone to remove it. -I emailed them about the general lack of communication and professionalism, and was contacted by their department manager, who explained that it had been 'a perfect storm’. They sent out a Quality Assurance individual (lovely guy) to explain how the heat pumps worked to me and take a look around. They also offered me a free maintenance inspection for next year. -One week later one of the units in my house started to freeze up, with an actual layer of ice forming on the unit and a terrible rattling noise coming from it! Cardinal was too busy to get someone out soon, but after a week of not using my new system, they sent the Quality Assurance guy out, who spent the day troubleshooting. -Next weekend the same unit was still freezing and making an even worse noise! This time a two man team came out and determined that a hose had been connected wrong (or something - they weren’t forthcoming about what had happened, I suspect due to embarrassment, but that is speculation). Two months after install, my heat pumps worked as advertised. -As of June 3rd, I still have not paid my final invoice to Cardinal, because the electrical work they did has yet to pass inspection. I’ve had three separate visits to my home from either the electrician or an inspector, but they still can’t get together on this. I was told the electrician was going to be here on Friday, May 31st to fix it for good and get it passed. But he didn’t show up. I never got a call about it either. I had to call them to figure out what was going on. Maybe it’ll happen tomorrow! In conclusion: my heat pumps work. I don’t feel optimistic that they’ll keep working based on my experience with Cardinal, but I can’t penalize them for something that might happen in the future. I can say that I spent an INCREDIBLE, UNCONSCIONABLE amount of time prompting this company to meet their commitments and fix the things that didn’t work. At every turn, it just didn’t seem like that big of a deal to them to get this sorted out, and I was always the one following up on where we were. And their way to make it right, that ‘free maintenance inspection” that they offered as recompense for their terrible service? I’ll pass. I’d rather pay someone else to do it. I don’t trust Cardinal to do it right. Don't make my mistake. Use someone else.

Submitted by Aaron Hampton on Monday, Jun 03, 2024

Cardinal Heating & Air

1 Star Testimonial by Mark Jacobson

Cardinal has been a horrible company to work with from the get go. First, they made a mistake when installing our furnace, resulting in gas leaking into our garage. We had to have the fire department and PSE out, and only then did they attempt to fix the problem. I hate to think what could’ve happened had we not smelled the gas and called in help. Surprisingly, they offered no compensation for their egregious mistake. Only after battling with them did they offer a year of free system maintenance. Then, our heat pump stopped working out of the blue. They came out and found a leak in the line set they installed. A year later, the heat pump stopped working again. They came out and said the compressor needed to be replaced. But for some reason, they couldn’t figure out if the part was under warranty. I found the answer on the manufacturer’s website in 5 minutes. After learning that it was under warranty, Cardinal went radio silent re: doing the repair. After getting multiple other opinions, it turns out there is a leak in the system again (pressure is low), the main control board has a burn on it because there was no surge protection originally installed, and other things need to be repaired as part of fixing those and the compressor. It may be about the same cost to just replace the whole system than to pay for all the repairs. I can’t imagine a worse experience working with an HVAC company.

Submitted by Mark Jacobson on Saturday, Mar 02, 2024

Cardinal Heating & Air

5 Star Testimonial by Driftwood Manager

We have worked with Cardinal for years. They are great to work with and communication is always easy. We love Kelly! Also, worked with Colin and Lorenzo last week- they were so nice and spent time answering all my questions with respect and patience. Thank you to the whole team!

Submitted by Driftwood Manager on Thursday, Feb 01, 2024

Cardinal Heating & Air

5 Star Testimonial by Susan Hamm

We had an emergency situation in which we needed a new water heater as soon as possible. It got more complicated when we learned that having underfloor radiant heating made the replacement less simple than a regular heater. For a lot of the process we were out of town (this all happened while we were on vacation). They were able to come out right away pretty much as soon as we called. Tom was great at keeping us up to date on what was going on with getting the heater and communication in general. He very clearly and carefully explained to us why we needed the heater we needed and what our system was like. The estimate was super detailed and very clearly laid out all our options. When the techs came out they were professional and efficient. Jared did the installation with some help and advice from Daniel. Both of them answered all our questions and both of them were patient and had a great sense of humor. When they were finished they let us know in detail how everything in the new heater worked. The situation was no fun for us (on top of the new heater there was water damage and reconstruction etc) but everyone at cardinal made this portion of the process as easy and efficient as possible, including offering financing options. We wouldn’t hesitate to call again. Thank you to everyone at cardinal.

Submitted by Susan Hamm on Sunday, Jan 28, 2024

Cardinal Heating & Air

5 Star Testimonial by Rob Thody

Zach F. came out and installed our heat pump system at our house. He and his crew did a phenomenal job. Zach was very professional, polite, and explained to us how to use our new system. The job only took a couple days which we were pleasantly surprised by. We were worried about our dogs getting in the way, but he loves dogs so there was no concern there. We've already recommended Zach and Cardinal to our neighbors who are currently shopping around.

Submitted by Rob Thody on Wednesday, Jan 24, 2024

Cardinal Heating & Air

1 Star Testimonial by Daniel Stevens

Do Not Buy a Mini Split Through Cardinal I was recommended Cardinal from a neighborhood contact. Our family was interested in a mini split system to bring AC to an older Seattle home, while also saving on heating costs. The only positive experience was the sales rep’s knowledge about the different mini split service offerings. May this be my first mistake, as he convinced our family that Mitsubishi was the best in class option. We had no issues during the install; however, in the less than two years following, we’ve had nothing but problems. Cardinal never mentioned that while there is a “warranty” from Mitsubishi, labor is not covered. Instead, Cardinal marks up labor to service their own product the absolute top of the market rate, abusing their position as a certified dealer. We spent $30k to install his system in 2021, and to date have spent 25% of that in “maintenance” and servicing defects. This included, $1k in “annual service”, another $1k in the first defective pump (covered under warranty but not labor), and have now received another $2.5k in bills for more labor on 3 more defective pumps. After the first pump failure, the service tech at Cardinal candidly told me while handing me a very large service bill that, “these pumps fail all the time” to which later, the head service tech (Nick) tried to damage control the situation by playing this off as a unique circumstance. Jokes on me I guess, as three more pumps failures later, I’ve seen more bills pile up. To date, the Cardinal team has been completely unhelpful in defraying these exorbitant labor costs and continues to assert this is normal HVAC behavior. I guess when you can skate by on legacy reputation and enjoy exploiting your existing customer base, you have a different motivation and definition of customer service. In hindsight, I’d go with a Daiken dealer.

Submitted by Daniel Stevens on Monday, Nov 06, 2023

Cardinal Heating & Air

5 Star Testimonial by Laura Delman

Just wanted to take a moment to comment on the great service we have had with Cardinal over the 10+ years they have serviced our home. You can trust their quality of work, and their customer service is excellent. I’m not one to write reviews but after my last experience I felt I should….we had a scheduled routine service call, but had a different issue I told them about when they arrived. They adjusted their schedule to figure out the issue and then adjusted their schedule again to have the issue fixed the next day. They also dropped off space heaters within a couple of hours without being asked to do so. In the end, it wasn’t as big of a project as originally thought. They were very honest about it and didn’t do any work that was unnecessary. They could have done the larger job and I would never have known better. And again, without even asking all of my deposit was returned immediately. I would recommend Cardinal.

Submitted by Laura Delman on Friday, Nov 03, 2023

Cardinal Heating & Air

3 Star Testimonial by Rick A

I have used these guys for perhaps about 8 or more years. About 3 years ago they installed a new furnace and AC. I really liked them but recently they have seemed obsessed with charging $330 minimum every time they come out. The Service techs are nice and friendly, but they also overlooked issues or skipped checks on my newer equipment in the past. Most recently my 3 year old furnace they installed failed because the burners were completely corroded. This was 6 weeks after one of these $550 service calls for maintaining the system and fixing my AC which would not turn on. Clearly no one checked the burners, possibly ever - I expected inspection and cleaning are part of this service. When I called to get help with it, I was repeatedly bludgeoned that I might be charged $330 for the travel and $185 an hour. I came here and wrote a one star review. This would have remained a one star review, but James from Cardinal took action and arranged to get new (and improved) burners covered and took care of it for free. My AC still doesn't work reliably and I ended up having to research how to clean my drain line to fix it myself. When I told the tech about it on the follow up appointment he just told me the drain line was clogged and did nothing more - again, I paid to have my AC fixed 6 weeks ago. I'm a customer not an hvac tech, I don't understand why it is clogged. It would be like I went to the mechanic for my car and they told me I needed the transmission fluid changed and then handed me the keys and a bill. At this point I am frustrated though and will just learn to do it myself. I am thankful they fixed the furnace burners and got me an upgrade and didn't charge, that was good customer service. At the same time, I don't feel like I've gotten the best service and I hope they can understand why at this time, I couldn't give more stars.

Submitted by Rick A on Thursday, Nov 02, 2023