Avoid Cyrus Heating & Cooling at all costs. Here's our experience.

The story short:

Do not use this company! My family has worked with them for a decade so I figured the service and professionalism would be good, far from it. Take your money and run. Do not sink your time, money and sanity into dealing with these people. New house, new heating and cooling unit. We've had so many issues with both the heating and cooling in just the 2 years we lived here. When doing a duct cleaning with them their technician unplugged our meat freezer and didn't plug it back in or inform us. We lost months worth of meat, probably close to 1000 to rebuy everything. The company offered to refund the service but refused to reimburse for the meat they ruined as they spoke to the technicians and they said they do not remember what happened. Absolutely no respect for someone else's home and no ownership to mistakes their technicians made from the owner.

The long story:

I've been in this home for over 2 years. It is a brand new build. They installed a brand new heating and cooling system for us. The first winter we lived here the house was so cold upstairs even with the heating running we had to sleep in multiple layers and jackets. The owner of Cyrus eventually came to the house to check and install some additional add ons at a discounted rate. At the time we were quite happy but when winter hit again we noticed no difference. At this point my partner and I had invested in a portable heater and a thicker duvet so we were content dealing with Winnipeg winters.

The first summer we spent in this house we noticed the 2nd floor had little to no cooling. The office and bedrooms were stifling and we had to eventually install a window AC unit to properly cool the upstairs. I thought it was ridiculous that a new AC unit didn't properly cool the whole house but once again we were content with our solution.

That was the status quo for a while until this most recent summer (2023) the AC stopped cooling the house entirely and the vents were blowing hot air. We would set the threshold to 21-22 C but the house would stay at 25C or higher. After confirming that our filters were changed we figured it was dirty or maybe something was broken and called the company for a maintenance check for both the heating and cooling. This cost us around 400 dollars after taxes. The technician arrived promptly within the week and did all the basic maintenance checks. He changed the refrigerant that was low which was the reason hot air was blowing out of our vents. He even checked the upstairs and made suggestions to help with airflow which we did try but still didn't see much change but we were content with at least the downstairs getting sufficient cooling again.

One month later on a weekend where the temperatures were 35 celsius and above the AC stopped cooling again. We were quite shocked and upset since we just paid for a check up and the technician confirmed everything was healthy. Since it was on a weekend the company was not open so I had to leave a voicemail hoping they could call me back first thing Monday morning. The inside temperature of the house was 30 degrees celsius in the living room and even worse upstairs. This was with the AC still on and moving air around the house. The last time this happened it skyrocketed our electricity bill due to the cooling unit running at all times but not being able to sufficiently cool the house. We made the decision to turn it off for the majority of the time it was broken until a technician could come out. We had to board our puppy overnight due to the conditions in the home being too hot for her and we were worried about her overheating. Come Monday morning I still did not receive a call from the company after the voicemail I left. I called the company again myself and they arranged for another technician to come out promptly. This was a different technician who was recently hired by this company. He informed us that all our refrigerant in the month since a new one was put in was gone. He deduced that there was a hole somewhere where things were leaking out. This was a big job but since he had other appointments he had to reschedule until tomorrow. The next day he and another technician came back to search for this hole. They eventually found it in the coil which they could not repair. Thankfully they had a replacement which they installed for us. Overall this was a huge job that the company did not charge us for because it was missed during maintenance. I think we really lucked out that the second technician did a thorough investigation instead of just replacing the refrigerant again and calling it a day. I inquired how the hole got there in the first place and he said that is not easy to identify. It could have been there since the unit was installed. The technician who identified the hole in our coil was excellent. If I could hire him directly to maintain our stuff I would.This company is lucky to have him and it's a waste such a good technician is tied to such an awful company.

While they were doing this inspection the other technician noticed our ducts were super dirty and recommended that we do a cleaning with them. I've heard arguments that this is a total scam and does not affect anything in your home but I'm also not a professional so we decided we would give the duct cleaning a try. This company suggests you do them every 2 years.

The individual who recommended we clean our ducts and another technician showed up to do the cleaning. There was a giant machine they had to drag into the basement and another bundle of cables they pulled in from outside. They ran some of their cables under the large gap of our screen door. I have three cats in the house and I asked the technician to close the screen door as they come and go. I was worried if the door was left wide open one of them would try to run out. In hindsight I should have put all my cats in crates to be 100% safe however I did not think following instructions such as closing a door as you come and go would be difficult to follow. I also confirmed with the company that the technicians were comfortable with animals (which they said yes too) otherwise I would not have let them roam around. Unfortunately one of my cats escaped during the service. I noticed the door was left open and spent the next 30 minutes trying to find him in the home. 2/3 cats came running as soon as I shook a treat bag but the last was nowhere to be found in the house. I then frantically ran around the neighborhood shaking treats as I went trying to see if he maybe escaped and was somewhere close by. Thankfully I found him in a park next to our house and was able to bring him home safe and sound. None of my cats are outdoors cats as an FYI. I understand accidents happen and no harm came of it in the end so I left the matter as is.

When I returned home the technicians were both still cleaning the vents and seemed relieved I found my cat. The giant machine they had to bring down to the basement was plugged into an outlet in my basement I had right under the breaker box. This outlet had two things already plugged into it. A humidifier and an extension cable that was attached to our meat freezer. I was not there to witness them doing this myself as I was frantically running around trying to find my cat. I also did not feel the need to follow around technicians that were just trying to do their job and get in their way. I thought I could trust a company that has been working with my family for years and years. I thought wrong. I let them finish up the job and paid the bill and that was settled.

4 days after the duct cleaners were in the house my partner found that our meat freezer was not plugged in and all the meat we had stored and saved over the past few months had defrosted and gone bad. We immediately retraced what could have happened and realized that the duct cleaners must have unplugged the freezer and not plugged it back in or informed us it was left unplugged.

We immediately called the company to inform them what happened. The operator who picked up said that an investigation would be done and the technicians would be questioned and they would get back to me tomorrow. The next day the owner called me and informed me that after the investigation their technicians do not remember what occurred and they cannot confirm if they were the cause of the issue with the freezer. I explained to them that in order for them to do a duct cleaning there were only so many outlets in my basement they could have used. The timeline for the melt and rotting fits perfectly with when the technicians were in the home. I have since plugged that freezer back in and it's working perfectly again so it's not a mechanical issue either. The owner said he would take my side and asked me what they can do to compensate for this issue. I asked for the service they did to be refunded and for them to reimburse us for all the food that they ruined. The owner was taken aback at my request and said if he refunded just the service he would already be losing a lot of money because he would have to also pay his employees. He also tried to explain to me that a similar situation happened to him where his freezer broke and he did not get any compensation for it. I was adamant on them reimbursing us fully so we argued back and forth for quite some time. The call ended with him saying he would need to speak to his business partner and he would inform me by noon tomorrow.

Noon the next day I received a call from the company, not the owner but the representative that we book all our services through. He informed me they would only be able to refund the service and they would not be covering all the damages for the meat that spoiled. Due to having no proof that they were the cause of it. Once again I tried to explain that there is no other explanation as to why the freezer was unplugged since we have confirmed it was working perfectly and they confirmed that their technicians indeed used an outlet in the basement to run the duct cleaning. I asked to speak to the owner again as I was not going to settle for this. He said he would tell the owner to call me. I asked for a timeline and he said he was unsure. I said that was okay and I would call back in 2 hours at 4:00pm. According to Google they are open from 8:00am-5:00pm. I have not received a call from the owner or the representative and when I called back at 4:00p I kept getting voicemail. As of writing this they have not refunded the service or reimbursed us for the damages they did. At this point I am tired of fighting this and just want at a minimum the service reimbursed.

Just wanted to share my experience with this company to hopefully save some people some of the pain we had to go through.