Downgrading to two stars. I still stand by the initial review (hence the second star) - Hiram did…read morerespond promptly when we were somewhat desperate and cobbled something together that seemed to work. Until it didn't.
A few months after the install, all units stopped working after a storm. After months of back-and-forth, he finally realized -- through trial and error - that the boards of all units are fried and need to be replaced. His best guess? "Your condenser probably got hit by lightning" (condenser is on the roof, but we have a lightning rod; there's been no indication otherwise that the building got hit by lightning). A few weeks pass by, some more rain, same thing happens again. Replace all the boards again. "Your condenser keeps getting hit by lightning". A few more weeks, same thing again. By this point a year has passed after the install and we have spent most of that year with our $30,000 mini splits completely non-functional. It's also pretty clear that it's an issue with the install and nothing to do with imaginary lighting.
Then Hiram has the audacity to inform us that our one-year contract has expired and now we have to start paying him for repairs, even though this issue started while we were still under contract and has persisted for months because Hiram has simply been unable to fix it.
At this point, I was willing to just move on and hire a more competent contractor to fix the issue. That's when we started having other contractors look at the system and realized what a horrendous job Hiram had done.
Most egregiously, the wiring had been done incorrectly, creating a huge FIRE HAZARD and potentially exposing our entire household and our neighbors to significant PROPERTY DAMAGE and potentially loss of life. See attached screenshot from assessment.
In addition, there have been numerous other issues with the install:
- Water repeatedly leaking from the heat pumps into our house when it rains
- Exposed lines
- Condenser freely standing on the roof, not affixed to anything
- Slopily taped line set covers
- Sloppily installed water pumps
- Overall poor craftsmanship
See attached images.
We are currently addressing the issues one by one with multiple contractors. To be clear, WE ARE STILL WITHOUT A/C TWO YEARS AFTER THE INSTALL. We only really had it working for ~6 months. Unclear if it's even salvageable.
In hindsight, there were also multiple red flags that we overlooked in the beginning, but should have given us pause:
- Hiram did not know that Fujitsu is Japanese. How can you not know the country of origin of your main supplier?
- He drilled through brick in our apartment without any precautions, filling our entire house with brick dust. He had no idea it's hazardous to breathe in, he didn't even put a mask on himself. Our entire condo was covered in brick dust. We had a 1-year-old kid at the time.
- He did not clean up properly after himself, our son ended up with a glass shard in his foot
Overall, I would not recommend Hiram's services to anyone. He is polite and responsive, but when push comes to shove, his work is not just poor quality, but outright dangerous.
Hiram, before you post some sob response like "I'm just trying to feed my family man", consider this - you put my family, and my neighbors' families at risk because of your incompetence. And you ultimately refused to take responsibility. You should be ashamed of your work and of your character.
(Responding to Hiram's response) -- there were no "stories", I was just trying to help you figure out what could be causing this. Yes, you definitely blamed lightning multiple times. I had multiple contractors take a look at it and say the same things. This is not "Mother Nature". This is just a plain bad job.
