Come To Find Out

Essential Heating System Tips for Homeowners

• Sarah Thress • Season 2 • Episode 38

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Discover the inspiring journey of Carl Sliwinski, founder of The Heating and Cooling Pro, as he opens up about overcoming personal battles and finding redemption in the HVAC industry. From dealing with depression and addiction in his early life in central Ohio to transforming these challenges into a thriving business, Carl’s story is a powerful testament to resilience, hands-on learning, and the drive to provide for loved ones. His passion for skilled trades not only reshaped his future but also laid the foundation for a company that offers fresh starts for others with similar backgrounds. Join us as Carl discusses how connecting with diverse families through his work inspired him to establish a supportive company culture that mirrors his own journey of transformation.

As the seasons change, we shift focus to practical advice for maintaining your home’s heating systems. Ensuring your furnace is winter-ready is crucial, and we've got you covered with essential tips like scheduling tune-ups and checking safety devices. For those who prefer a hands-on approach, we offer simple maintenance tricks and insights into the benefits of professional analyses to ensure your heating system is safe and efficient. Finally, we extend our gratitude to our engaged listeners, sharing how your feedback and support help us bring stories like Carl's to a wider audience. Don't forget to subscribe and share this episode to inspire others with Carl's story and gain essential HVAC maintenance tips.

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To contact Carl:
Carl Sliwinski
614-886-4024
www.theheatingandcoolingpro.com

Sarah Thress
614-893-5885

First Time Home Buyer course: https://sarahthress.graphy.com/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/sarah_thress_realtor/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SarahThressRealtor/
https://www.youtube.com/@LIFEINCOLUMBUS

Sarah :

Hi and welcome to this week's episode of Come to Find Out. This week, we are joined by Carl SloSwinski from the Heating and Cooling Pro, so that is the name of his company, but also he is the Heating and Cooling Pro. So thank you so much, carl, for taking time out of your extremely busy day to meet with us.

Carl:

Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.

Sarah :

Yeah, absolutely. So I know that you've been in this industry for a while. Would love for you to just kind of walk us through. Like you know, are you from the central Ohio area? Like you know, kind of tell us your story Like where, how did you even get into heating and cooling? How'd you come up with the idea of you know your company? Just, you know all the, all the things that we can get to know you a little better.

Carl:

Yeah, thank you. So Columbus, ohio I've been here for 30 years. I was born in Toledo, ohio, um, so when my family moved, this became home and grew to love central Ohio due to the Buckeyes Of course.

Carl:

I definitely, yes, we love that's a big tradition in our family. But, yeah, just being, you know, Columbus, ohio, I've grown to really love and to see the growth around here. I've taken a great pride in the area and there's just so much diversity, with just everything going around Ethnic, you knownic cultures is awesome and so, yeah, and I enjoy what I do. I go into people's homes, heating and cooling, I get a small window with you and you get to share and I get to serve you. And your ways Didn't always start out that way. I was always just someone that I would say the black sheep of the family.

Sarah :

So me too, it's OK yeah.

Carl:

My brother's a chiropractor and I don't know if I was expected to do big and great things in school, but I was just not one to in the classroom setting, so I definitely had more of a way to have fun outside of school. That was not healthy habits, but that started and I grew to. You know, do things that I wouldn't want my kids to do. Now you tell your kids that you want to avoid you know, partying and all that, and it just that's, that's just what I did, um, so that grew after school.

Carl:

College did not work for me and I realized, uh, my life is heading nowhere, but I just kept on doing the things that made me feel good and through depression, anxiety, drug addiction, uh, that's that's where my life had led and um it, yeah, I'm not proud of it, but it's part of my story, so I definitely embrace it. And it wasn't until I I went to a place that was a rehab, um, and I started learning about different skilled traits. So with that, different things were kind of approached to me and I sought out different things.

Carl:

And when I had completed this, this, this rehab, I stayed at a transition housing and a few of us guys got into heating and cooling. There was a company that had did some charity work, and he hired one at a time, though, and the first guy did really well. So then now he made a path for like three or four of us, and so it was a company out East, and I'm grateful I didn't have to go to a traditional schooling, not even like this tech school, uh, so they were able to provide me with what you know, the tools I needed to learn, and then, after that, was all on the job, and on the job training, as you hear, is always the best yes.

Carl:

But it's always can be painful as well and lots of stress. And I was now newly married and a kid on the way, so I was driven by a passion to learn a new career and to provide for my family and hearing and knowing what other people the success they were having in the industry. That was my goal and so I set out for that and I really enjoyed heating cooling I still do, but it's it's something that I was driving around.

Carl:

From each home I get a little window inside of their family cause, uh, it just happens, you meet people that are struggling, you meet people up in their highs and lows and I thought that was always, uh, a way to to maybe get back in a sense. But, most importantly, I would serve them for their heating cooling needs.

Sarah :

Yeah.

Carl:

And find that and be able to, and so I really enjoyed that and then, before you know it, I'm going on to the next call. So it's very intense, very long hours, very demanding weather, depending you know, very demanding weather, depending you know. And so, after that of learning the base, for a few years I really had this, you know, my thought of owning a company and having this company culture yeah it seems like the company I did work for.

Carl:

It was a few years there before I left. You know they were great, but I wanted to provide that culture to some other people that potentially had gone down the same road as I have. Even.

Sarah :

Yeah.

Carl:

And they just don't know what to do with life. They're on a new start and you know providing them with a career can actually help them rather than, you know, working a job they don't like. That can be a hindrance to their path, and so, with that, I was just driven by owning my own company.

Sarah :

That that thought and writing it down to the point where, eventually, it did happen.

Carl:

I started out from working a company, then doing calls after my normal like 10 hour shift, so then I was running, and then, on top of that, a family, and that's hard. Yeah, I didn't want to be gone all those hours, but if I was working so much anyway for someone else, I thought I could do this for myself and eventually dial back the hours. Yeah, and so that's what I'm doing now Been in service for a year and a half for myself, officially, uh, but but but been doing this for almost 10 years, uh, you know so, with that, and I've just had a blast, uh, you know, helping people out, making good money at it. You know, people referring being able to also see other people have a career in this industry, and it's awesome because a lot of people that don't want to go to college or can't afford it even so, this is great to see.

Carl:

The skilled trades. They need people too, the skilled trades. They need people to. They need, uh, people that will just show up and that are, you know, that can pass a drug test as well. They're sober. It's hard to find that in today's uh day and age to find someone to, you know, and not not to mention open up their home to you.

Sarah :

Yeah.

Carl:

Huge, you're letting a stranger in.

Sarah :

Yeah.

Carl:

You know, hopefully there's been some trust built with the company or or appearance. You know that, hey, I'm letting this person in my home.

Sarah :

Yeah, so yeah.

Carl:

I've taken great joy and, and where I'm planning on being, is having a few extra guys real shortly with me doing all these service calls, training someone else up as well and repeating this process, because it's me myself and I I do have a crew that will help me on the installs full service HVAC company falls. Full service HVAC company service sales, insulation maintenance and yeah, it's good.

Sarah :

I love it. Well, and there's a couple of things that I love about your story. One is that I appreciate you being so vulnerable. I didn't even know that part of your story, but I love that you're that vulnerable, because it shows that clearly you did the work to get past that, which is amazing, and clearly you're doing much better.

Sarah :

But the other thing that I love about it is that I think that unfortunately, in our society, we have put way too much pressure on people to make them think that college is the only way to go, and that's why we don't have as many trades people as we need now. So I love that. You know, even though you know you felt like it was like you took the wrong path, you actually took the right path for you and I think there is a right path out there for everyone, and so I love that. You know you're also you're clearly servant hearted, because you are already thinking of, like how can I make this? You know, like, how can I reach back and pull people back up with me instead of just like it's all about me, you know, so I love those parts of your story, so I just want you to be very proud of yourself for those things. Um, and I love that.

Sarah :

Uh, you know you guys are a full service HVAC, so walk me through kind of the process, like if someone was to call you and say, hey, like you know, by I don't know, my pilot light went out. I can't get it to relight. You know, like, what can I do? Would you like you know schedule a time, go out there, like. What would that process look like?

Carl:

yeah, definitely. The first step would be to call, so you've got my number or a referral has happened. You asked your friend hey, what's a good HVAC company? And they would say the Heating and Cooling Pro.

Sarah :

Yeah.

Carl:

And so you call me and they would say, carl's great, but anyway, then we'd schedule a time. Come out, first thing is I'd come out. We always put shoe protection on for your floors and for whatever. So we come in the door and a lot of times people can be kind of not sure what to expect, because of, maybe past experiences with service industry. But it's something that I can sense. But I always just start off and I ask questions. You know, hey, how's it going? Tell me a little bit about what's going on, and I would get to hear what the customer's experiencing from them, and then I would still ask maybe some more probing questions and just go down and they'd show me around their home.

Carl:

Um, down to wherever the the the pilot light, whether it was on the furnace or the hot water tank.

Sarah :

Yeah.

Carl:

And from there I would just be very honest with them and say, hey, this is what we're going to do. We're going to look for anything that's causing this and I'll let you know. And if I see anything else, I'll write it down and let you guys know. And no pressure type atmosphere. And so I get to work and that's my first thing diagnosing, telling you what's wrong and um and, and that's what we do. And then we, after you know I've found out what's wrong and I've looked over the entire system, uh, I would present what I found wrong. I would either call the homeowner down to show them, see them, what this is going on. We provide pictures as well, so if someone's not wanting to go down, or whatever, I always record pictures for the records and for their file, but also just to keep them in line of where I'm at. I'm not gonna explain something to them that they have without showing it to them yeah and on their piece of equipment.

Carl:

So I think that's also very important to build trust, because, no, you don't know me and yeah, you know, I mean, it's just something that we do to build that trust, and so, and after that, yeah, then then we talk about what do we want to do? Do we want to repair it? Because we can repair it? Yeah and then, um, you know if, it's a furnace with a pilot light a lot of times.

Carl:

Uh, it's. It's a very old furnace, by the way, and there's a lot more upgraded options with a new one that don't have a pilot light, so you're not wasting gas. That pilot is just on all year yeah and so you know we may start talking about options to replace and uh see what they say, but other than that it's just totally driven by what's wrong. What are your needs? Yeah and and what would you like to do?

Sarah :

um, yeah, so well, and I love that, because I feel like some of the you know bigger name companies are out there and it feels like and maybe they're not, because I don't know, I don't want to judge or throw shade but it feels like they are quick to just say, oh, you need a new thing, you need a new, you know, you need a new HVAC instead of like well, like well. Here's the problem and here's what we can do and we can band-aid it. And you know, you never know you may get another, like six months, two years, five years. Who knows? Like you know, none of us. Unless you have a crystal ball, mine's broken.

Sarah :

So it's too unfortunate right so, since none of us have those that are working, um, we have to just kind of, you know, go with like here are the facts, here's how it is. I can bandaid it and I can't guarantee how long it'll last, but it could be another five years, or it could be six months or, and if that's what you need to save up the money to buy your HVAC, cool, or you know, we can go ahead and do this. So I like that you provide those, those options.

Carl:

Yeah, a lot of people ask what would you do? And obviously you know that's that's not for, that's not my decision to make, I'm not in your financial shoes, or anything like that.

Carl:

But I can guide someone as to industry standards and what other people have done my previous clients what they thought was reasonable for them, you know, and it's just determining hey, do you want to put you know hundreds of dollars more into an older unit that's going to eventually break in other areas or replace, and unfortunately there are a lot of bigger companies that will teach their techs and they're about numbers and I think the whole service gets lost. And I think the whole service gets lost. It's just my opinion. And then technicians are kind of driven by money at that point and it's just the whole telling someone they need to replace it. I don't like that verbiage because you don't need to do anything. Honestly.

Sarah :

I'm just there to assist and help you.

Carl:

I'm not going to tell you you need to do anything. Honestly, yeah, I'm just there to assist and help you. I'm not going to tell you you need to do something. So that's yeah, and I can only see it because I've been a part of bigger companies with that culture too.

Sarah :

Yeah.

Carl:

And it's all mentioned with service, service, service. But then when that money gets thrown out there and there's goals to meet, um it just this yeah, you can get technicians that get lost in the um nefarious slash. You know ways of not being honest anymore.

Sarah :

Um, yeah, Now I love that and I think that that is the beauty of you creating your own company is that you can remain servant hearted, you can remain all about taking care of the client, and you and I both know if your number one job is just providing top customer service and meeting people's needs, the money follows you don't? You don't have to like have the money grab so um. So I love that. Um. I also love the fact that you know you give people options and things like that and with us going into fall and winter, obviously you know one of the ways that you can keep your system running and keep it from having to be replaced at its life. You know, maybe you're adding extra life, like there are things that you can do. What are your like top tips for? You know homeowners right now that um have, you know, even if it's a newer unit, what do you suggest like, what are your top tips of keeping it in? You know the top performing state.

Carl:

So I would definitely recommend getting a tune-up is what we call it. If that's not an option, I'll leave this with checking your batteries in your thermostat. You know, a lot of times they'll have a low battery. Replace those, change your filter. It's very, very big. A dirty filter will cause restriction and it can cause the furnace to fail at that moment. Okay, so it overheats and it short cycles and it goes into this cycle and then eventually shuts off.

Carl:

And keeping, depending on the type of furnace. There's high efficiency and there's standard efficiency. The high efficiencies will need a little bit more. I say maintenance, but with that is there's intakes that can create. They can get leaves bunched up in them. And just checking that checking the outside exhaust and intake, making sure they're free of leaves especially this time of year as they're falling they will get bunched up and can create an obstruction in the pipe.

Carl:

With a maintenance from a company, as a lot of us are doing right now this is the time of year to do it I would definitely look at first, ask some friends if they recommend a company and then, if not, then just go online, if you have access, and start looking and look for those that have a good review rating and, just you know, try one A good average. You'll hear costs. You know good deals now, from like 49 to even 129. And you know, I don't know if you've heard of the Just yeah, just be on the lookout for any deals. Trust the, you know. Try to find some company you can trust.

Sarah :

Yeah.

Carl:

If you don't feel comfortable with someone coming in your home. I totally understand that, especially after COVID. But then just do what you can with replacing your filters and kind of like people have the mindset well, it's been working great for years. And also make sure your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors are up. Most people have smoke, but not always do they have carbon monoxide. That is very, very important, since a byproduct of furnace gases, the exhaust is going to be carbon monoxide. The exhaust is going to be carbon monoxide, but a furnace tune-up will look like you know a technician coming in and hopefully asking you know questions and whatnot.

Sarah :

Yeah.

Carl:

And then, proceeding with the tune-up, they clean flame sensors, check electrical readings, they check the intakes and the exhausting. So in case those they take pictures, make sure the blower is not obstructed and filter yeah, Some obstructed and filter.

Sarah :

Yeah.

Carl:

Some companies may include a filter. It's hard to do that, though, just not knowing the sizes of so many filter sizes out there. And then also what's been a lot of companies have been doing, and this is what I do. It's called a combustion analysis. A lot of companies have been doing it and this is what I do. It's called a combustion analysis, so we drill a small hole in the exhaust and it'll measure carbon monoxide, oxygen, the temperature, and so with that you can get an idea of how a furnace is running internally. Wow, so that could also allow us just to see what's been going on with it. A furnace could have had issues for years. It may not have and it can still run.

Sarah :

Yeah.

Carl:

So I've had it many, many times too. An older furnace and not all old furnaces will have this. But the furnace was heating and it wasn't producing carbon monoxide in the home. But the carbon monoxide that was leaving was way over like five, six thousand parts per million. Should not be anything really over 50, but older furnaces may produce over 100, over a couple hundred. And that's relatively OK, and that's the exhaust.

Sarah :

Wow.

Carl:

So you have a furnace that's essentially could be a ticking time bomb and not know it because it's exhausting so much carbon monoxide. If there was ever you know any holes in the heat exchanger or cracks in any sort of like way that that could get out, that could be very disastrous and so that's another reason. So to to see anything in the foreseeable future but the main thing is for the reliability of the winter is to keep it going and to update you with anything that's going on.

Sarah :

Yeah, I love that. So obviously, um, I mean, I'm going to say that they need to just call you the heating and cooling pro and that way they can, you know, have you come in and, uh, you know, just kind of diagnose it. Uh, give you know the tune up, all the things I love, the additional things that you know, that you do, um to just you know all the behind the scenes stuff. It's almost like you're x-raying the, you know, the HVAC system to see anything that you're not able to see on the outside.

Carl:

So yes, that's exactly it.

Sarah :

I love that. I love that. Well, thank you so much for taking time out of your day. Like I said, I know you're super busy, probably doing a ton of tune-ups, um, but, um, I will have all of your information in the show notes so that people can get ahold of you. Um, are you on socials?

Carl:

Not, yet I do have my website, theheatingandcoolingprocom.

Sarah :

Perfect, yes, all right. So theheatingandcoolingprocom is your website, so I'm going to put a link to that and a link to the best way that you want to be contacted.

Carl:

Perfect.

Sarah :

And then, um, excuse me, and then definitely, that way, people can, you know, reach out to you and schedule your services. Awesome, all right, thank you. Well, thank you so much. I truly appreciate you coming on.

Carl:

It's a pleasure being here, thank you.

Sarah :

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for tuning in to this week's episode. Please make sure that you are rating and reviewing, because feedback is the greatest gift you can give me. Please make sure that you are sharing this with others, because that is the greatest compliment that you can give Carl and myself, and also make sure you're following this show so you never miss another episode. Thanks so much and have a great day.