1st Response HVAC & Electric Solutions

I would absolutely never use these guys…ever. Everyone was nice enough and honestly I’m sure they lost money on us trying to make it right. The sales pitch was good, but the execution not so much. Story time… We used first response for a heat pump system 9 years ago. I’m sitting with the heat pump system not working for the 8th time in 9 years…in the cold.

It was a Fujitsu heart pump system. Everything went well until it didn’t. 1st winter there was a power shortage that shorted out the system…I had been asked if I wanted to buy a surge protector, but when I pressed if I really needed one they said not really…definitely did! They fixed the motherboard free of charge and had me buy the surge protector. Ok…no big deal.

Then began the search for the invisible leak in a closed system. A few months later we were low on coolant. Honestly, I made a mistake in the setup because we installed a really long line to the basement, but wasn’t told how bad of an idea that would be. So we had a slow leak in the coolant that got worse and worse. And had to be refilled every year for 6 years. Think multiple appointments every year for them to tell me we can’t find a leak and weren’t sure there was one when it is a closed system. They even brought in a Fujitsu person to meet at the house and look it over the unit. They ended up doing some work on the units a few times. But it would fail every winter and sometimes going into summer. We probably had 15-20 appointments to address the issue with no fewer than 5 techs. We eventually called another company, who rumor had it was going to buy out 1st Response at the time. Legacy One tech came out and said I’m not touching this unit as it has been ruined with the work that has been done on it. After about a month back and forth with Braxten and blaming the Fujitsu expert who told him to do some welding on the machine, that guy would no longer answer his phone calls. So he had me call the Fujitsu expert as Braxten couldn’t get me a warranty replacement. Red flag right?

Eventually, Legacy One owner felt bad and called Fujitsu to get a warranty claim through…yeah ANOTHER COMPANY called and got me a new unit from a warranty. By this point 1st Response was down to only 2 people and I had a conversation about when First Response could afford the deposit on the warranty unit the next week. I’ll grant he did make it happen and paid for install to happen. I pretty much gave up on them then…had one good summer, winter, summer and we are back to an issue.

So good salesman, poor product or install, tried really hard, but never addressed. Plenty of gaslighting that it’s fixed, been pressure tested and no way there is a leak for me to still have issues. In fact messed it up so bad that the entire system was compromised. Moved on because I was out of warranty. Based on what I heard from some techs…my house wasn’t the only one with lots of issues.

I honestly didn’t post for years because they kept trying…but I’m still cold so I’m doing what I can to save another

This is the second time we have used 1st Response HVAC for our furnace issues. They were quick to respond and easy to work with. Justin was the technician both times. He was professional, knowledgeable and got our heat back on quickly. I appreciate the work and highly recommend their services.

Don't work with this company.

After purchasing their annual maintenance plans for both our heater and air conditioner, they no-showed on three separate appointments.

Why did I agree to the third appointment? Because the owner promised us a full refund PLUS $1000 if they didn't show for the last appointment. Despite them not showing for the last appointment, and sending me an email stating they would be sending me a check, it never showed up.

I've tried calling, texting, and emailing them to resolve the issue, but they're definitely ignoring the problem. This was months ago and to date I've not received the service we paid for, received a refund, or even received a reply about the issue.

We're now out hundreds of dollars and I missed three full days of work for nothing.

I am a contractor in Seattle and have been using First Response exclusively for the better part of a decade. Most of the work they have done for me has been great but the last year or so, the service, the communication and reliability have fallen completely off. Most recently resulting in a leak from a newly installed mini split head unit in a clients house. Freshly installed floors and trim in the house were ruined. When I brought this to Braxten’s attention, he began not answering my calls and refused to take responsibility. I personally ended up paying $5000 to fix the clients home, including paying a different HVAC company to come out clean up their mess. The only good reliable tech this company had was Rylan, he saw the writing on the wall and left. Now I would not recommend using them, especially when there are so many other options for HVAC contractors.

We had a ductless mini-split unit installed in our townhouse by Rylan, Chandler, and Isaiah on 2022-02-21 and it was a great experience. They arrived on time, got the job done just like we wanted, and answered the (many) questions we had about the setup. It was a great experience and I would definitely go with this company again.

The service specialists were courteous and helpful the whole time they were here and did a great job explaining the process and next steps as they went. I felt bad because this was actually the day we got snow in Seattle, but the group still finished the entire job according to the schedule.

When they were finished, Rylan walked us through the system indoors and outdoors to explain how it worked and gave us his contact information in case we had any questions. The units work great and we're incredibly satisfied with the craftsmanship done by the team.

We will definitely be recommending 1st Response to others looking to get a mini-split system installed.

A note on our setup: We had one outdoor unit and 4 indoor heads installed in our 3-story townhouse unit. The heads were all installed on exterior walls, so we didn't have to deal with any shared wall situation with the neighbors. It's also noteworthy that we scheduled this a few months ago, but had to wait until February for the install due to supply issues with the units (no fault of 1st Response, just the state of the world due to COVID). If you're looking to get these installed ahead of summer, you should act soon to get the job scheduled.