Your first HVAC slow season: the customer list and the one reminder that fills a calendar (free template)

Published November 3, 2026 · Rules and prices checked November 2026

• Free. The customer and equipment log comes as a Google Sheets copy or an Excel file; the links come by email.
• Deepsel is our product: free estimate, invoice and scheduling software for contractors (scheduling, quotes, invoicing, card payments, customer and equipment records). One section, the one before the FAQ, says what it does and doesn't do for reminders.
• The owner quotes are from Reddit, read and checked by us. Each is one person's experience, not a survey.
• Not legal advice. The texting and email rules below are federal rules read from the regulations themselves. Your state may add its own, and a lawyer should read any consent wording before you use it.

The HVAC slow season is the stretch between heating and cooling, in spring and fall, when the weather is mild, nothing breaks and the phone goes quiet. What fills it is work you ask for. Keep a list of every customer and system you work on, send all of them one reminder before each season offering a tune-up at a real price, and call the ones who don't answer. One small residential company sends a single email at the start of October, and it "fills up the calendar for 3-5 weeks."¹

The free customer and equipment log does the bookkeeping. One row per system; it works out each customer's next reminder date from the last visit and the season, checks you're allowed to send it the way you picked, and writes the message out for you to copy. Get it two ways: make your own copy in Google Sheets or download the Excel version (.xlsx). Pick one, enter your email and I'll send the link.

Why the HVAC slow season happens

In October 2024 a one-man-and-a-van owner asked r/HVAC whether anyone else got the same fall slowdown: "Every year about this time, my phone stops ringing."¹ It's the weather. A furnace or an AC breaks when it's working hard, and on a 60-degree day neither one is working much. Nothing fails, so nobody calls. Nobody thinks about their system at all until the first cold night or the first hot week.

Homeowners' searches show the swing. Across the US, "ac repair" was searched 673,000 times in July 2026 and 165,000 times in December 2025. "Furnace repair" went from 450,000 in January 2026 down to 60,500 in June, and again in September.² Those are national numbers, so they blur the South's long cooling season into the North's long heating one. In your own town the pattern is plainer: two peaks, with a dip between them in spring and another in fall. A shop in Louisiana hits its spring dip weeks before a shop in Minnesota does.

People who've been through a few count it in hours. One reply in the same thread: "40-70 hrs March-Sept 10-30hrs Oct-Feb." Another, with a small residential company, plans for it: "it's all withdraws from now til next April. But that's what I plan for and I'm prepared." Not everyone gets there. "I went out of business from not having enough work in the fall and with the mild winters we had these last 2 years," wrote a third.¹ The original poster's takeaway, after reading the replies: "I need to put more away next summer."

Saving in the busy months is half of it. The other half is asking for the work the weather won't bring you, and that starts with a list.

What to log on every job: your HVAC customer list

Everything that fills slow weeks in this article runs on a list of people you've already worked for. An established shop has one. A new company has to start it, and the place to start is the next service call. Some new owners bring a list with them. A Connecticut tech with 12 years of side work, about to go out alone, wrote that "coming into the fall I've got about 70 oil burners I've been taking care of," then added, "but that's not going to pay the bills!"³ True: 70 visits don't make a year. At four a day they're three and a half weeks of fall work, and most new owners would take that list.

Write down the same things on every job:

Photograph every nameplate. A long serial number is easier to type in the truck than to copy on a ladder. On an install, the model and serial go on your close-out sheet anyway; the HVAC installation checklist has a section for them. A tune-up's readings belong on the report card from the HVAC tune-up checklist: copy the one that matters into the notes column.

If you sell filter changes on a schedule (rentals, small offices), the HVAC filter change log tracks each filter slot and its interval. The list here keeps only the size.

One HVAC maintenance reminder before each season

Send it two or three weeks before you want the visits, ahead of the weather. The owner whose email fills three to five weeks sends it "start of October," and by the time those visits are done, "it'll be colder and we'll have some furnace work."¹ Spring is for ACs and heat pumps; fall is for furnaces, boilers and heat pumps. A heat pump, or a furnace with central AC, gets both.

You'll have an outside voice backing you. Energy Star, the EPA's efficiency program, tells homeowners: "Contractors get busy once summer and winter come, so it's best to check the cooling system in the spring and the heating system in the fall." It even suggests they plan the visits "around the time changes in the spring and fall."⁴

One reminder a season is enough to start. A tech at a shop that runs them described the bare version: "We send 2 text/email reminders per year and it is on the customer to call and schedule."⁵ Two weeks later, call the ones who didn't answer. A reply in the fall thread put the follow-up in one line: "Outbound call to your existing customer list to offer furnace safety checks."¹

What the reminder says

Five things: who you are, the system and when you last worked on it, the tune-up and its price, how to book, and how to stop. As a text:

"Hi Maria, it's Mike with Ridge Heating & Air. I last worked on your furnace and AC in April 2026. Fall heating tune-ups are $150 a system and I'm booking them now, before the first cold week. Want a spot? Reply with a day that suits you or call (555) 555-0100. Reply STOP to opt out."

The last visit makes it a note from the person who fixed their furnace, which reads differently from an ad. The price answers the question every homeowner has after seeing $59 specials everywhere, and it filters out the customers who only want those. The STOP line tells them how to opt out, and it costs you nothing. The log writes this out for every customer, by channel and season, with their name, their system and the month you were last there filled in.

HVAC email marketing, reminder texts or postcards: what each costs

For a first list of 50 customers, a postcard round is $32.50 in postage. Email and texts cost you an evening.

HVAC reminder texts: the consent rules

Texts have the strictest rules, so here's what the FCC's telemarketing rule says, read from the regulation itself.⁹

• A tune-up reminder is telemarketing. The rule's definition is a call or message sent "for the purpose of encouraging the purchase or rental of, or investment in, property, goods, or services," and the rule covers texts.
• Marketing texts sent with an autodialer need "prior express written consent": "an agreement, in writing, bearing the signature of the person called" that names the number, says the customer agrees to marketing messages sent by automated means, and tells them that signing isn't a condition of buying anything. An electronic signature counts.
• The National Do Not Call Registry covers texts to mobile numbers. It doesn't cover a customer who bought from you in the last 18 months, or asked about your services in the last 3, unless they've told you to stop. The rule calls that an "established business relationship." After 18 months, check the registry or get their OK first.
• Every marketing call or text gives your name, the business name and a number where you can be reached. Keep a do-not-contact list: add a stop request the day it arrives, honor it within 10 business days at most, and keep it for 5 years. The rule's hours for sales calls and texts to homes are 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. their time.
• A reply of "stop," "quit," "end," "revoke," "opt out," "cancel" or "unsubscribe" ends it. You may send one confirmation, with no offer in it, within five minutes. From November 25, 2026, you can name one way to opt out, such as replying STOP, if every text says so.¹⁰

Whether a particular texting app counts as an autodialer is a question for a lawyer, and your state may have rules of its own on top. I'd skip the question. Get a signed OK on the work order while you're standing in the kitchen with the invoice (one line and a signature), then text from your phone, one customer at a time. The log's Messages tab has that line, written to the FCC's definition; have a lawyer read it before you print it. The log won't mark a text as OK to send until there's a date in the signed OK column.

Email: what CAN-SPAM asks for

An email that offers a paid tune-up is a commercial email under CAN-SPAM. It has to say it's an offer, carry "a valid physical postal address" for your business, and tell people how to opt out, and once someone asks, you have 10 business days to stop.¹¹ The subject line can't mislead. The log's email templates end with all of that in two lines. Send them one at a time or with a mail merge, never as one email with every customer in the To line. That shows everyone's address to everyone, and a free Gmail account stops at 500 recipients a day anyway.⁶

HVAC postcards

A postcard needs no consent, and it reaches the customer whose email bounced. USPS charges $0.65 to mail one at retail, for cards up to 6 by 4-1/4 inches; bigger cards pay letter postage.⁸ Print your own on card stock, or buy USPS stamped cards, which add $0.08 a card, and write them by hand. I found no small HVAC owner reporting how postcards did, so I can't give you a response rate. What owners do report is the October email above.

Price the visit like a job

A reminder fills the calendar with money only if the visit is priced as a visit. Housecall Pro's customer data for the 12 months to September 2026 puts an AC tune-up at $89 to $158 and furnace maintenance at $100 to $199.¹² Those are its own users' prices, so the sample picks itself, but they're measured. Owners on Reddit who price a tune-up as a real hour of work say $130 to $275.¹³ One explained the top of that range: "We charge $250 for a tune up and it takes a good hour because we actually test and correct things like airflow, temp rise, gas pressure, safeties etc. And if a cap is reading out of range, it's included. And so is the furnace filter."¹⁴

Put the price in the reminder. The same owner was answering a post about customers who'd paid $29 for a tune-up elsewhere and then called for a second opinion on what it found. The reply ends: "We aren't interested in the customers that want the $59 tune ups."¹⁴ A price in the message sorts those customers out before you drive anywhere. The HVAC tune-up checklist has the rest: the 21 points worth doing, the readings that make a recommendation believable, and more on what the visit costs.

What else fills slow weeks: HVAC marketing ideas that use people you know

Property managers

Rentals break in every season, and tenants call about all of it. A small company in Polk County, answering a Florida owner's question about rates: "we charge $120/hr we stay busy year round with property management companies, tenants are always bitching about their ac and heat."¹⁵ The fall thread had advice on which ones to call: "Find a privately owned property management company. They have trouble finding good reliable people. You might be going in to some not so perfect houses."¹ The log's Messages tab has a short note to send one.

Rentals in bulk

A landlord with ten units is most of a slow week in one phone call, at a lower price per visit. Asked how to price a friend's father's 35 rental houses, an owner who does this work answered: "Yeah i only do $75 if it's a $150 2 season combo and I get 10 or more packaged together. So I'll usually knock out 6-10 in a day add some capacitors filters or whatever make it 1k in my pocket. Still i really prefer regular service."¹⁶

Check the arithmetic before you copy it. Eight units at $75 is $600 for the day; the rest of the $1,000 comes from parts the units turned out to need. It works when the units sit close together and the drive between them disappears. Give each unit its own row in the log, so each keeps its model, serial and filter size, and send the landlord one reminder for all of them.

HVAC specials, and why owners distrust them

Owners split on these. The case for, from the fall thread: "Run maintenance specials. It's boring and doesn't pay great but it's better than no work and can sometimes lead to more work."¹ A reply to someone planning a maintenance-only business made the same point about tune-up work in general: "PMs are just a way to stay busy and have some income in the off seasons."¹⁷

The case against is what a cheap special tells a homeowner. A Minnesota family asked r/hvacadvice whether their mom was being scammed: her $59 tune-up had ended with a suggestion to replace a furnace that was working fine. One pro's answer: "People need to know that even a one man show with little overhead can not drive to your house for $59 and stay in businesses. Stay away from all these specials they are most likely scammers."¹⁸ That's what your customers have read before your postcard arrives. If a $59 visit has to pay for itself by finding a capacitor, the customer assumes you'll find one.

If you run a special, keep it small and keep the full visit: your normal price, a few dollars off for booking in the slow weeks, and the written report. Better still, skip the discount for people who already know you. They're the customers a special is trying to buy, and the reminder reaches them at full price.

What fills them slowly

Strangers take longer. A first-year owner with no ad budget tried door hangers: "I did a few hundred door hangers and got 2 leads that don't seem to be going anywhere in the near future."¹⁹ Keep doing the slow things if you have the hours. Send the reminder first.

When a reminder fills the calendar for weeks

Keep an eye on what each round does. For most new owners the reminder is the whole system for a while, and that's fine: the owner whose October email fills three to five weeks is describing one email a season. But when a single round books weeks of work, and the same customers book every season, the list has become worth managing on its own. That's the point to ask whether some of those customers want a plan: two visits a year at a set price, with the booking done for them. The HVAC maintenance agreement template covers what one includes, when you get there. The log's Summary tab counts what each round booked, in days and weeks of work, so you'll see it when it happens. When a round books weeks of tune-ups at once, the next job is fitting them around the no-cool calls, which is what our comparison of HVAC scheduling software is about.

The free HVAC customer and equipment log

The log has five tabs. Customers and equipment is the list itself: one row per system, with the customer's details, how they want to hear from you, the date they signed an OK to be texted and the date they asked not to be contacted, then the system type, where it is, indoor and outdoor brand, model and serial, filter size, install date, the last visit and what it was, and your notes. Grey columns do the rest. They work out the next spring and fall reminder dates and which comes first, give a status (Send now, Send in 9 days, Sent Oct 1: Booked, Upcoming, Do not contact), and check that the way you picked is allowed: no text without a signed OK, and a Do Not Call check for a call or text to someone you haven't worked for in 18 months. They also show the system's age and write the message out, with the customer's first name, the system, the month you were last there and your price.

A tune-up resets the clock for its own season only. A furnace tuned up on September 20 doesn't get a reminder on October 1; it gets next year's. A repair never counts as a tune-up, so a customer you saw for a capacitor in July still gets the fall reminder.

Messages holds the wording for texts, emails, postcards and phone calls, by season, plus the signed-OK line for your work order, replies for yes, not now and STOP, an email footer and a note to a property manager. Change the wording there and every row follows. Settings takes your business details, the spring and fall send dates (October 1 for fall, from the owner above; April 1 for spring, made up), the prices that go into the messages, and which seasons each system type gets. Summary counts who to send to today, and what this round booked in days and weeks of work. Notes explains every formula and rule. Sample rows and numbers are marked EXAMPLE or MADE-UP EXAMPLE.

To fill it in:

1. Fill in Settings: business name, your first name, phone, mailing address, the send dates for your climate, and your tune-up prices.
2. Delete the EXAMPLE rows and add every customer you've worked for, one row per system. The last visit date matters most; the rest can wait for the next visit.
3. Print the signed-OK line on your work order or invoice, and ask at every job.
4. Two or three weeks before each season, filter Status to Send now, copy each message, send it, and type the date in Reminder sent on.
5. When they answer, pick Booked, No answer or Not now. After the visit, change the last visit date and the next reminder moves on by itself.

More for new HVAC contractors

• HVAC pricing guide: what to charge for a service call, your labor rate and the first jobs, with a free rate sheet.
• HVAC tune-up checklist: the visit in order, the target readings and what to charge, with a free report card.
• Opening a supply house account: what to bring, cash or credit, and how dealer programs work, with a free checklist.
• Quoting your first system replacement: the price, the scope and what the quote must include, with a free proposal template.
• Starting an HVAC business while still employed: side work, your boss's customers, non-competes and when to go.
• Register every install: maker deadlines, your labor warranty and what a callback costs, with a free close-out sheet.
• Your HVAC license and first 30 days, by state: Colorado and Denver, Connecticut, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Virginia.

Where Deepsel fits

A spreadsheet holds a first list fine. In Deepsel, each customer record has the phone, email, billing address and service locations, with units, visits, jobs, estimates and invoices on tabs of the same record. Each unit holds its type, brand, model, serial, year, filter size, tonnage, refrigerant, where it is in the house, a nameplate photo and notes. Owners can export the customer list to a CSV file and import one from a spreadsheet. All of that is on the Free plan. What it doesn't do is this article's reminder. It sends no reminder to a customer without a plan. The seasonal booking reminder emails go only to customers with an active plan and a visit still owed, the Send Reminder button on a customer's page needs an active plan too, and both belong to the service plans module on Pro. On Pro they're email only. Texting, reminders included, is part of Max, and nothing prints postcards. There's no screen that lists customers without a plan whose system is due, no field for the date a customer signed an OK to text, and a unit has a year field rather than an install date. So keep the spreadsheet for the reminder. The Free plan covers 30 estimates and 30 invoices a month for your whole team; Pro is $29 a month for unlimited estimates and invoices. Details are on the pricing page.

Frequently asked questions

When is the HVAC slow season?

In spring and fall, between the heating and cooling seasons, when mild weather means equipment isn't working hard and doesn't break. Exactly when depends on your climate. One r/HVAC regular logs 40 to 70 hours a week from March to September and 10 to 30 from October to February. Nationally, US searches for 'ac repair' peaked at 673,000 in July 2026 and 'furnace repair' at 450,000 in January 2026, and both fall away in between.

What do HVAC companies do in the slow season?

The ones who stay busy work their customer list. They send every past customer one reminder before the season offering a tune-up at a real price, call the ones who don't answer, and look for landlords and property managers with several units. Some run maintenance specials. Many also save in the busy months: one owner calls the fall and winter 'all withdraws from now til next April.'

How often does an HVAC system need to be serviced?

Once a year per system, before the season it works hardest in. Energy Star tells homeowners to check the cooling system in the spring and the heating system in the fall. A heat pump, or a furnace with central AC, gets both visits. That's why a contractor's reminders go out twice a year.

Can I text customers a tune-up reminder?

Yes, with the right paperwork. The FCC's rules treat a text that sells a service as telemarketing. Marketing texts sent with an autodialer need prior express written consent: a signed agreement naming the number that tells the customer agreeing isn't a condition of buying. The National Do Not Call Registry doesn't apply to customers who bought from you in the last 18 months unless they tell you to stop. Every text needs your name, the business name and a number, and a STOP reply ends it. A signed OK on the work order covers you. This isn't legal advice.

What should an HVAC maintenance reminder say?

Five things: who you are, the system and when you last worked on it, the season's tune-up and its price, how to book, and how to stop. A reminder email also has to say it's an offer and carry your postal address. Example text: 'Hi Maria, it's Mike with Ridge Heating & Air. I last worked on your furnace and AC in April 2026. Fall heating tune-ups are $150 a system and I'm booking them now, before the first cold week. Want a spot? Reply with a day that suits you. Reply STOP to opt out.'

Do HVAC postcards work?

I found no small HVAC owner reporting a postcard response rate, so I won't give you one. What owners do report is email: one small residential company's single October email fills its calendar for three to five weeks. A postcard costs $0.65 in USPS postage, needs no consent and reaches customers whose email you don't have, so it's worth sending to that part of the list.

What are good HVAC marketing ideas for the slow season?

The fastest ones use people who already know you: one reminder before each season to past customers, a follow-up call, property managers, and landlords with several units priced as a block. Door hangers to strangers are slow; a first-year owner got 2 leads from a few hundred. Specials work for some owners but put you next to the $59 ads homeowners have learned to distrust.

How should I keep a list of HVAC customers and equipment?

One row per system: the customer, mobile, email, service address, how they want to hear from you and whether they signed an OK to be texted, the system type, indoor and outdoor brand, model and serial, filter size, install date, and the last visit and what it was. A spreadsheet holds a first list fine. The free log on this page works out each customer's next reminder date and writes the message.

Sources

1. r/HVAC, "The Fall rut" (October 22, 2024), posted by a one-man-and-a-van owner: "Any other small hvac business owners experience this slow down, in the Fall? I'm a one man and a van business."; "Every year about this time, my phone stops ringing." (reddit.com). Replies, same day: a small residential company, "I send out a maintenance email reminder start of October and it fills up the calendar for 3-5 weeks. By then it'll be colder and we'll have some furnace work."; "it's all withdraws from now til next April. But that's what I plan for and I'm prepared." (reddit.com); "40-70 hrs March-Sept 10-30hrs Oct-Feb."; "Tune ups are literally the only thing that give me work this time of year, try that." (reddit.com); "I went out of business from not having enough work in the fall and with the mild winters we had these last 2 years." (reddit.com); the original poster, "Seasonal PMs are all I'm doing right now, but it's slow. I need to put more away next summer." (reddit.com); "Outbound call to your existing customer list to offer furnace safety checks" (reddit.com); "Run maintenance specials. It's boring and doesn't pay great but it's better than no work and can sometimes lead to more work." (reddit.com); "Find a privately owned property management company. They have trouble finding good reliable people. You might be going in to some not so perfect houses." (reddit.com). Quotes checked November 2026.
2. Deepsel research, Google Ads monthly search volume for the US through DataForSEO, October 2025 to September 2026, pulled November 3, 2026: "ac repair" 673,000 in July 2026, 165,000 in December 2025; "furnace repair" 450,000 in January 2026, 60,500 in June and September 2026.
3. r/HVAC, "Advice" (September 25, 2025), a Connecticut tech with 12 years of side work, about to go out on his own: "coming into the fall I've got about 70 oil burners I've been taking care of but that's not going to pay the bills!" reddit.com, read in an archive copy in November 2026; the live post no longer shows the text.
4. Energy Star, "Maintenance Checklist" - "Keep your cooling and heating system at peak performance by having a contractor do annual pre-season check-ups. Contractors get busy once summer and winter come, so it's best to check the cooling system in the spring and the heating system in the fall. To remember, you might plan the check-ups around the time changes in the spring and fall." energystar.gov, read November 3, 2026.
5. r/HVAC comment (January 26, 2025) - "Maintenance contracts aren't exactly profitable the way service calls are. They are more to keep customer relationships and keep us something to do on slow days. We send 2 text/email reminders per year and it is on the customer to call and schedule." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
6. Gmail Help, "Limits for sending & getting mail" - "You may see this message if you send an email to a total of more than 500 recipients in a single email and or more than 500 emails sent in a day." support.google.com, read November 3, 2026.
7. Twilio, "SMS Pricing in United States" - long code and toll-free outbound SMS $0.0083 per message segment; "carriers apply additional per-message carrier fees automatically based on the destination network (for example, AT&T charges $0.0035 for outbound SMS, while T-Mobile charges $0.0045)"; "US A2P 10DLC are subject to registration onboarding fees." twilio.com, read November 3, 2026.
8. USPS, Price List (Notice 123), effective October 4, 2026 - First-Class Mail retail postcards $0.65; "Maximum height 4-1/4 inches and maximum length 6 inches for Retail First-Class Mail Postcards"; stamped cards, single card fee $0.08 ("Stationery fees are in addition to postage"). pe.usps.com, read November 3, 2026.
9. 47 CFR 64.1200, Delivery restrictions (eCFR, current to October 30, 2026): telemarketing "means the initiation of a telephone call or message for the purpose of encouraging the purchase or rental of, or investment in, property, goods, or services" ((f)(13)); calls that include an advertisement or constitute telemarketing using an autodialer to wireless numbers need "the prior express written consent of the called party" ((a)(2)); prior express written consent "means an agreement, in writing, bearing the signature of the person called" with a disclosure that the person "is not required to sign the agreement (directly or indirectly), or agree to enter into such an agreement as a condition of purchasing any property, goods, or services," and electronic signatures count ((f)(9)); the national do-not-call rule ((c)(2)) applies to "telemarketing calls or text messages to wireless telephone numbers" ((e)); a telephone solicitation excludes a call or message to a person with whom the caller has an established business relationship ((f)(15)), defined as a purchase or transaction "within the eighteen (18) months immediately preceding the date of the telephone call" or an inquiry within three months ((f)(5)); no telephone solicitation "before the hour of 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. (local time at the called party's location)" ((c)(1)); do-not-call requests honored within "ten (10) business days" and kept "for 5 years," and callers must give "the name of the individual caller, the name of the person or entity on whose behalf the call is being made, and a telephone number or address" ((d)(3), (d)(4), (d)(6)); revocation by "stop," "quit," "end," "revoke," "opt out," "cancel," or "unsubscribe" ((a)(10)); one confirmation text with no marketing, presumed fine within five minutes ((a)(12)). ecfr.gov, read November 3, 2026.
10. Federal Communications Commission, "Enhancing the Ability of Consumers To Control the Robocalls," 91 FR 67214 (October 26, 2026), effective November 25, 2026 - "we conclude that callers may designate any of the three methods currently described in the second sentence of § 64.1200(a)(10) of the Commission's rules as the exclusive means to make revocation requests"; text senders "can satisfy the disclosure requirement by disclosing even just one of the standardized words in each text message." federalregister.gov, read November 3, 2026 (PDF from govinfo.gov).
11. CAN-SPAM Act, 15 U.S.C. 7704(a)(3) to (a)(5): a commercial email must provide "clear and conspicuous identification that the message is an advertisement or solicitation," "clear and conspicuous notice of the opportunity ... to decline to receive further commercial electronic mail messages from the sender," and "a valid physical postal address of the sender"; sending more than "10 business days after the receipt of such request" is unlawful. govinfo.gov, read November 3, 2026. Primary purpose test: 16 CFR 316.3, ecfr.gov, read November 3, 2026.
12. Housecall Pro, "HVAC pricing guide 2026: How to price HVAC jobs accurately & profitably" (posted April 22, 2026, updated October 27, 2026) - AC tune-up $89–$158, furnace maintenance $100–$199; "The service call, repair, installation, ductwork, maintenance, and regional prices in this guide come from 3,648,131 reported HVAC service entries across 102 service categories from Housecall Pro customers over a 12-month period, ending September 2026." Its maintenance plan prices are from consumer guides, not its data, and aren't used here. housecallpro.com, read November 3, 2026.
13. Deepsel research, tune-up prices stated by US HVAC owners on Reddit, August 2024 to November 2, 2026, about 10 owners, promotional accounts removed: $130 to $275 for a tune-up priced as a full visit; $70 to $90 in bulk or as a foothold. Counted November 2, 2026.
14. r/HVAC comment (July 15, 2025), under "People using 2 HVAC companies," a thread about customers comparing a $29 tune-up's findings - "We charge $250 for a tune up and it takes a good hour because we actually test and correct things like airflow, temp rise, gas pressure, safeties etc. And if a cap is reading out of range, it's included. And so is the furnace filter. We aren't interested in the customers that want the $59 tune ups." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
15. r/ProHVACR comment (September 17, 2025), under "Hourly Labor Charge for FL" - "Small company in Polk county we charge $120/hr we stay busy year round with property management companies, tenants are always bitching about their ac and heat" reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
16. r/HVAC comment (November 26, 2025), under "What do you charge for maintenance?", where the poster planned to service a family friend's 35 rental properties - "Yeah i only do $75 if it's a $150 2 season combo and I get 10 or more packaged together. So I'll usually knock out 6-10 in a day add some capacitors filters or whatever make it 1k in my pocket. Still i really prefer regular service" reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
17. r/HVAC comment (August 25, 2025), under "PM business," a question about a maintenance-only company - "You won't make money. You might do ok if you push people to buy shit they don't need. Installs and service repairs is where the cash is at. PMs are just a way to stay busy and have some income in the off seasons." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
18. r/hvacadvice comment (October 3, 2025), under "Help, is my mom getting scammed?", a Minnesota family whose $59 tune-up ended with a suggestion to replace the furnace - "People need to know that even a one man show with little overhead can not drive to your house for $59 and stay in businesses. Stay away from all these specials they are most likely scammers." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.
19. r/ProHVACR, "In my first year as a business owner" (September 13, 2026) - "Work is slow and inconsistent. Don't have much capital to advertise with."; "I did a few hundred door hangers and got 2 leads that don't seem to be going anywhere in the near future." reddit.com, quote checked November 2026.