[elawler24]

My dad bought a failing HVAC business 30+ years ago, then made it profitable over the years and sold it back to his employees last year. He had the option to take a few highly lucrative PE deals, but it was clear they would squeeze the life out of the employees and customers he had worked hard to support over many years. I can’t imagine how low quality this kind of trade work will become if PE owns them all. It will be similar to vet, dentist, and dermatology clinics which now feel like factories that don’t care about the humans on the other end - often employing fear tactics and sales quotas to incentivize upsells.

[heymijo]

> often employing fear tactics and sales quotas to incentivize upsells

This already happens. The most common AC repair needed is a new capacitor. It's a $20 part.

Call your dad's business, you probably get a quote for $100-ish and it's fixed in ten minutes.

Call a PE owned shop and they are likely to tell you that your entire system needs replaced. Quote $5-$8k.

Reports like this are already common place, and the roll-ups of former small-businesses in industry like HVAC that the PE people celebrate will only make this worse for customers.

[Modified3019]

Incidentally, most repairs to an HVAC system are quite self serviceable.

The channel https://www.youtube.com/@WordofAdviceTV/videos has saved me a lot of money.

On a complete tangent on the topic of “home maintenance you should know”, hot water tanks should be purged yearly (to get rid of the debris collecting on the bottom), and have a sacrificial anode rod to stop corrosion and should be replaced every ~3 years (magnesium) or ~5 years (aluminum)

[metaphor]

Some of the things I've personally encountered are attempts to service refrigerant without first weighing tank, and a claim that R-22 systems can no longer be serviced due to EPA refrigerant ban; I suspect these are very common grifts.

Still worse, a brazen attempt to service an older R-22 system with R-410A, which would have completely destroyed a heat pump that I ended up getting an additional 5 years of serviceable life out of (after dismissing that clown on the spot).

Other ridiculous mistakes I've had to deal with are incorrect wiring of air handler emergency heat source during initial installation that prevented system from cooling; and on that same heat pump system less than a year later, discovering an improperly secured lug within exterior disconnect box that eventually created enough heat to fry ~6 inches of insulation before failing open and killing power to compressor (in retrospect, city inspector not only should have caught this, but should have required the contractor to replace the disconnect box altogether to remain in compliance with prevailing residential building code).

The grift has gotten so bad over the years that a few friends---a professional ME and electrician---have gone out of their way to earn § 608 tech certs[1] to legally purchase refrigerant and have sufficiently tooled themselves up to handle common failure modes.

[1] https://www.epa.gov/section608/section-608-technician-certif...

[bluedevil2k]

Try $250 for a capacitor here in Texas - they know you can’t afford to take a few days to shop around due to the heat. What I’ve found works over the years: get the phone number of a few HVAC guys as you encounter them and offer them $50 to come when you need them. They’ll never pull the “you should cal l my employer” because most are contractors who need to buy their own equipment.

[avgDev]

I've had people come out and look at my furnace because it wasn't turning on properly.

They looked at it for 5 minutes, told me it's too old and needs to be replaced.

It needed a $5 sensor which I replaced myself after doing some basic testing. There are so many grifters in the trades. It is so hard someone honest, that is going to show up on time and do the job.

I almost want to start or buy a construction business.

[nradov]

Could someone ELI5 why AC capacitors are so fragile? I had one fail last year on a unit that was just out of warranty.

[dopylitty]

I'm glad you mention dentists/vets. I make it a point to verify local businesses aren't PE owned before I will use them.

Of course one of the problems with PE is they hoover up _all_ the businesses in an area so you don't have a choice.

There really needs to be regulation in this area preventing a single beneficial entity/controlling entity from buying/owning more than a few percent of a certain type of business in an area.

[dboreham]

Our vet graduated before I was born, and I'm really old. He still charges 1978 prices. Hoping he hangs on until our last batch of cats goes on to coyote heaven.

[chubot]

Hm what’s the best way to look up the owner of a business? I share this viewpoint on dentists and doctors

[semiquaver]

Just curious, how do you verify this?

[lasr_velocirptr]

I have thinking about doing this for a while. How does one go about verifying whether a business is PE owned or not?

[wellthisisgreat]

How do you find out who owns the business?

Literally what kind of question would you ask on the phone?

[Retric]

There’s a PE cycle in several industries because economies of scales don’t help nearly as much as a skilled workforce. So PE companies can’t maintain customer service while maximizing profit and customers move to new small business which grows until owner wants out, and repeat.

I find it fascinating which industries are vulnerable and which aren’t. PE has been more successful with morticians because they can more effectively own an area and people only deal with so many funerals. Vets on the other hand seem to be easily taken over despite regular visits and skilled workers, presumably regulatory bodies play a major role? No really sure.

[hyeonwho4]

The model of PE in dentistry / veterinary clinics is to buy out all the private clinics in a region, then gradually raise prices. Small businesses would pop up, but the training horizon for new dentists / vets is quite long.

It isn't really about economies of scale so much as using local monopolies to set prices. They have a good moat because regulatory bodies have not regulated monopolies for 30 years, and professional organizations limit entry to each field.

[bayouborne]

Highly efficient Mini-split heatpumps are becoming simpler for the moderately technical homeowner to install everyday. 5-6 years ago installation typically involved a vacuum pump, a gauge set, sometimes a flaring tool to re-dress factory terminated line fittings, etc. Fairly inexpensive new 4th gen Mini-split heatpumps are drop-shipped from Amazon, have pre-evacuated line-sets that just bolt up to the inside head and pre-charged outside compressor units. I wonder how wide availability of these relatively cheap units are going to impact the bullish picture described in the WSJ article.

[jongjong]

In a way, our current system has similar kinds of incentives as Communism. The core incentive is to avoid suffering. There is no upside, only downside protection.

The secondary incentive is usually to sabotage every aspect of the work that the boss isn't paying attention to because 'hidden dirt' is the only way for an employee to gain leverage over their employer.

Unlike in communism, labor is not associated with any higher social ideals. There is literally zero reason for anyone to do things right.

This is why we have enshitification. The system needs goodwill in order to function well. Without goodwill, we get piles upon piles of hidden dirt which accumulate. We end up with products and experiences which seem great superficially, but only so long as you don't do anything unexpected like peeking under the carpet.

[namaria]

American capitalism really worked way better when it had a geopolitical competitor. Funny how that works.