The AI answer for HVAC companies is still being decided.
We asked ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Perplexity to recommend HVAC companies 90 times — six questions, five metros, every answer saved with its sources. They named 238 businesses. Openness runs 61–72 of 100 — leaders exist, but none are safe, and the gap between cities is real.
Most open first.
Phoenix is this trade's most open market at 72; Las Vegas its most settled at 61. Each city link carries the full record — every business named, for which of the six questions, and the sources cited to justify it.
The names that came back most, anywhere.
Across all 90 answers, these HVAC companies were named most often in their own market. Not a quality ranking and none are our clients — this is a record of who the assistants kept reaching for on July 26, 2026.
- Air Masters of Tampa Bay Tampa · named in 10 of 18 answers
- Goettl Air Conditioning and Plumbing Las Vegas · named in 9 of 18 answers
- Nevada Residential Services Air Conditioning & Heating Las Vegas · named in 9 of 18 answers
- Brothers Plumbing, Heating & Electric Denver · named in 8 of 18 answers
- The Comfort Authority Tampa · named in 8 of 18 answers
- The Coolest LLC Austin · named in 8 of 18 answers
- Goettl Air Conditioning & Plumbing Phoenix · named in 7 of 18 answers
- Ideal Air Conditioning and Insulation Phoenix · named in 7 of 18 answers
2 brands crossed city lines. Everyone else is local.
Of the 238 named businesses, 99% appeared in exactly one metro. The exceptions — named in three or more of the five cities — are national operations:
- Goettl Air Conditioning and Plumbing named in Austin, Las Vegas, Phoenix
- One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning named in Denver, Phoenix, Tampa
A further 1 name matched across two metros; at two, similarly named but unrelated businesses are still plausible, so we count them without naming them. The takeaway cuts both ways: national brands earn AI visibility from sheer documentation volume, but 99% of this trade's AI answer is still local — a well-evidenced local company is not fighting franchises for the recommendation.
Where the assistants got their answers.
Every recommendation carries citations, and the citations are the actionable part: they are the pages deciding who gets named. Across all five metros, the sources cited most for HVAC companies:
- consumeraffairs.com cited 52 times
- reddit.com cited 42 times
- goettl.com cited 30 times
- serviceagent.ai cited 26 times
- thecoolingco.com cited 17 times
- nrs.vegas cited 13 times
- todayshomeowner.com cited 12 times
- onehourheatandair.com cited 11 times
- homeadvisor.com cited 10 times
- mostrecommendedhvac.com cited 10 times
- angi.com cited 10 times
- bestpickreports.com cited 10 times
Directories supplied 16.6–26.9% of citations depending on the city — present, but not decisive. The rest went to businesses' own sites, local press, and forums, which is where the answer is actually won.
238 named, out of 3,394 businesses.
County Business Patterns counts 3,394 plumbing, heating, and air-conditioning contractors with paid employees across these five counties (Clark County, Hillsborough County, Denver County, Maricopa County, Travis County). The assistants named 238 — and named only 82 of those more than once. That ratio is the whole argument for caring about AI visibility: the funnel from existing to recommended is brutally narrow, and almost nobody is competing for it deliberately.
Checkable, and meant to be argued with.
The exact six questions, asked per city with the city's name in place of the bracket:
- Who is the best HVAC company in [city]? commercial
- My air conditioning stopped working in [city] and it is over 100 degrees inside. Which local HVAC company should I call? situational
- Who is the best company for a new air conditioning installation in [city]? commercial
- I was quoted $12,000 to replace my HVAC system in [city] and I want a second opinion. Which local company should I contact? situational
- Which HVAC company in [city] has the best customer reviews? commercial
- Which HVAC company in [city] offers 24-hour emergency service? commercial
Each went once to ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Perplexity with web search enabled — 90 recorded answers for this trade, in which ChatGPT named 126 businesses, Google Gemini named 101 businesses, Perplexity named 80 businesses. Names are resolved across spelling variants within each metro; cross-metro brand matching is deliberately conservative and only names a company seen in three or more cities. Assistants are non-deterministic, so this is a dated snapshot, not a standing ranking, and being named is not an endorsement — none of the businesses above are our clients. The full methodology covers the prompts, the openness formula, and what these numbers cannot support. Findings are CC BY 4.0 with attribution.
Working in this trade? What we build for HVAC companies covers the commercial side, and the free AI visibility report runs these questions against your own market.
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