What HVAC Services Does Shavitz Heating and Air Conditioning Offer in Glencoe, IL?
Shavitz Heating and Air Conditioning installs, repairs, and maintains furnaces, boilers, air conditioners, heat pumps, ductless systems, and indoor air quality equipment for homes throughout Glencoe. We’ve served the North Shore since 1904, and our Carrier-certified technicians are used to working around wooded, sloped lots as often as flat ones. Call 847-861-5559 or request service online to schedule service.
Family-Owned & Operated Since 1904 | Carrier Factory Authorized Dealer & President’s Award Winner | NATE-Certified Technicians | 5.0★ Average Across 2,900+ Google Reviews
Air Conditioning Repair & Installation
A system that won’t stop running, warm air where cold should be, or a unit that won’t start at all points to something specific rather than a dead compressor. Our air conditioning technicians track down the actual cause first, repair whatever’s fixable, and when a system is undersized or worn out, we’ll say so and handle the replacement properly.
Homes in the Ravine Bluffs Subdivision and other wooded, sloped parts of Glencoe hold onto humidity differently than open, flat lots do, which changes how a system should be sized and how often it needs attention through a Chicago summer.
Furnace Repair & Installation
A furnace that heats unevenly, short-cycles, or won’t fire at all usually comes down to one failing part: an igniter, a flame sensor, a pressure switch. Our furnace technicians find that part first, and when the furnace itself needs replacing rather than a component, we size the new one for the home it’s heating.
Some of Glencoe’s oldest homes date to the years right around 1913, when Frank Lloyd Wright’s Sherman Booth Cottage was built near what’s now the intersection of Franklin, Meadow, and Maple Hill Roads, and houses from that era often still run furnaces that were never resized as the home changed hands over the decades.
Boiler & Radiator Heat Service
Quiet, even heat is why plenty of Glencoe’s older estate homes have stuck with radiator heat instead of switching to forced air. Our technicians handle boiler repairs, radiator work, and full replacements on systems like these regularly, treating it as a specialty rather than an occasional call.
The larger homes near Sheridan Road and North Shore Congregation Israel tend to be old enough to have started with hydronic heat, and understanding how those original systems were laid out matters before recommending any upgrade.
Heat Pump Installation & Repair
Getting heating and cooling out of one piece of equipment is the appeal of a heat pump, though whether it can carry a Glencoe home through a full Chicago winter depends on the equipment and how well the house holds heat. Our technicians install, repair, and maintain heat pump systems and won’t oversell what a standard unit can do on its own versus what needs a furnace backing it up on the coldest weeks.
Homeowners renovating near Glencoe Beach and Lakefront Park are increasingly adding heat pumps as part of larger remodels, particularly where insulation and windows are already being updated in the same project.
Geothermal Heat Pump Services
Lower operating costs are the long-term payoff of a geothermal heat pump system, but the loop field it needs takes open ground that a lot of Glencoe’s wooded, ravine-cut lots simply don’t have to spare.
The flatter, more open lots near Glencoe Golf Club are a better starting point for evaluating geothermal than the sloped, tree-covered properties closer to the ravines. Our technicians will tell you plainly whether your specific lot has the room before you spend money finding out otherwise.
Mini Split & Ductless Systems
Running new ductwork through a home built on a slope or wedged between mature trees is a different job than doing it on a flat, open lot, and it’s not always possible without real disruption to the house. A ductless system sidesteps that, cooling or heating an addition, a converted space, or a single room without depending on the home’s existing ductwork.
This comes up often in Glencoe’s ravine-adjacent properties, where additions and finished lower levels built into the slope frequently have no practical way to extend central ductwork to reach them.
Indoor Air Quality Services
Before recommending a new filter, purifier, or ventilation component, we look at what your home’s existing indoor air quality equipment is already handling and where it’s coming up short. Sometimes that’s a repair or a filter change; other times it means equipment built for what’s circulating through the house.
Homes near the wooded edge of the Chicago Botanic Garden deal with more seasonal pollen and humidity than properties closer to downtown, and the right IAQ fix depends on whether that’s the real driver or whether dust and ventilation are the bigger factors.
Zone Control System Installation
A house where the upstairs runs warm and the lower level stays cool, no matter the thermostat setting, usually points to a zoning problem rather than a system that’s too small. A zone control system fixes that by adding dampers and separate thermostats so each area of the home holds its own setting, and we also handle repairs on zoning setups that are already in place.
The larger estate homes near the Skokie Lagoons on Glencoe’s western edge often have additions, finished lower levels, or wings that were never part of the home’s original heating plan, and zoning is usually a cleaner fix than resizing the whole system.
Water Heater Repair & Replacement
Slower recovery between uses, water that doesn’t quite reach the right temperature, or a new noise from the tank are the usual warning signs before a water heater fails outright. We repair what’s fixable, and when replacement is the better call, we’ll go over whether a like-for-like swap or a switch to tankless fits your household.
Larger households near downtown Glencoe routinely push a standard tank system harder than a comparable home elsewhere in the village, which is usually when tankless starts to make more financial sense than another tank.
Commercial HVAC Services
Downtown Glencoe’s Vernon Avenue business district, along with cultural anchors like Writers Theatre, depends on reliable heating and cooling as much as any office park does. Our commercial services team handles installs, replacements, and maintenance contracts built around a business’s actual hours, not a routine service queue.
A broken system during a sold-out evening performance or a busy Saturday downtown costs a small business more than most owners plan for, so commercial calls get prioritized rather than worked in whenever there’s an opening.
HVAC Maintenance Plans
A maintenance visit isn’t just a filter swap. Our technicians check electrical connections, confirm refrigerant charge and airflow against spec, and flag the kind of wear that turns into a real repair, or an early replacement, if it’s ignored for another season. Shavitz maintenance plans include two visits a year, plus discounts and priority scheduling.
Spring cooling checks matter most for the ravine-adjacent homes dealing with wooded, humid microclimates, while a fall visit is what catches issues in the village’s older hydronic systems before the first hard freeze.
Why Glencoe Homeowners Choose Shavitz Heating and Air Conditioning
Working on a Frank Lloyd Wright-era home’s original radiators one call and a newly renovated lakefront property’s heat pump the next is a normal week for us. Bronson Shavitz, the current owner, represents the fourth generation of his family to run this company since 1904.
That history comes with credentials to match: Carrier Factory Authorized Dealer status, the Carrier President’s Award, and NATE-certified technicians. Four generations of the same family running this company is a big part of why the 5.0-star average across nearly 2,900 Google reviews holds up.
Glencoe HVAC Questions, Answered
Do I need a permit for HVAC work in Glencoe?
In most cases, yes. The Village of Glencoe enforces its adopted building codes, including HVAC work, through a contracted inspection service, and equipment replacement typically falls under that review. Because the specifics can depend on the scope of the job, it’s worth confirming with the Village directly, and we can walk you through what your particular project will need before work starts.
Does building on a ravine lot in Glencoe make HVAC installation more complicated?
Sometimes, mainly around equipment placement and drainage. A condenser or heat pump unit needs a level, well-drained spot, which isn’t always straightforward on a sloped lot, and ductwork routing in a home built into a hillside can require more planning than a flat-lot install. None of this rules equipment out, it just means the site work matters more than it would on level ground.
Is a century-old boiler in a Glencoe home like the ones built during Frank Lloyd Wright’s time here still worth repairing?
Usually, yes, especially if the radiators and piping are in decent shape. Boilers from that era were built to last, and most issues that show up in a system this old are fixable without a full replacement. Full replacement tends to come down to efficiency and long-term cost rather than the equipment simply wearing out.
Is geothermal realistic on a typical Glencoe lot?
It depends heavily on the terrain, more so than in most North Shore towns. The loop field needs open, relatively flat ground, which rules out a lot of Glencoe’s wooded and ravine-cut properties before lot size even becomes the deciding factor. The flatter parcels near Glencoe Golf Club are a better place to start that conversation than a heavily wooded lot closer to the ravines.
What’s the most common HVAC issue in Glencoe’s older architect-designed homes specifically?
Systems that were sized for a floor plan the house doesn’t have anymore. A lot of these homes have had additions, renovated lower levels, or reconfigured rooms added over the decades without anyone going back to check whether the original system could still handle the space. That mismatch usually shows up as hot and cold spots or a system that runs constantly without quite keeping up.
Do you work on homes that are protected as village landmarks?
Yes. We treat the historic character of a landmarked home as something to work around, not through, which usually means favoring equipment and routing that doesn’t require altering original plaster, trim, or exterior sightlines. If your project needs Village sign-off for exterior changes, we’ll factor that into the plan from the start rather than after the fact.
What makes Shavitz Heating and Air Conditioning a good fit for a village with this much historic architecture?
A lot of HVAC companies treat an older, architect-designed home as a special case that needs extra time and extra cost. We don’t, because we’ve been doing this kind of work in towns like Glencoe for four generations. It’s not the exception for us, it’s most of what we do.
Schedule HVAC Service in Glencoe
Whether it’s a radiator system in a century-old home near the ravines or a heat pump installed last year near Glencoe Beach, Shavitz Heating and Air Conditioning handles what’s in front of us. Call 847-861-5559 or request service online to schedule your appointment today.