Everything we do produces a number
Harborview works on heating, cooling and ventilation across Smithtown and central Suffolk. What separates one contractor from another here is not the van — it is whether anything got measured, and whether you were given the reading.
What an annual service actually includes
The most-sold and least-defined thing in this trade. Six things that happen on a visit, three kinds of equipment, and the list of what should have been measured on each.
It is the same list whoever does the work
Which is precisely why it is worth publishing. A customer who knows what a service is gets a better one from everybody, and the four questions at the foot of that page work on any contractor, including us.
Three of the six answers are “that was not a service”
Twenty minutes, no instruments, or a filter change on its own. One is “half of one”, one says a replacement quote can be perfectly legitimate and lists what to ask for, and one says you got exactly what you should.
Eight columns of work
Gas heating
Furnaces and boilers, combustion tested with an analyser and the readings written down, diagnosed from the cheap end.
Oil heating
Burner service with a nozzle every year, chamber and flue cleaned, combustion set with an analyser. Tank work goes to a tank specialist.
Cooling
Central air, heat pumps and ductless. Charge verified against the conditions and the plate, never topped up on sight.
Heat pumps
Including the defrost cycle and the auxiliary heat, where a fault is invisible and expensive for a whole winter.
Ducts
Static pressure, register-by-register airflow, leakage into attics and crawlspaces, and returns that were never large enough.
Ventilation
Bathroom and kitchen extract that terminates outside, commercial extract, and the make-up air that has to replace it.
Second opinions
If somebody has quoted you a replacement, we will check the numbers behind it and tell you if they were right. They often are.
Maintenance
Annual on houses, twice a year on premises, with a sheet of readings afterwards rather than a sticker.
Houses and premises
Homes
Houses across Smithtown, Nesconset, St James and Hauppauge — gas and oil both, because this part of Suffolk County has plenty of each. Cooling added where there are no ducts, and the room that never keeps up measured rather than argued about.
Businesses
Shops on the Turnpike, restaurants, salons, professional suites, clinics and light industrial. Surveyed before anything is scheduled, maintained against the survey, with a record kept per unit.
What this website will not tell you
| Not stated | Why |
|---|---|
| A price | A flame sensor and a boiler replacement are not the same visit. You get a fixed figure on the phone once we know what is installed. |
| A response time | We will not promise an hour on the first cold night of the year when half of Suffolk County has lost heat. |
| A saving | “Cut your bills by a third” depends on your house, your habits and your fuel. Nobody can know it from a web page. |
| How long it will last | Two identical appliances on the same street last very different lengths of time. The plate gives you the age; nothing gives you the future. |
Asked often enough to answer here
How long should an annual service take?
Longer than twenty minutes. Combustion has to run and stabilise before it can be measured, panels have to come off, readings have to be taken and written down, and cleaning takes real time. An hour is a reasonable floor for a single appliance and more where there are two. The useful question to ask before booking is not how long it takes but what will be measured and what you will be given afterwards.
What should I get at the end of a service?
A sheet with the readings on it — the combustion figures, pressures and temperatures, with units — plus what was cleaned or changed, anything that needs doing now with a price against it, anything coming, and the model and serial number. A dated sticker records that somebody attended. It records nothing about what they found, and the whole value of doing this annually is the comparison with last year.
Somebody quoted me a replacement on the first visit. Is that normal?
Sometimes it is exactly right — a cracked heat exchanger ends a visit, the appliance is shut off and tagged, and a replacement quote is the honest next step. But there is always a finding behind it and a finding can be shown to you. Ask what was measured and what the number was, ask the age from the serial number rather than an estimate, and ask whether the appliance has been condemned or is merely old. Those are different statements.
Do you work on oil?
Yes. A proper oil service is mostly cleaning — the chamber and flue passages, a new nozzle every year, electrodes set, filter and strainer changed, pump pressure checked and combustion set with an analyser. What we do not do is tank work: testing, removal and anything to do with a leak are specialist jobs with their own regulations, and we will tell you to get a tank specialist.
Will you check another contractor’s quote?
Yes, and we will tell you if they were right, which they often are. Most of the time the equipment choice is reasonable and the real question is whether the ductwork was ever measured.
Which areas do you cover?
Smithtown, Nesconset, St James, Hauppauge, Kings Park, Commack, Ronkonkoma and Stony Brook.
Where we are
910 W Jericho Turnpike, Smithtown, NY 11787. Monday to Friday, 7.30am to 4.30pm.
We cover Smithtown, Nesconset, St James, Hauppauge, Kings Park, Commack, Ronkonkoma and Stony Brook.