Category: Uncategorized

It’s the time of year in Kansas City where the leaves change color and the weather gets cooler. It also means that homeowners start to turn on their furnaces to take the chill out of the morning air.

It also means that homeowners also need to be aware of carbon monoxide, which is a hidden danger capable of causing harm to them and their families.

So, What Is Carbon Monoxide & Where Does it Come From?

Carbon Monoxide (or CO for short) is a colorless, odorless gas.  It can be produced from a variety of sources:

• Furnaces
• Gas Fireplaces
• Stoves
• Automobiles
• Grills
• Lanterns
• Generators

Carbon Monoxide can build up indoors and cause a multitude of issues: headaches, dizziness, confusion, nausea, and even death. So it’s important that homeowners in Kansas City are aware of how you can prevent these issues.

How Can You Prevent Carbon Monoxide Issues in Your KC Home

There are a few things homeowners can do to prevent CO poisoning in their homes:

1. Install a CO detector in your home. EVERY home should have a detector where it will wake you up if it sounds. The most common detectors are either battery operated or plug into an electrical socket. If battery operated, change the batteries every year when you change the batteries in your smoke detectors.
2. Have your heating system inspected every year. A simple furnace tune-up can check for carbon monoxide coming from the system.
3. Inspect the venting from your gas appliances on a regular basis. Over time your vents may develop rust or other issues, and proper venting ensures the carbon monoxide leaves your home.
4. Never burn charcoal indoors.
5. Never use a gas stove for heating your home.
6. Don’t use a generator inside your home or garage or less than 20’ from a window.
7. Have your chimney inspected every year to make sure there is no debris blocking the openings.

If your carbon monoxide detector alarm ever sounds or if you start to experience symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, leave your home immediately and contact 9-1-1.

Carbon Monoxide is an issue that needs to be taken seriously. Much like all homes should have smoke alarms, they should also have working carbon monoxide detectors.

If you have any questions, contact City Wide Heating & Cooling at 913-384-6006.

There are a lot of companies you can call for heating and cooling service in the Kansas City area. All of them offer basically the same things: maintenance plans, repairs, and new installations.

But how do you choose which one is the best for you? There are a couple of things you can look for in evaluating the best heating and cooling company for your family.

Are Their Technicians Paid On Commission?

A trend in the heating and cooling industry these days is to go to a Selling Technician model.

What this means for a customer is that the service technician dispatched to your home is paid based on what repairs they can find. They are then paid a commission for selling you that repair. In some cases the technician can even sell you a new system, and those commissions tend to be higher because of the cost of new equipment.

This can happen during a maintenance visit (that you have already paid for) or a demand call (where your equipment is broken and needs a repair).

City Wide Heating & Cooling does not pay their technicians a commission. The reason for this is it incentivizes the technician to look for something that may not be broken just to sell you a part.  City Wide’s philosophy is to offer an honest assessment of your system and present options that work best for you and your budget.

Is The Company a Family Owned and Operated Company?

Kansas City has a lot of great heating and cooling companies that started as family owned businesses. But eventually companies may change ownership, so that family feeling tends to disappear as time marches on.

City Wide Heating & Cooling has been family owned and operated since 1949. The family is still involved on a daily basis, and if you ever need a new system you will have one of the owners coming to your home to talk about your options.

Is Customer Service Just Words Or A Way of Life?

Every company declares “Our Customer Service is the best and we will provide a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee”. But are they willing to stand behind those words and stand behind their customer all of the time?

City Wide has built their reputation on making sure their customers are the most important thing. Because they are!

A company does not survive for over 70 years without caring about the service they provide and the happiness of the customer who makes it all possible. This philosophy has always been the driving force behind this company and always will.

The next time you need service, give City Wide Heating & Cooling a try. We would love to be your heating and air conditioner provider in the Kansas City area!

“Craftsman” is a word that is rarely thrown around these days. In a world where folks shop online and are always searching for the cheapest price or the most reviews, sometimes the quality of products and skill level of contractors may not be the most important thing.

George Ninemire has always been the exception to that thought process. A true craftsman in every sense of the word, he concludes an incredible career that saw him leave his mark in many homes and businesses in the Kansas City area. City Wide Heating and Cooling is pleased to announce the retirement of George Ninemire after a 35 year career with the company.

George grew up in the Kansas City area, and after high school spent 4 years of active duty in the United States Air Force. He was a jet engine mechanic, and they had a hard and fast rule – if you lost a tool nobody goes home until that tool is found. The idea being that a tool left inside a jet engine could be catastrophic for the pilot.  That is where he learned the importance of being thorough and meticulous.

He entered HVAC Trade School soon after that, and spent a few years with various companies in the Kansas City area.

He joined City Wide Heating & Cooling in 1986. He began his City Wide career working with Ted and Chris Duval installing replacement systems in residences throughout the Kansas City area. In 1998 he started working with Doug and Nick Duval in the Sheet Metal Division. This group installed ductwork and systems for both residential and commercial customers, so George was able to expand his level of expertise in all phases of heating and cooling development.

In 2008 he stayed with Doug Duval and starting focusing mostly on residential heating and air conditioning systems, and has worked on this side of the business through 2021.

George had a certain way of doing things: you do things right the first time. But he also took things further – George wanted things perfect and nothing but the best. He not only did this for the customers but he also did this for himself – it HAD to be perfect. Anything less than that was not good enough.

He learned these traits from his grandfather and father. Both men were mechanically inclined but also preached the right way is the only way to do things. George also attributed this to his German heritage, where perfection and pride is a required tenet of life.

George leaves an incredible legacy of work that is present in many homes and buildings in the Kansas City area. If you have a George Ninemire installation, you have a work of art. Everything always aligned perfectly. Everything was nice and level. Everything was symmetrical so when you looked at it you knew it was done well. George has always been a craftsman and always will be a craftsman.

City Wide Heating and Cooling is proud to have George as part of our company for 35 years. He will be missed, but in his time here he has also been able to pass a piece of his knowledge to other installers in the company.

We wish George well in his life of retirement. Congratulations…and thank you George!

It’s time to get the furnace maintained in your Kansas City area home. With winter approaching quickly, keeping your heater running is really important. But have you ever wondered what actually happens during a furnace tune-up? Read below to find out!

A Standard Furnace Tune-Up Checklist

The furnace in your home has a lot of components that are checked for safety and functionality. During your yearly furnace maintenance these are the common areas a technician will check:

• Ignitor. Modern furnaces have electronic ignition, and over time that ignitor can start to wear down. Replacing these before they fail keeps your furnace firing on the coldest days.
• Heat exchanger. The technician also checks the heat exchanger, which heats up when the natural gas fires in the combustion chamber. This is also where dangerous flue gases pass through when in route to your furnace flue. Over time that heat exchanger can weaken and crack, which can then cause a carbon monoxide issue. The technician will always run a carbon monoxide test on the system.
• Blower motor. The tech will check for amp draws on the motor, and check the electrical connections of the motor itself. In addition, they will check for noises and vibrations that might indicate pre-mature failure.
• Safety switches. Your furnace also has limit and safety switches that will shut down the furnace if it gets too hot. Those switches are checked to make sure they are working properly.
• Gas piping. The technician will also check the gas piping around the furnace to make sure there are no leaks.
• Flue venting. The flues are checked to make sure they are drafting properly and that there is no visible damage that could hinder the flue gases from leaving the home.
• Burner assembly. The tech also checks that the burners are releasing the gas cleanly and efficiently. They also clean the burners as well.

In addition, there a few other things the furnace technician will do during a standard maintenance:

• Humidifier. If there is a humidifier on the furnace, they change the humidifier pad and make sure it is on and operable.
• Furnace filter. Changing the filter is one of the most important things for your furnace. It helps keep the heater clean, which means the blower doesn’t have to work as hard.
• Dampers. If your home has dampers in your ductwork, the technician will make the adjustment from Summer to Winter so your air flow is maximized for the winter season.
• Drain lines. The technician will also clean the drain lines for your humidifier and your high efficiency furnace if applicable.

Contact City Wide Heating & Cooling at 913-384-6006 the next time you need service. We provide furnace tune-ups in Overland Park, Lenexa, Shawnee, and all cities in between.

With Covid-19 running rampant in the Kansas City area, people are staying in their homes more. With winter approaching, there are some things you can do to your heating and cooling system to help filter the air.

There are a couple of different systems that can work at eliminating airborne germs and viruses in your home. Both of these systems work in conjunction with your furnace and air conditioner system and are designed to work with the fan running all of the time.

Electronic Air Cleaners Provide Whole-Home Filtration

An electronic air filtration systems works with your heating and air conditioner system to constantly filter the air in your home. This type of system captures and kills 95% of the larger particles in the air by utilizing an electric field in your filtering system.

This system also inactivates 99% of select airborne germs and viruses that includes:

• Coronavirus
• Influenza
• Common Cold
• Bacteria That Causes Strep Throat

An electronic air cleaner then takes those particles and they get captured by a MERV 15 air filter. This enables the system to also reduce pet dander, pollen, dirt, and other particles.

Air Purification Systems Clean Your Air

This type of system is installed in conjunction with whatever filtering system you have in your Kansas City home.  This is an air scrubber system and is installed in your duct system above the furnace. It utilizes a couple of technologies to purify the air:

• PX5 technology consists of UV light energy combined with a 5-metal, quint-metallic core to scrub the air. This core reduces viruses, odors, pollutants, smoke, mold, bacteria, and VOC’s.
• Bi-polar ionization system, which uses positive AND negative ion technology that gathers the small particles together so they can be filtered out.

This system was tested against Covid-19 in a hospital setting by putting masks worn by Covid patients in a room for two hours with this technology.

After two hours the pathogens were removed, while masks in an untreated room showed no improvement during the same period.

In addition, this type of system has shown the ability to reduce other pathogens such as MS-2 Bacteriophage and Staphylococcus Epidermidis.

Contact City Wide Heating and Cooling for more information regarding filtering the air in your Kansas City area home.

Here in the Kansas City area there are plenty of heating and air conditioning companies. When it comes time to repair or replace your system, most people go to Google and search for someone to help them.

But how do you choose the best one that is going treat you fairly and honestly?  That is a very good question.

Start With The Basics – Is The Company Qualified?

There are some basic qualifications to look for when hiring the right furnace and air conditioner company. These are simple questions to ask and should be easy for a reputable company to answer:

• Are you a licensed heating and cooling company?
• Are you insured?
• Are your employees background checked?
• How long have you been in business?
• Are your technicians sub-contractors or company employees?
• Do the technicians wear shoe covers when they enter the home?
• Do the technicians have experience?

In addition, with Covid-19 being around these days, there are additional questions to ask regarding their policies and procedures:

• Are the technicians wearing masks?
• Will the technicians wipe down thermostats, door handles, and hvac components in the house?
• Are the technicians leaving service tickets or can they be emailed?
• Are the technicians using hand sanitizer before and after leaving the home?

All of these questions are important as a baseline to choosing the best heating and air conditioner company for your Kansas City home. Once you feel satisfied with these answers, it’s time to figure out what else is important when choosing someone to service your home.

All About The Service or The Sale?

Customers today all want the same thing – to be treated fairly when it comes to maintaining their homes. Most folks don’t know how to repair an air conditioner or maintain a furnace. So they rely on their local companies to be honest with them. But how do you know when they are being honest? A couple of ideas:

• Are you getting upfront pricing? Each repair for your system should have a price that the technician gives you before doing the repair. And that should be the final price that you pay.

• Does the technician push for a replacement instead of a simple repair?  A lot of heating and air conditioning companies pay commissions to technicians for referring service customers to their replacement department. While this can make some sense on older systems, it is not the case for every system. The expected lifespan for a heating and cooling system is about 18 years in this area. So if your equipment is less than 15 years old, it may make more sense to repair the system. And if your system is less than 10 years old, it makes no sense to replace it.

• Does a technician seem to “find a repair” every time they come to your home for your annual maintenance?  Believe it or not, some companies instruct their technicians to find something that needs a repair and then pays commission on that repair to the technician.

• Is the company locally, family owned and operated? Family ownership is important because families take care of families, especially in a city like Kansas City. This area is known for taking care of each other, and that means treating people with fairness and respect. Customers are their neighbors, and friends, and fellow church goers. And maintaining those good relationships are important for personal and business reasons.

• Will the company really listen to you and address your concerns? Every situation is different when a service company is allowed into the home of a customer. An honest and fair company will listen when there is an issue and do what is necessary to make sure their customers are treated fairly. Companies that have been in business a long time understand that customer service really is the key to creating a company that employees and customers want to be a part of.

To sum it up, people these days want experiences to feel good. They want to feel that the company that showed up treated their homes with respect and their wallets fairly. People want to feel that the company that they support actually appreciates that support.

Family businesses are built on those relationships and wouldn’t exist without them. When you can become part of a family, it makes both sides have a mutual respect and understanding that they have each other’s back. And that the company will always be there to take care of your home, and that the customer will always be there to support the company. That’s how you know you have chosen the best heating and cooling company in Kansas City.