Jim was very kind, took the time to explain what was wrong, was honest, and his price seemed fair.
Joe S. May 27, 2026
Service and repairSaukville, Wisconsin
Your furnace is trying to tell you something.
34 years of experience in the HVAC service industry. When I come to your house I'm there to fix or service your equipment not to sell you a new one.
$35 service call, $80 an hour
Sunday to Thursday 6:00 am to 10:00 pm
Friday and Saturday 6:00 am to 11:00 pm
In my own words
Most HVAC companies are overpriced and they want to sell you a new furnace and/or AC. I just do service and repairs. When I come to your house I'm there to fix or service your equipment not to sell you a new one.
James JacksonJames Heating and Air Conditioning LLC
- Experience
- 34 years of experience in the HVAC service industry
- Certification
- NATE certified technician
- Protection
- Fully licensed, bonded, and insured
How a repair call goes
Five steps, in the order they happen.
From the phone call to the warranty on the work. The light beside each step is the one in your burner door.
-
You call
Call (262) 689-9582, Sunday to Thursday 6:00 am to 10:00 pm and Friday and Saturday 6:00 am to 11:00 pm. Say what the furnace or the air conditioner is doing, when it started, and where the house is.
A kitchen table on a winter morning -
The visit
The service call is $35. Clear a path to the furnace and move anything stored against it, so the panel can come off and the light in the door can be read.
A brick ranch after snow, the basement window at the foundation -
The diagnosis
Most furnaces made in the last few decades report their own trouble as a blinking status light behind a small window in the burner door. The legend is printed inside the panel door, and it differs by maker, so the count is read against that legend and never from memory. Reading it is the line on my services list that says fault code diagnosis for furnaces.
Frost on a pane at first light -
The repair
The work is $80 an hour. On a furnace the fault usually comes down to one part, an igniter, a flame sensor, a pressure switch or a capacitor, and the code says where to look first.
A brass floor register in a hallway, morning light -
The warranty
A 1 year warranty on parts and a 30 day labor warranty. Keep the invoice with the furnace papers.
A two lane road through farm fields in winter
What I work on
Service and repair, residential and light commercial.
Repairs, maintenance and cleaning, on the equipment already in the house.
- Heating and AC unit repairs
- Heating and AC unit maintenance services
- Residential HVAC services
- Light commercial HVAC services
- HVAC unit cleaning
- Filter replacements
- Gas and propane unit services
- Central AC system services
- Forced-air furnace services and boilers
- Fault code diagnosis for furnaces
- Checking out furnaces and AC's for sale of your home
No rooftop or attic units at this time.
My advice
Four things worth knowing
- Furnaces should be serviced in fall and winter. A/C units should be serviced in spring and summer.
- Filters for furnaces should be a Merv 8 or less for one-inch and a Merv 12 or less for four-inch size. Using a higher Merv rating than these could overheat the furnace and blower motor.
- Do not use portable humidifiers because they put out a white mist that plugs up filters.
- For houses with forced air furnaces, I recommend that you shut off the water supply line when you go out of town so you don’t have to deal with frozen pipes.
As posted on jamesheatingandac.com.
Before you call
Three things to check first. None of them needs a tool.
When the heat quits, these are the usual first checks, and they take a few minutes.
The thermostat
Set to Heat, and set above the room temperature. If it runs on batteries, put in fresh ones.
The filter
A filter packed with dust can make a furnace overheat and shut itself off. Slide it out. If you cannot see light through it, replace it and try again.
The power
The breaker for the furnace, then the switch on or beside the furnace itself. It looks like a light switch, and it gets flipped by mistake.
If a carbon monoxide alarm sounds, leave the house and call 911 first. Everything else can wait.
When you call
What to have ready
- What the unit is doing, and when it started.
- The make and rough age of the furnace or the air conditioner, if you know them.
- Any work done on it recently, and by whom.
- A photo of the data plate on the cabinet.
- The status light, if the furnace has one: count the blinks, and note whether they are short or long, before you switch anything off.
General homeowner guidance, not a description of a specific visit. Ask what a visit covers when you call.
Repair or replace
Repair or replace, from someone who does not sell furnaces.
Every old furnace asks the question eventually, and so does every old air conditioner. There is no formula, only patterns worth knowing before you hear a price.
A gas furnace typically lasts 15 to 20 years. The common rule of thumb: when a repair would cost more than half of a replacement, replacing usually makes more sense.
Points toward replacing
- The unit is past 15 to 20 years old, a typical life for a gas furnace.
- It has needed a repair in back to back seasons.
- The repair estimate comes to about half the cost of a new unit, or more.
- The heat exchanger is cracked, which usually means a new furnace.
Points toward repairing
- The unit is young and this is its first problem.
- One part failed and everything else is in good shape.
- It has been reliable, and the estimate is small next to a replacement.
- The rest of the system, the ductwork and the thermostat, is doing its job.
I just do service and repairs.
Buying or selling
A furnace check before the sale.
One line on my services list reads "Checking out furnaces and AC's for sale of your home." It is the visit that typically happens between the inspection and the closing.
A pre sale check typically covers the age of the equipment from its data plate, a look at the heat exchanger and burners, the blower and the filter, the thermostat, the venting, and how the unit starts and runs through a full cycle, with a written note of what was found. Buyers often ask for one, and sellers who have it in hand usually save themselves a conversation at closing.
Where I work
Based in Saukville, Wisconsin.
Saukville is a village in Ozaukee County on the Milwaukee River, about 23 miles north of downtown Milwaukee and a few miles west of Lake Michigan, on Interstate 43. It grew up where a north south Indian trail crossed the river, was a stagecoach stop on the Milwaukee to Green Bay road, and became a mill and market town for the county's dairy farms before it incorporated as a village in 1915.
Most of the houses around here run from 1840s to 1900s farmhouses and village homes in the old cores, to postwar ranches, subdivisions from the 1960s on, and lake homes toward Port Washington. The lake moderates the weather without shortening it: a long heating season, then humid summers.
- Service area
- Serving Ozaukee, Eastern Washington, and Southern Sheboygan Counties and Northern Suburbs of Milwaukee
What customers say
5.0 on Yahoo Local, five reviews.
Printed as Yahoo Local shows them. Four of the five are excerpts, cut where the listing cuts them.
Our AC stopped working on 8/27, a very hot humid day! Jim, from James Heating & Air conditioning came out immediately to troubleshoot the issue. He had the parts we needed on his truck and took...
Paul L. August 28, 2024
Jim goes over and above in his service and professionalism. We had some AC issues this past summer and he came out (when he said he would) found a leak in our unit, fixed the leak, and recharged...
Jerry K. January 31, 2023
I had James fix an Aprilaire on my furnace. Not only did he do an outstanding job making sure everything was working correctly after another company couldn't, he also noticed a problem with my...
Richard L. March 3, 2021
Unbeknownst to us, a friend who used to work with Jim figured out that our furnace had a mfg rebate that we could take advantage of and basically get another bunch of years out of our furnace. The...
A-M M. March 5, 2020
Common questions
The questions that come up on the phone.
Short answers. If yours is not here, call and ask.
What does a service call cost?
The service call is $35 and the work is $80 an hour. I just do service and repairs, so a visit is about fixing or servicing the equipment you have, not selling you new equipment. Parts, when they are needed, carry a 1 year warranty, and the labor carries a 30 day warranty.
What hours do you keep?
Sunday to Thursday 6:00 am to 10:00 pm, and Friday and Saturday 6:00 am to 11:00 pm. Call (262) 689-9582 inside those hours. If the heat has quit, check the thermostat, the filter and the switch on the furnace before you call, and if a carbon monoxide alarm sounds, leave the house and call 911 first.
Do you install new furnaces?
In my own words: I just do service and repairs. When I come to your house I'm there to fix or service your equipment not to sell you a new one. If your furnace is past repair, the repair or replace section on this page lays out the usual rules of thumb, from someone who does not sell furnaces.
What areas do you cover?
Serving Ozaukee, Eastern Washington, and Southern Sheboygan Counties and Northern Suburbs of Milwaukee, from Saukville, Wisconsin. Saukville is a village in Ozaukee County on the Milwaukee River, about 23 miles north of downtown Milwaukee on Interstate 43. If you are not sure whether your town is inside that area, call and ask.
What should I check before I call?
Three things. The thermostat: set to Heat and above the room temperature, with fresh batteries if it takes them. The filter: if you cannot see light through it, replace it. The power: the furnace breaker, then the switch beside the furnace that looks like a light switch. If a carbon monoxide alarm sounds, leave the house and call 911 first.
Call James
Tell me what the furnace is doing.
Call inside the hours below, or email if you would rather write it down. A few lines on what the equipment is doing and where the house is are enough to start.
- Call
- (262) 689-9582
- Hours
- Sunday to Thursday 6:00 am to 10:00 pm
Friday and Saturday 6:00 am to 11:00 pm - Based in
- Saukville, Wisconsin