What HVAC Services Does Shavitz Heating and Air Conditioning Offer in Northbrook, 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 Northbrook. We’ve served the North Shore since 1904, and unlike the lakefront villages closer to Chicago, most of what we see here is set on larger, more open lots. 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 a specific cause rather than a dead compressor. Our air conditioning technicians identify that cause first, fix what can be fixed, and when a unit is undersized or worn out, we’ll say so plainly and handle the replacement.
Homes around Village Green Park and the downtown River Walk tend to be some of Northbrook’s oldest, and cooling systems in that part of the village are more likely to be working around additions or updated floor plans than the newer construction further out.
Furnace Repair & Installation
Uneven heat, short cycling, or a furnace that won’t fire almost always traces back to one specific part: an igniter, a flame sensor, a pressure switch. Our furnace technicians find that part before recommending anything bigger, and when the furnace itself needs replacing, we size the new one for the house it’s heating.
The established blocks around Wood Oaks Green Park went up during Northbrook’s biggest wave of postwar suburban growth, and a lot of the furnaces in that generation of homes have already been through at least one replacement, sometimes without anyone rechecking whether the sizing still matched the house.
Boiler & Radiator Heat Service
Boiler heat shows up less often in Northbrook than it does in the older lakefront villages nearby, but it’s far from rare, particularly in the village’s original pockets. Our technicians handle boiler repairs, radiator work, and full system replacements with the same care whether it’s a routine call or a full rebuild.
Techny, annexed by Northbrook in 1989 but home to the Divine Word Missionaries’ headquarters since 1896, is one of the few parts of the village that predates the postwar building boom, and homes in that area are more likely than most in Northbrook to still be running some form of original hydronic heat.
Heat Pump Installation & Repair
A heat pump handles heating and cooling from one system, which is the appeal, though whether it can carry a Northbrook 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 will lay out honestly whether a standard unit covers the house alone or needs a furnace behind it for the coldest weeks.
Homeowners renovating near Meadowhill Aquatic Center are increasingly adding heat pumps as part of larger remodels, particularly where insulation and windows are already being upgraded in the same project.
Geothermal Heat Pump Services
Lower operating costs are the long-term payoff of a geothermal heat pump system, and the loop field it needs is realistic here more often than in most of the towns we serve, since Northbrook’s lots tend to be larger and flatter than the wooded, ravine-cut, or tightly packed lots common closer to the lake.
The properties near Heritage Oaks Golf Club are a good example of the kind of open, level ground that makes geothermal worth evaluating seriously rather than ruling out from the start. Our technicians will still confirm the specifics of your lot before recommending it.
Mini Split & Ductless Systems
Extending ductwork into an addition or a finished space isn’t always worth the cost or disruption, especially in a home where the layout has changed more than once over the years. A ductless system handles that kind of space directly, without depending on the rest of the house’s ductwork.
Additions and converted rooms near Crestwood Park are common candidates for this, particularly in homes where a bonus room or finished basement was added well after the original construction and never tied into central air.
Indoor Air Quality Services
We start by looking at what your home’s existing indoor air quality equipment is already handling before recommending a new filter, purifier, or ventilation component. Sometimes the fix is a simple repair or filter swap; other times it takes equipment built specifically for what’s in the air.
Homes near Somme Woods and the restored prairie and savanna land on Northbrook’s west side deal with more seasonal pollen than properties elsewhere in the village, and the right IAQ fix depends on whether that’s the actual driver of a complaint or whether dust and pet dander are doing more of the work.
Zone Control System Installation
A house where one floor runs warm and another stays cool, regardless of the thermostat setting, usually points to a zoning problem rather than a system that’s too small. Installing a zone control system adds dampers and independent thermostats so each part of the home holds its own setting, and we handle repairs on existing zoned systems too.
The larger homes near Glenbrook North High School often have additions, finished lower levels, or wings that were never part of the home’s original heating plan, and zoning is usually a more direct fix than resizing the whole system.
Water Heater Repair & Replacement
A water heater typically gives some warning before it fails outright: slower recovery, inconsistent temperature, or a new noise it didn’t make before. We fix what’s fixable, and when it’s time to replace instead, we’ll lay out whether a like-for-like swap or a switch to tankless makes more sense for your household.
Larger households near Stonegate Park routinely push a standard tank system harder than a comparable smaller home elsewhere in the village, which is usually when tankless starts to make more financial sense than another tank.
Commercial HVAC Services
Northbrook Court and the businesses around it depend on reliable heating and cooling as much as any of the village’s homes do. We install, replace, and maintain commercial services equipment for that kind of building on a schedule built around a business’s actual operating hours rather than a routine service queue.
Downtime during a busy shopping weekend costs a retailer more than most owners plan for, so commercial calls get prioritized rather than worked in whenever the schedule allows.
HVAC Maintenance Plans
A maintenance visit involves a lot more than a fresh filter. Electrical connections get tested, refrigerant charge and airflow get measured against spec, and the technician is specifically looking for the wear that turns into a real repair, or an early replacement, if nobody catches it for another season. Shavitz maintenance plans include two visits a year, plus discounts and priority scheduling.
Northbrook runs on a pretty literal seasonal calendar, between the Ed Rudolph Velodrome’s summer race nights and the Chicago Curling Club’s winter bonspiels, and it’s not a bad way to think about HVAC either: spring is for cooling checks, fall is for heating checks, and neither should wait until the season’s already underway.
Why Northbrook Homeowners Choose Shavitz Heating and Air Conditioning
Working on a furnace in a postwar subdivision one call and a boiler in one of Techny’s older homes 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. Nearly 2,900 Google reviews at a 5.0-star average is the kind of number that only holds up when four generations of a family keep showing up and doing the work right.
Northbrook HVAC Questions, Answered
Do I need a permit for HVAC work in Northbrook?
Yes. The Village of Northbrook requires a permit for furnace and AC condenser replacement, water heater replacement, and new HVAC installations, including geothermal systems specifically. The Village also has detailed placement requirements for outdoor condensing units, like clearance around electrical disconnects and where a relocated unit can go. We handle that paperwork and site planning as part of installation jobs.
Is geothermal realistic for a home in Northbrook?
More often than in most of the towns we serve, yes. Northbrook’s lots tend to be larger and flatter than the ravine-cut or lakefront-constrained properties common elsewhere on the North Shore, which is exactly what a geothermal loop field needs. It’s still worth confirming for your specific property, but it isn’t the long shot here that it is in a lot of neighboring villages.
My home is in Techny. Is HVAC service any different there than in the rest of Northbrook?
Mostly it comes down to age. Techny predates most of Northbrook’s postwar development, so homes there are somewhat more likely to have original hydronic heat or ductwork that hasn’t been updated to match a renovated floor plan. The service itself isn’t different, but we go in expecting an older system rather than assuming a standard postwar setup.
My AC in Northbrook needed a second repair this summer. Is it worth fixing again or time to replace it?
Repair cost relative to replacement cost is the deciding factor, not age by itself. If a repair costs less than half of what a new system would, and the equipment hasn’t failed repeatedly, it’s usually still worth fixing. Past that point, or with a system already in its second decade, replacement tends to save money over the next few years. We’ll walk through the actual numbers for your system rather than default to either answer.
What’s the most common reason a Northbrook home has hot and cold spots between floors?
An addition, finished basement, or converted room that was never accounted for when the original system was sized. It’s common in homes that have been updated more than once over the decades, and it shows up as one part of the house never quite matching what the thermostat says everywhere else. Zoning the existing system is usually a more direct fix than replacing the whole thing.
Do you service commercial HVAC for businesses near Northbrook Court, not just homes?
Yes. Retail and office HVAC work differently from a residential system, both in scale and in how much a shutdown costs the business, and we handle installs, repairs, and maintenance contracts for that kind of building on a schedule built around when the business is open.
What makes Shavitz Heating and Air Conditioning a good fit for a village with Northbrook’s mix of older and newer construction?
We’re not guessing at either end of it. A hundred-plus years in this business means we’ve serviced Techny’s older hydronic systems and Northbrook’s postwar forced-air subdivisions for decades, not picked either one up recently to round out the service area.
Schedule HVAC Service in Northbrook
Whether it’s a furnace in a postwar subdivision near Wood Oaks Green Park or a boiler in one of Techny’s older homes, 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.