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W.F. Smith is a family-owned heating and cooling company that serves Huntingdon Valley, PA. We install, fix, and take care of heating and cooling for the spread-out homes across Lower Moreland Township. Our shop has been on State Road in Northeast Philadelphia since 1946.
Our office tells you the visit fee before we come out, and estimates for new systems are free. Our work covers air conditioners, gas furnaces, heat pumps, ductless systems, ducts, and indoor air quality. We do not work on boilers, water heaters, oil systems, or steam systems.
Most of our regular systems use Lennox, and most of our ductless systems use Mitsubishi Electric. Our technicians also work on other big brands found on these streets.
The land itself shapes the work here more than in most places we cover. The Pennypack Creek runs through a valley here, and the homes sit on ground above it, built into slopes on lots large enough that no two homes face the same direction. Almost all of it is single-family homes, built from the second half of the twentieth century onward. How steep the ground is matters more to a system here than how big the home is.
A hillside home heats up unevenly, since one side takes the afternoon sun while the opposite wall sits against the earth. We fix, replace, install, and take care of central air conditioners across Huntingdon Valley. A technician finds the problem and tells you the price before any work starts. Common calls are warm air at the vents, a frozen coil, a leak in a long refrigerant line, and an outdoor unit that will not start.
When we replace a system, we measure each side of the home separately instead of using one number for the whole house. Rooms on the sunny side and rooms against the hillside need different amounts of cooling, and one average number hides that difference.
The coldest morning at your home is not always the coldest morning on the weather report. Air that cools near the ground runs downhill overnight, so the low streets sit colder than the ridge streets on a still night. A system picked for the typical coldest weather in this area can come up short on exactly those mornings.
On the heating side, we handle gas furnace repairs, new installs, replacements, and yearly check-ups. Most no-heat calls come from a problem starting the flame, a broken flame sensor, a bad thermostat, or a filter so dirty it trips a safety switch.
We do not work on boilers, steam systems, or oil heating. A home heated by one of those can still have its air conditioning designed and installed by us.
Lot size is the advantage here. There is room to put an outdoor unit where it runs well and stays out of sight, which is rarely true closer to the city. Today’s heat pumps still work well even when it is well below freezing outside.
The valley makes the switch-over point worth thinking about carefully. A system that pairs a heat pump with a gas furnace switches over based on the temperature outside, and that reading should come from your own home, not just the general area.
The ground matters too. An outdoor unit set on built-up fill needs the ground packed down well first, or it will settle and the unit will run unevenly.
Rooms built into the slope are the ones ductless systems solve best. A walk-out lower level, a den dug into the hillside, or a sunroom facing the valley all have heating and cooling needs the original plan never fully covered. The outdoor unit connects to the indoor unit through a small hole in the wall, so no duct gets stretched and nothing upstairs needs rebalancing. Mitsubishi Electric is the brand we install most for ductless systems.
An indoor unit also provides heat, which works well for a lower level on the cold side of the home. Rebates from the equipment makers and the Electrical Association of Philadelphia often apply, and payment plans are available for some jobs.
The first hard freeze reaches the bottom of the valley before it reaches the top of the ridge, so no-heat calls from those low streets tend to come in a night earlier than everywhere else. W.F. Smith offers after-hours help for emergencies. We do not run regular service around the clock.
Our office answers calls Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Outside those hours, an answering service reaches the technician on call, who calls you back to ask what the system is doing.
Saturday and evening visits cost more. Sundays and holidays cost even more than that. You hear that price before a technician is sent out. Let the dispatcher know if your driveway is long or steep, since that changes what a technician brings at night.
The largest part of the area, almost entirely single-family homes, on large lots with real changes in the ground's height.
Wooded, sloped land beside a large park, where shade, falling leaves, and access all affect outdoor equipment.
Older buildings low in the valley, where damp air and cold air pooling are at their strongest.
Addresses that say Huntingdon Valley but get their permits from a different township office.
The corners reaching into Upper Southampton and Lower Southampton, across a county line as well as a township one.
Fox Chase, Bustleton, and Somerton sit right next to this area, a short drive from our shop.
W.F. Smith has worked in Montgomery County homes since 1946, and the Smith family still owns the company and works in the office. Our five owners have more than 140 years of work experience between them. Our main technicians have worked here for over 20 years each on average. We hold Pennsylvania Home Improvement Contractor license PA003700 and have been accredited by the BBB since 1991.
On a Huntingdon Valley job, that long history shows up as knowing what the ground will do over time. We have reset outdoor units that had settled out of level, run refrigerant lines across sloped ground without trapping oil inside them, and added heating and cooling to lower levels that sit half underground against a hillside. Parts on repair work come with a one-year warranty, and new equipment is registered for its full warranty from the maker.