The truck still says Garrison. Now it's the daughters driving it.
Heating and air conditioning repair, replacement and tune-ups for Cleveland, Chattanooga, and the rest of Bradley and Hamilton counties. Same family answering the phone since 1986.
After hours, the number above rings a real person on call. No answering service, no "someone will get back to you Monday."
What we work on
If it heats, cools or moves air through your house, it's on this list. Not seeing your problem? Call anyway. Dale's seen most things twice.
AC repair and replacement
Diagnosis, refrigerant work, capacitors, compressors, coils. When a unit's worth fixing we fix it. When it isn't, we'll show you the math before we talk about a new one.
Heat pumps
Most new systems around here are heat pumps, and they handle a Tennessee winter fine when sized right. We install, service and set up dual-fuel if you've got gas.
Rebate paperwork handledFurnace repair
Gas and electric. Ignitors, flame sensors, blower motors, limit switches, cracked heat exchangers. We carry a combustion analyzer on every truck and use it.
Seasonal tune-ups
Spring for cooling, fall for heat. A tune-up is cheap. A compressor in August is not. The checklist is further down the page so you can see exactly what you're paying for.
Duct cleaning and sealing
If your returns are pulling from a crawlspace, no filter on earth is going to help. We camera the runs, seal what leaks, and clean what's actually dirty.
Indoor air quality
Whole-house dehumidifiers for that July soup, media filters, UV lights where they make sense. We'll tell you plainly when a gadget won't earn its keep.
Is this an emergency?
Flip the switches that match what's going on at your house. We'll tell you whether to call the after-hours line right now or book a regular visit and save the overtime charge.
Right now, at your place:
Nothing flipped yet
Flip a switch and the answer shows up here. If none of these apply, a regular visit is almost always the right call, and it's cheaper.
Book a regular visitWhat a tune-up actually covers
This is the slip we leave on your kitchen counter, with the checks we do for each season. A tune-up is $89, or included twice a year with the Comfort Club.
- Refrigerant pressures and superheat/subcool checked against the data plate
- Outdoor coil rinsed, cottonwood fluff and grass clippings cleared
- Capacitor tested under load, replaced if weak
- Contactor inspected for pitting
- Compressor and fan motor amp draw recorded
- Condensate drain flushed, float switch tested
- Evaporator coil inspected for ice, grime and biological growth
- Blower wheel and motor checked, belt if applicable
- Thermostat calibration and cooling cycle timed
- Supply and return temperature split measured
- Electrical connections tightened, wire insulation checked
- Filter replaced (bring-your-own or ours at cost)
- Heat exchanger inspected for cracks and rust-through
- Combustion analysis: CO, O2 and flue temperature logged
- Burners cleaned and flame pattern checked
- Ignitor and flame sensor cleaned and tested
- Gas pressure set to manufacturer spec
- Flue and draft inducer checked for blockage and leaks
- High-limit and rollout switches tested
- Heat pump defrost cycle and reversing valve verified
- Auxiliary heat strips amp tested
- Blower motor, wheel and capacitor checked
- Thermostat heating cycle and staging verified
- Carbon monoxide reading taken at the registers
SEER2, and when to stop fixing the old one
Two questions we get on nearly every call. Here's how we answer them at the kitchen table, minus the sales pitch.
SEER2 in plain words
SEER2 is a miles-per-gallon number for air conditioners and heat pumps. It measures how much cooling you get for each unit of electricity over a whole season. Higher is cheaper to run. The "2" just means the test was updated in 2023 to better reflect real ductwork, so a 14.3 SEER2 is roughly what a 15 SEER used to be.
What we recommend most: a 16 to 17 SEER2 two-stage system. Above that, the extra cost takes a long time to pay back unless you're running the AC nine months a year or the power company's running a rebate.
Repair or replace? Our rules of thumb
- The 5,000 rule
Multiply the unit's age by the repair quote. Over about $5,000, replacement usually makes more sense. A 12-year-old unit with a $600 repair is $7,200: lean replace. A 6-year-old with a $400 repair is $2,400: fix it.
- Age 12 to 15
Most units around here live 12 to 15 years. Our humidity and the pollen are hard on coils. Past 15, every repair is borrowed time, and we'll say so.
- R-22 refrigerant
If your unit uses R-22 (made before about 2010), the refrigerant is no longer produced and a leak repair can cost more than it's worth. We'll check the data plate for you.
- Second big repair
One compressor or coil we'll fix. Two major failures in two years means the rest of the system is wearing out too.
- Comfort problems
Rooms that never get cool, short cycling, high humidity indoors. A new unit sized and ducted right fixes things a repair can't.
These are rules of thumb from forty years of doing this, not promises. Every house is different. We'll give you a written repair quote and a written replacement quote, and you decide. No commission, no pressure.
The Comfort Club
Our maintenance plan. Pays for itself with the two tune-ups, and the priority scheduling is the part people thank us for in July.
- Two seasonal tune-ups a year, spring and fall, scheduled by us so you don't have to remember
- Front of the line when it's 98 degrees and everybody's calling
- No overtime or after-hours charge on emergency calls, ever
- 15% off repairs and parts
- Filter reminders by text, with filters delivered at our cost if you want them
- Repair credits: $100 a year toward a new system, banked up to five years
- Transfers to the next owner if you sell the house
Cancel any time by phone. No contract, no cancellation fee. If we miss a tune-up, that month is free.
per system. Second system on the same house $9/month.
Who shows up
One of these three, or one of our two techs who've been with us over a decade. You'll never get a stranger in a rented van.
Dale Garrison started this company in 1986 with one used Ford Econoline and a phone that rang in the kitchen. His daughters grew up riding along on summer calls, which is a nicer way of saying they got put to work. Leanne came on full time in 2009 and took over running the business in 2021. Casey joined in 2014 and runs the install crew. Dale still comes out on the hard diagnostic calls, mostly because nobody can stop him.
Dale Garrison
Founder, master technician
40 years on gas furnaces and the person we call when a system's doing something it shouldn't be able to do.
Leanne Garrison
Owner, service lead
Runs the schedule, writes the quotes, and still takes Tuesday and Thursday service calls. EPA Universal, NATE certified.
Casey Garrison
Install and ductwork lead
Sizes systems with a real Manual J load calculation, not a rule of thumb per square foot. Crawlspaces don't bother her.
Request a visit
For regular service, fill this in and Leanne will call or text to confirm a window, usually within the hour during business hours. For emergencies, skip the form and call.
- Office
- Mon to Fri, 7:30am to 5pm. Saturdays 8 to noon, March through October.
- After hours
- Same number. Rings the on-call tech directly.
- service@garrisonhvac.co
- Shop
- 2210 Keith St NW, Cleveland, TN 37311
- We cover
- Cleveland, Chattanooga, Ooltewah, Collegedale, Charleston, McDonald, Harrison, Hixson, East Ridge, Apison, and most of Bradley and Hamilton counties. Call about anywhere else.
Got it. We'll be in touch shortly.
If anything changes before you hear from us, call (423) 555-0163 and mention the request number.