In this episode I get a chance to sit down with Dennis fox, owner of Fox Heating & Cooling. Dennis has been in the HVAC industry since 1985. Take a listen and hear how Dennis and his crew keep us cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Listen and follow along on Rev.com Here or play the youtube video and follow along with the text below.
Speaker 1:
Welcome to recycled Idaho, where two recycling industries veterans, Brett Ekart, Nick Snyder for Idaho businesses and organizations. They're putting in the work to keep Idaho environmentally and economically viable at the same time. Take a listen to how these entrepreneurs, business owners, and operators making things happen in the great state of Idaho.
Nick Snyder:
And this episode, I get a chance to sit down with Dennis Fox owner of Fox Heating and Cooling. Dennis has been in the HVAC industry since 1985. Take a listen and hear how Dennis and his crew keep us cool in the summer and warm in the winter. All right. Welcome everybody. It's Nick here with recycled Idaho. I got my good friend Dennis here. How are you doing Dennis?
Dennis Fox:
I'm doing awesome, Nick. How are you?
Nick Snyder:
I'm doing an awesome man. We've known each other for a while now. I've met you when you were doing a DataSite. Is that what is was called?
Dennis Fox:
It was called that DataSite? Yeah, it is what we call a colocation facility for data centers.
Nick Snyder:
Yep. Got you. Well, give our audience a quick introduction to yourself, and tell them you're Dennis Fox and go from there.
Dennis Fox:
Thanks for reminding me about that. So, Yeah. I'm Dennis Fox. I have Fox Heating and Cooling here in Boise. I got into the industry back in 1985. When I figured out that computers were coming around and they really freaked me out. I figured no matter how computerized the world got, computers going to have to stay cool. So went to school, got educated in that and popped out in 85. And it's just been awesome experience since then. So, I've been in the heating and air conditioning industry one way or the other for all of those years. And weird enough when I got out of school, I worked for a large company called Honeywell out of state. And one of the first contracts that I took care of was one of their data centers. So I've always had my foot in the realm of data centers along the way, some way one way or the other.
Dennis Fox:
And when we met, I was actually working directly for a data center. And at that point I wasn't in the industry per se directly. And that's when I started Fox Heating and Cooling. So the owner of the data center was a big entrepreneurial and fully pushing me to go, he's like "Yeah Dennis, go for it, we'll help you out, whatever." So, I was able to work weekends, evenings with Fox Heating and Cooling, and then do the data center, which has an amazing amount of cooling, right.
Nick Snyder:
Yeah.
Dennis Fox:
And the power that I was responsible for. So, still got to play quite a bit. And then as things started to show that the data center probably wouldn't make it financially, I just started to ramp up Fox Heating and Cooling. And when we unplug the data center, I just ramped up and been doing Fox full-time since then.
Nick Snyder:
So, how long is Fox heating and cooling been in business.
Dennis Fox:
What a great question, because actually this month has been my is my seventh year.
Nick Snyder:
Seventh, okay.
Dennis Fox:
Yeah as official, with the state of Idaho registered and all of that.
Speaker 1:
Gosh, it's been seven years already. I remember when you first started going into that HVAC, the more traditional HVACs stuff.
Dennis Fox:
Yes, exactly. Yep. So yeah, it's been a wild ride since then, we've grown quite a bit. We don't advertise, we just do word of mouth and referrals. So, keeping a good reputation going and-
Nick Snyder:
Yeah, that's important. No doubt about it. So, you don't find any need to advertise out there.
Dennis Fox:
Not Yet. I did advertise in Lawn magazine that I got looped into, and I was locked into a contract with them and it really didn't... I got one lead out of it, I think over the course of 18 months. And since then, bought another vehicle. I seem to get more advertising off the vehicle driving around.
Nick Snyder:
Yeah.
Dennis Fox:
So we've grown. My so oldest boy, Brandon, he's a journeyman he's with us full-time, and then we have Jerry who is a good friend of his since kindergarten, that with this whole COVID thing, he got laid off. So, he's come on and he just started school in the apprenticeship this month.
Nick Snyder:
Okay. Cool.
Dennis Fox:
And then my wife and my daughter-in-law helped out in the office and make things happen where it really counts.
Nick Snyder:
That's awesome, man. Yeah. It's good to see you guys grow. It's good to see you. I was a little worried when you told me that DataSite was closing its doors. And is that what pushed you or you were already doing both?
Dennis Fox:
Well, I was doing both.
Nick Snyder:
but really did it push you more towards like really just focusing completely.
Dennis Fox:
Oh yeah. It was a total freakout mindscrew. You don't know how it's going to work out. In the first couple months, I mean I was overwhelmed with how much work I had. And I think, okay, is everybody just being nice to Dennis week? What's going on here? And it just kept rolling and kept rolling and it's just been incredible. It's definitely stressful if I had hair, I'd pull it out. You just don't know. It's amazing to me for how long I've worked... I've worked for other contractors most of the time in management of some sort and in the field, but it's amazing how much you don't know that you don't know because running a business is completely different than turning wrenches, that's the fun stuff.
Nick Snyder:
yeah.
Dennis Fox:
But getting back and then figuring out, do we have enough work? how am I going to go to generate that work? How am going to collect the money on that work? Just the whole thing though, what I've learned over all the years is, I don't focus on the money, I don't focus on the business side of it so much, I focus on the customers, and making sure that happy. They feel like they're getting their value and we're taking care of them. And it that's the key that I've seen, I'm sure maybe one day I'll get burned pretty hard, but it's been really good for me.
Nick Snyder:
Oh, Everyone does. But the big picture is what's more important. You hit on two things that, that hits home for our company, United Metals, at least the service, that's us. We consider ourself a customer service company. We're not metal recycler. We want to have the best service if that translates to the bin service or making that phone call, making sure "Hey, are we taking care of you?" Was this ticket done correctly? There's so many parts to the service aspect, and that service is going to generate that word of mouth that you talked about.
Dennis Fox:
Yeah.
Nick Snyder:
And if you do that part right, that takes care of a lot of the advertising bill for you.
Dennis Fox:
Absolutely.
Nick Snyder:
And it will take care of you, and you also touched on being the business owner, you're responsible for finding the work. So, I don't sign the front of the checks like Brett, who helps with this podcast. Brett signs that front of the check, and he'll talk about that some of his social posts like that, there's just a lot of stress when you the signature on the front of the check, because he truly cares about all of us. So he's got all of these other responsibilities that we don't even know about, same with probably your employees or they don't know all the battles that you're fighting. And then there's just so much to that. Now you've been in business seven years, we're recently gone through hopefully the talent but who could have known it was the pandemic, how's that been for a small business like yourself?
Dennis Fox:
You know what, it's interesting because no one can plan for this who would have ever thought that something like this happening. So there's no history to go back to, to figure out what's going to happen. And so, again, like I was saying, Jerry, he got laid off during that, our apprentice, he got laid off during the COVID thing. And we were busy so I said, well, heck come help us out. I said I would love-
Nick Snyder:
What was he doing if you don't mind me asking?
Dennis Fox:
...No, no problem. He worked in the prison.
Nick Snyder:
Okay.
Dennis Fox:
He was a guard for a long time. And then he was also driving a truck, transporting people or kids for one of the local daycare. But, it's where kids go and have fun and he would drop the kids-
Nick Snyder:
Got you.
Dennis Fox:
... So, that all died off. And so we've known Jerry since he was just little kid know him personally. So I know his ethics, his family, he's comes from the right area as far as when I put them in front of my customers, I can teach them the technical side. So, he started working for us and I said, well, I can't guarantee you 40 hours. Well, he was getting overtime pretty much every week. And then the whole COVID thing for us it seems like people started doing more and more home improvements. And I think they're stuck at home, they need to have the cooling, they need to have their house comfortable. And it just has been nothing but growth for us. So, we were able to bring Jerry on. I think it's been almost six months now, maybe four to six months full time. You know, he's a full-time employee, benefits the whole bit. And so for us looking at the growth, it's been actually really, really good for us.
Nick Snyder:
That's good.
Dennis Fox:
I can't explain why, but it's been good.
Nick Snyder:
I'm friends with a few other HVAC company guys,
Dennis Fox:
What?
Nick Snyder:
I'm sorry.
Dennis Fox:
Me too.
Nick Snyder:
Full disclaimer. And they are all so busy, and granted when it's a hundred degrees out, it's supposed to be a hundred this Saturday I think, which is crazy. That's really when, you guys get going, especially on I would imagine, well, both sides residential and commercial. Right. You just get going.
Dennis Fox:
Yep. i just came off a commercial job now with no cooling. Yeah, it starts ramping up. And again, we don't do any new construction. So, there's a lot of companies with the growth in Boise, there's all kinds of new construction and we don't do any. We focus purely on retrofits, service, you existing clients. We'll do some, where people are doing a remodel, it's almost new construction-
Nick Snyder:
I get you.
Dennis Fox:
...taking buildings down to the stubs, but I don't want to get wrapped around the axle in the construction market.
Nick Snyder:
That's not what you're going for basically.
Dennis Fox:
No, I don't get to talk with customers. So, I'm talking with contractors.
Nick Snyder:
Yeah. I got you. So, all those new houses and all that, I'm sure there's contracts for certain HVAC companies just go in there and put all those units in.
Dennis Fox:
Yep How fast and how cheap can you get it done?
Nick Snyder:
Exactly, there's probably not a whole lot of money in that-
Dennis Fox:
And a lot of stress.
Nick Snyder:
... Because it's so competitive. Yeah. Going back to the data centers, explain to everyone what that is. What purpose do those serve?
Dennis Fox:
So it's interesting when I mentioned what is called colo or colocation. There's a lots of different types of data centers. So ones that you like HP would own, or people own their own data centers and occupied them. But then there's lots of need where I noticed when I walked in here, you got a room down the hall with a bunch of servers in it, and it's on probably the same air conditioning system, or maybe you have a dedicated one, but it's stressful because the businesses have to make sure that their servers are going to run, and they need to stay cool and they need clean, reliable power. So what do you do if you're growing and you have a business that really relies on that? Well, there's data centers that are called colocation facilities. And it's like a building downtown, a multi-tenant building, one big building with lots of different in it, a colocation is just that it's a single data center with lots of tenants.
Dennis Fox:
So, other people bring their own equipment in, businesses will bring their own equipment in and from a single rack, to cages with racks of servers in them and the colocation facility makes sure that along with other things, but the power does never goes off and is clean and reliable. The cooling is directed and make sure that your equipment's going to be cool. And there's lots of different changes in that industry. As far as the density of servers, they're getting smaller and smaller, but they still put out the same if not more heat. So trying to deal with that. And then the security is crazy physical security, as far as letting people in, or videotaping, stuff like that. But then the intellectual security, as far as the networks. So, and then the physical building itself, making sure that it's ready, so the customers can come in, they go through a rigorous security every single time, they can get to their equipment work on it.
Dennis Fox:
And, but they don't have to think about the infrastructure. They focus on geeking out, that's how I say it.
Nick Snyder:
Yeah.
Dennis Fox:
And so I don't geek out, but I understand what they're needing to do, and I understand what their equipment needs to maintain. It's a booming industry. Everybody says, Oh, well, but it's in the cloud. Why do I need a server rack somewhere? Well, the cloud is a server rack somewhere, and what I used to explain to people is, if you think of the cloud, a data center or a colocation facility is the sky. There's lots of clouds in that sky. So, all these servers are running and you may not know it, but when you hop on Google or wherever you're looking to the cloud, you're going to some data center somewhere and the servers are sitting there.
Nick Snyder:
So it's not just in a magical cloud. Is that what you're saying.
Dennis Fox:
It's exactly what I'm saying.
Nick Snyder:
Mind blown. So I've had the luxury of walking that site with you. The floor is one of the coolest things to me, how the floors are. I want to call it a false floor almost-
Dennis Fox:
Yeah, a raised floor.
Nick Snyder:
... Raised floor. So that are they pumping air through that floor?
Dennis Fox:
Exactly. Yes. We introduce our conditioned air into the floor space in that particular facility. And when I say conditioned, that it needs to be cooled obviously, but humidity is a big kicker too. So here we are in Idaho, which is a desert, very dry. So we would humidify the heck out of that air-
Nick Snyder:
Okay.
Dennis Fox:
... to make sure that you don't get static electricity on all that equipment.
Nick Snyder:
Oh, okay.
Dennis Fox:
So, we're conditioning. It, each piece of equipment was able to cool it, heated humidify or dehumidify if needed, and all that air goes down in the floor. And then we're able to direct that air right up in front of the servers and cool them and take care of it that way.
Nick Snyder:
Did he have to switch out the power on a lot of those? Often, is that on a protocol where you do it X amount of months?
Dennis Fox:
No, not the power so much at a data center. Everything's redundant. So, and again, it's up to the owners of the servers to make sure that they're powered prep correctly, but we would always supply two separate sources of power from two separate what we call a PDU, power distribution unit that came from UPS's so uninterruptible power supplies. So if one of those systems were to crash and go down, we're still supplying full power to their equipment from a whole other source.
Nick Snyder:
So, basically like a backup, if the power goes out, boom, you got it backup.
Dennis Fox:
Yep. And if, if Idaho power were to blow their lines apart, we had generators that would instantaneously come on. Our UPS's would maintain power while the generators are coming on triggered and then everything would come up and go. And so that's pretty common, lots of different aspects of how to deliver those things on the power. And on the cooling was completely redundant too. I could lose half of my facility as far as the power capacity or the cooling capacity. And I still had enough capacity to take care of the building at full load. So the amount of infrastructure in a data center is phenomenal.
Nick Snyder:
Oh yeah. the amount of working through that decommissioning of that one, and they tore all the floor out even we helped with all that. So we really got to see, and you guys helped decommission all those UPS's and all that in there too.
Dennis Fox:
All those batteries
Nick Snyder:
All those batteries, just the amount from that spot, it blew my mind, even though we supplied some scrap bins throughout the years. The amount of scrap that came out of there, the amount of copper, just to get that thing running was way more than I ever expected.
Dennis Fox:
Yeah. It's amazing.
Nick Snyder:
So on the residential, on the commercial, on the more traditional HVAC stuff, is there any new challenges that are coming up, any new inventions coming up changing the industry?
Dennis Fox:
Yeah, it's interesting with the department of energy last year, it was actually last July, there was a new ruling that came in. So, for residential equipment, even commercial equipment, but specifically they've increased the efficiency or the requirements of the efficiency on the electric motors. So, for years we'd have what's called a PSE or permanent split capacitor motor. That was the go-to for shoot, probably a hundred years maybe, I don't know when they started coming out, but okay, now we're going to an ECM, which is electronically commutated motor. That's a high efficiency motor, and so every furnace now, if you were to go have a furnace put in your house, it's going to have an ECM motor in it.
Nick Snyder:
Okay.
Dennis Fox:
You may not even know it. So, the technology, as far as that goes, even in the lowest efficiency system has changed. And you need to take that to the higher efficiency systems like we do quite a bit of, and the outdoor units have variable frequency drives on them. Everything is variable speed, so our condenser fan motors are our compressors. All of that. I did a video yesterday, actually, just on that. I don't know, maybe you're sitting at home in your backyard and you hear your neighbor's air conditioner come on, or yours is sitting there and it's like, God, this thing is so stinking loud. You know, I'm able to stand by mine with it in between you and I, and I can talk this low and you'd still hear me. I mean, it's ridiculous.
Nick Snyder:
So, they're just incredibly quiet.
Dennis Fox:
Incredibly quiet which is, again, people think of comfort, you're thinking of heating or cooling, gosh, it's cold or hot in here. And well, that's one thing but sound is another way of comfort, so they've really, really reduced the levels of sound on the newer equipment. And then the power consumption, we're able to do the same amount of cooling, or the same amount of heating depending what you're doing and use so much less energy. So yes, the technology has changed, which is just driving my industry, it's not so much turning wrenches anymore, as far as using meters or using your computer. I get an email overnight and I hop on my computer and I can go into my customer's system and see if it's working right. And so we try to give that level of service, where I'm hoping I can respond to a problem with the customer before they even know they have a problem.
Nick Snyder:
Yeah. That's pretty awesome. So you can jump on your computer and see your customers and see their equipment.
Dennis Fox:
Yeah, Depending on the type of equipment that we've put in, we sell Carrier equipment and with their infinity line, I'm able to have complete access, not a security breach, right. I know all about that, but I have access to their system that they don't even have as far as the back side of it.
Nick Snyder:
Because it's hooked up to their Wi-Fi.
Dennis Fox:
Yep, to the Wi-Fi, and I can see how the equipment's running. I can see pressures, temperatures.
Nick Snyder:
I didn't know that existed. That's pretty awesome. So, you could be like "Hey, your air conditioner might be going out, I need to come service it."
Dennis Fox:
Exactly. And we got a problem, or the newest ones out, I can walk up with my phone. And when I get into range, Bluetooth range of the outdoor unit, I can start reading pressures, temperatures, fault codes. So yeah, it's definitely changing our industry, is no longer an old meter we used to call the wiggy, it would shake in your hand to see if he had power, but isn't going to do it anymore, or when we used to call is the air conditioner working, is it beer can cold. You'd hold the line. And if it's cold, like a beer can, yep it's running great. That's not the way to do it anymore. So it's interesting. And you guys have played a big role for me.
Dennis Fox:
I bring all my scrap here, anytime I have a piece of equipment, we bring it here, make sure it's reclaimed, right. We want to get the refrigerant out of there.
Nick Snyder:
Yeah absolutely.
Dennis Fox:
And that's changed a lot too. The R22, which is the older refrigerant, a lot of companies put the fear of God and people saying, Oh, you got R22, you got to change that piece of equipment. You know, you can't do that, but I can still go buy our 22 today, a brand new can of it. And I keep it on my truck.
Nick Snyder:
Yeah. So, that R22 at one point was worth a good amount of money. You reclaimed it, you could sell it.
Dennis Fox:
Yeah. you can't sell it. You got to re recycle it. There's certain recyclers in the nation that take it back.
Nick Snyder:
But they would pay you wouldn't they in the past?
Dennis Fox:
Yeah. Some would, they still will if you have a larger amount, but right now I pay to get rid of it. if I take a 50 pounder to one of my supply houses, there's usually a fee involved.
Nick Snyder:
So you have to pay to dispose of that?
Dennis Fox:
Yeah.
Nick Snyder:
So there's that cost. And you probably build that into your service. Right?
Dennis Fox:
Yeah.
Nick Snyder:
I don't know anything about that side, but I always found it interesting that the R22, at one point I know, it was worth some money, then they made some synthetic. They made a new type to replace it, but that didn't really take off.
Dennis Fox:
No, there, there are, there's, there's several different manufacturers out there that do that, where to collect a drop in replacement. So,if I have a system that is completely flat, let's say it's a R22 system and it had a leak in it. And so I walk up and there's no pressure. It's all gone so I can repair that leak. And then when I put the refrigerant back in, I don't have to put what we call Virgin our 22 back in, it's pretty expensive. I can put... One of them is called a Nu-22, N-U-2-2. And it's a drop-in replacement. I don't need to change the oil in the system or anything with the metering devices. I can just drop it in. And it runs and it's a lot less expensive.
Nick Snyder:
And Does it run just as well?
Dennis Fox:
I think it loses just a tiny bit of efficiency, but not enough to affect the capacity of it. It's definitely worth the money saved for that, most people wouldn't even notice it. I would see it on my gauges, in my temperatures, but in the home you, you wouldn't know, or in the facility.
Nick Snyder:
So are you guys busier when it's 120 degrees or when it's negative 20 degrees?
Dennis Fox:
Wow. It feels more busy when it's hot, and the reason being is you're running hard, you're sweating, as soon as you get a system running and it's starting to cool off you leave. And the other thing too is customers, I don't care if it's commercial or residential, when their systems are down in the summertime, they get really cranky and people's tempers rise, people get upset, they'll still appreciate it when you're done and you're getting going, but even the initial phone call coming through you can tell they're stressed, they're pissed off.
Nick Snyder:
They want it done right then and there.
Dennis Fox:
Yeah. You need to have good customer skills in the winter time. They're upset a little bit, but they're way more appreciative. It seems they're very thankful that they get heat. They realize it's needed, their demeanor is different in the winter versus the summer. And so it feels way more hectic to me in the summertime.
Nick Snyder:
Do you think it's cause they can maybe bundle up a little bit, they could bundle, they can get through it a little bit rather than when it's hot, it just could be almost like unbearable to even sleep.
Dennis Fox:
Exactly. We have what we call our comfort club, which is our maintenance plan. We give discounts on repairs, we do priority scheduling, we do maintenances throughout the year for an easy fee. We do it at our cost. Actually, we've dropped it way down just to get customers in there. But when we're scheduling in the winter and in the summer, we always take the very personal approach. If it's an older couple, or depending on age. So, if they're older or if they're younger, they have young kids or animals that, need that heating or the cooling, we try to respond to those requests first, because there are times, especially in the winter when it gets too cold, some of us can bundle up, but the older folks have a hard time. And so we try to make sure they're taken care of a hundred percent.
Nick Snyder:
To Take priority sometimes.
Dennis Fox:
And that's absolutely.
Nick Snyder:
That makes sense.
Dennis Fox:
It's part of what we ask, what is the needs.
Nick Snyder:
So when you're going in there to maybe hook up a new air conditioner or furnace, and you try to upgrade them to that the systems that can inform you of a problem. I'm sure that equipment costs more. But a) it could save them, most importantly, anything going out.
Dennis Fox:
Exactly.
Nick Snyder:
- B) it save them money monthly. You got to pay a little more upfront, but in the long-term do you think that equipment will save them money from things going down?
Dennis Fox:
It will definitely save them money. It won't necessarily pay for itself. It'll take a long time for it to pay for itself. Because again, we're in awesome Idaho. We have great utility rates, we have low cost on gas and on power. So when we're upgrading and people are going for the nice systems, they're not necessarily going, what's our ROI, when are we going to get it paid back? Well, they're looking for more, what's the best thing that I can put in my house? How am I going to be the most comfortable? And what do I have for peace of mind, where I don't have to worry about it. You're going to take care of it, Dennis. What is that? And so a lot of people don't realize in homes and in businesses, depending on the type of business, the heating and air conditioning system is the most expensive system in that facility, bar a new roof, probably about the same level of a new roof-
Nick Snyder:
Yeah. I never though it in that way.
Dennis Fox:
... or if you have a plumbing system that needs to be completely replaced, then you're going to be in there. And it's a mechanical system that runs that you rely on that works as hard off in the hottest part of the year, and then the coldest part of the year. So, there's no maintenance that needs to be done and all of that. But when we're upgrading and talking about the nicer equipment, if you look at people in the cars that they buy, generally, you may get a pickup truck, right? So ,are you going to go for the bottom line pickup truck? Most of the time, they're in the mid to the uppers, depending on where you are at.
Nick Snyder:
Because they want the luxury, they want to be comfortable.
Dennis Fox:
So I try to give customers their options, even though I know they may not want that super high efficient system, because it's so expensive, but I like to at least let them know, Hey, these are options. And this is as much pressure as you're going to get from me. I'll help educate you on what might be best for you and your needs, but I'm not going to try to twist your arm to sell something that I want you to buy. I want to make sure that you're getting... I'll direct them. So, it's a pretty unique situation. I don't like being pressured, right? When I'm buying things, I like to get educated. And then maybe give me your opinion on what you think. And if I trust you, I'll take that opinion into my into my decision-making. And that's how I try to approach it.
Dennis Fox:
And another one that I always thought of is I envisioned a guy who just went and bought a Corvette, right? And it's like, Oh, this is cool, I wanted one of these forever, I finally get my Corvette. He Pulls up to the traffic light stops and here comes another Corvette right next to him. So, he reaches over and he rolls down the passenger window and he looks over and says, Hey, how are you doing man.
Nick Snyder:
Must be an old Corvette.
Dennis Fox:
And the other guy, the other guy pushes a button and his window comes down. It's like, I didn't even know that was a reality. I guess I am old because I'm referring to that. People don't know that used to have to crank the window.
Nick Snyder:
Oh, I remember. Yeah. That's how all the cars growing up... That's all we had.
Dennis Fox:
Yeah. And if the guy didn't know that there was that option. Well, God, I would have liked to have that. How come I didn't know about that? Well, my guy thought maybe I couldn't afford it or didn't really want it. So, if I can tell people about everything that's available, at least you know, you may not want to get it, but hey, right on.
Nick Snyder:
Well, that's to your level of service, you got to let them know, and then you build trust, and you build trust just by telling the truth. It's that simple. As I grow older, man, I just learn if you just tell the truth, it's going to do some good.
Dennis Fox:
Your life would be a lot easier.
Nick Snyder:
So, just say "Hey, we offer this and this, I would go with this and this is why." Not just so you can make an extra 20 bucks, because once they learn about that, then they won't call you again, then you don't get that word of mouth.
Dennis Fox:
Exactly. You just lost a lot more than 20 bucks.
Nick Snyder:
Exactly. It's a long game. It's always been a long game for me on a personal level and in all our brands. That's how our philosophy and our culture is, and the culture is so important. And we love how your culture is. I've always loved dealing with you.
Dennis Fox:
Cool.
Nick Snyder:
You're a green Bay fan, but I've learned to accept it. [crosstalk 00:30:12] , I'm a Seattle fan over here, was that golden Tate? Remember that Golden Tate catch in the end zone.
Dennis Fox:
Yeah. That was awesome.
Nick Snyder:
Was it a touchdown or interception?
Dennis Fox:
I don't know. I'm going to plead the fifth on that. I think it was a touchdown, it was a touch down.
Nick Snyder:
I'll take it.
Dennis Fox:
I know, but I'm fair. I think it's sports.
Nick Snyder:
I was not expecting that answer. Well, hopefully we get to watch some football this year.
Dennis Fox:
I know. I'm not going to go down that political aspect, but yeah, I've got [crosstalk 00:30:47].
Nick Snyder:
Oh no. That's not what this show is for.
Dennis Fox:
Okay, good.
Nick Snyder:
We're here to talk about recycling. And I think we've talked about that. We talked about your industry. One more question for you.
Dennis Fox:
Yeah.
Nick Snyder:
Have you had any really weird requests that stand out or a job that really stands out that you'd like to share?
Dennis Fox:
A weird request? Now you putting me on the spot?
Nick Snyder:
No one's asked you to like put an air conditioner in their dog house, or anything of that nature?
Dennis Fox:
No, not necessarily. For whatever reason this one's coming to my mind. I have a customer might be even one of your customers, in our area it's dry, right. So humidity and he wanted, this may not sound so weird to you, but it's weird for industry. He wanted me to be able to humidify his home during the summertime and while we're cooling. Where typically it's the last thing that you want to do? We dehumidify, well, we don't, but nationwide you dehumidify. And so it was interesting trying to find a manufacturer, actually, with the controls that would allow that to happen. I did a lot of research, only able to find one manufacturer that would allow that type of control. And so we made it work. I had upsize his air conditioner to be able to handle that extra humidity during the summertime and then have that humidifier function during the summertime too.
Nick Snyder:
Well, you made it happen.
Dennis Fox:
We made it happen. Yep. And he's still a customer.
Nick Snyder:
I love it. How does everyone find you? How do they get ahold of Fox Heating and Cooling?
Dennis Fox:
What we want to do is they can go to our website, which is Foxhvacpro.com, or this is horrible. I just know my, my cell phone.
Nick Snyder:
It's fine.
Dennis Fox:
It's 208-412-4943.
Nick Snyder:
Most business owners would not give out their cell phones. So, that's the level of service you're providing.
Dennis Fox:
Yeah. Well, we're trying to get them to call the office. but it's my ignorance that I don't know the office number.
Nick Snyder:
Oh, No, we'll put it, we'll put it up for you.
Dennis Fox:
Okay.
Nick Snyder:
We'll find it.
Dennis Fox:
Cool. So yeah, I just know my cell phone, but yeah. And whenever someone's not in the office, it rolls to my cell phone anyway.
Nick Snyder:
Got you.
Dennis Fox:
That's what it's about.
Nick Snyder:
Well, thank you for your time.
Dennis Fox:
Right on. Thank you.
Nick Snyder:
Cool.
Speaker 1:
Listening to another episode of recycled. And as we continue the journey across this great state, we look forward to bringing you more stories of people and organizations putting in the work to do the right thing.