Picture this - it's the year 2026, and the world collectively stares into screens. Robots vacuum…read morethe carpet and freak out the pets. Drones deliver packages to the wrong homes. Vehicles drive themselves, sometimes into oncoming traffic, but that's a whole other review, and Las Vegas nears a 100°F forecast... (drumroll)... in MARCH!! (Checks calendar. Counts with fingers) C'mon!! We still have three months to go! *sigh* Anyhow, here's the play-by-play of what led us to Ayad at Vegas Air Pro:
(Set Thermostat from Heat to Cool) - Check!
(Set to 76°F) - Check!
(Hears a click... listens intently...minutes pass... but no air) - gulp. :( oh boy.
Beads of sweat begin to form on my forehead. Eyes well-up and panic ensues. Mental images of me being held upside-down by one leg take hold, as a burly corporate A/C rep with a five o'clock shadow, raspy voice, and a stogie in his mouth demands payment on his... oh lord... dare I say? (wincing) iPad. Eww.
As I wailed and bemoaned about the worst-case scenario, my curious mother told me to snap out of it and man up as she pointed to a blinking red indicator on the thermostat that I've purposely ignored for years. I pressed the button right next to it and with bated breath, we both stood there and listened to a tinny voice from the monaural speaker blare out a prerecorded message from 2012 when the A/C units were installed: "Time to change your filter! Oh... and while you're at it? You might want to invest in NVIDIA." (rips thermostat off the wall and tosses it down the hallway).
The 2nd floor A/C condenser unit in question is from Amana, circa 2012 time-frame, and as recently as last year, experienced some indigestion by siphoning $800 out of our pockets when no one was apparently looking, only for another A/C tech to come out and retrieve it for us. In exchange, we got a new capacitor, a bad attitude, a stupid hard start kit that is a load of crap IMO, and a Freon/ R-21 recharge to get us through the summer months of hades. That tech in 2025 sounded like Fred the meat carver from the Old Country Buffet Training videos asking us inane questions like "Have you tried the Lasagna?" So, you can hopefully appreciate my theatrics when spring barely comes around in 2026 and the climate decides to throw a curveball, making the Amana look up at me like "Bruh, it's March? What do you want from me?"
Begrudgingly, that very night, I got on Yelp to search for an A/C repair company that doesn't have photos of gleeful techs lined up in front of their fleet of vehicles (strike 1) ready to blitzkrieg your home with their stiff prices and a menagerie of capacitors in a Samsonite briefcase, hoping you'll bend over for any solution just to get the air back on and then send you a series of follow-up text messages for eternity wondering when you'll give them another chance at the $79 tuneup special (strike 2). More importantly, I didn't want any of the big names in town either because we've been burned before and I'm still recovering from last year's chafing. Therefore, feeling rather helpless, I pressed the "Next Page" button on the search and before I could strike out at the plate, the clouds parted and a glimmer of hope appeared right before my very eyes: Vegas Air Pro. (angels sing) Grand slam!
Reading the reviews, perusing some of the photos, and learning about Ayad's business, I said to myself, at this point? We just have to roll the dice and take a chance at Ayad helping us diagnosis this new issue of ours, and BOY... was it a doozy (keep reading). The following day, my mom reserved a timeslot for him to arrive on the same day. He gave us a text reminder that he'd be there between 1PM-1:15PM. At 1:14PM Ayad pulled up to the curb, with booties in tow and was ready to solve our latest saga. Approximately 30 minutes after his arrival, the diagnosis was a blown 24V transformer in the attic, however, it didn't end there. Once the transformer was replaced, Ayad waited a little while to evaluate the performance of the part, only to watch the transformer blow out again. Uh oh...
After further evaluation, he returned to the condenser unit and noticed that the contractor (essentially, a high voltage electrical switch and not some miniaturized version of a foreman with a plaid shirt and hardhat reading blueprints inside your condenser unit) needed to be replaced since it was the source of the now, twice blown, transformer. Furthermore, the wires in the attic, where the transformer was replaced, were somehow... loose (raises eyebrow), which makes me wonder - did the scorpions do this to get back at us?? (shrug) Prior to his visit, we were incredibly fortunate that the compressor didn't go out or even worse, the unit itself catching fire.
2.5 hrs later, Ayad completed the job successfully. Prices were reasonable and all work is backed by a 1 yr warranty. As far as A/C service goes in the future, we've aligned with Ayad and Vegas Air Pro! Thank you sir!