Temperatures turn up heat on cooling businesses
<p><strong>Rory Madderom</strong>, service tehnician for Air Works Heating and Cooling Solutions of five years, tests the ductless air conditioning unit for a charge to be sure the unit is off before further dismantling the front casing.(Seaborn Larson/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
As lemonade supplies run dangerously low, the backs of legs stick to vinyl car seats and ice cream purveyors amass a small fortune, local air conditioning businesses are running into problems of their own.
Margie McCubbins, service manager at Bill’s Superheat in Kalispell, said the recent high temperatures have turned up the heat for business as well.
“We are already booking into August for people who need service on their equipment,” she said Thursday. “Our service guy worked 14 hours Saturday and nine on Sunday. He told me he didn’t get home until 10:30 last night. We’re busy.”
With temperatures cresting over 100 degrees last weekend and weeks of 90- and 80-degree temperatures in store, Flathead residents are scrambling to stay cool in their homes.
Most air-conditioning businesses prioritize their installations and service.
Christy Doty at the service desk of Central Heating and Cooling said there was a pyramid of prioritization.
“We start at the tip with the comfort-care program,” she said. “Those are customers we already do business with who chose to be part of that program. We try and take care of as many customers as we can, but we have to think of the elderly especially.”
McCubbins said priorities for Bill’s Superheat were similar, prioritizing elderly and the disabled.
Diane Yarus, co-owner of AirWorks, said Kalispell can be hard pressed in a heat wave such as the one the Flathead has been struggling with for the past week.
“This is a regional heat wave, so we have to deal with the availability issue,” she said. “Most other markets get their cooling period earlier than us but we got ours way early, too. Typically our region is behind the 8-ball at times like this, so we are already finding issues getting specific models.”
While product scarcity largely depends on what model consumers are going for, the need is constant.
“We’re getting a lot of high-volume calls,” Doty said. “We are really mindful of who is calling and if it is truly an emergency we can get out there.”
All three businesses have a several-week waiting list at this point.
“We’ve definitely seen an increase in calls,” Yarus said. “We had a pretty constant demand last year as well. Right now, even window units can be hard to find. And if you want to cool your whole house? Unfortunately, you just have to get in line.”
Reporter Ryan Murray may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.