As an organization, Mountain Air Conditioning and Heating is a newcomer to the HVAC business along the Wasatch Front, but the people who work here have been your friends and neighbors since 1954. Vance and Lori Rhead founded Mountain Air after over 28 years of service at Barlow Comfort Systems in Ogden, Utah, where they took the reins from a man whose name was synonymous with quality and value, Roger Barlow.

Roger Barlow founds Barlow Wasatch Furnace Company in 1954

You could say that Lori Barlow Rhead was born into the Heating and Air Conditioning business. As she grew up, she watched her father Roger Barlow establish Barlow as a prominent name in heating and air conditioning in the Ogden area. Lori even drove a Barlow truck around in high school to promote the company. She was always recognizable as a Barlow girl! The company was also commonly called Barlow Comfort Systems, Barlow Heating & Air Conditioning, or just the Barlow Company.

Vance and Lori Rhead own and operate Barlow Heating and Air Conditioning
In 1980 Lori's husband Vance joined Barlow Company, beginning as an installer's apprentice and then working in sales and management. Lori, too, left her career as a buyer at Nordstrom in 1989 to work with her husband and father at the Barlow Company. In June of 1993, Vance and Lori decided to buy Barlow Company from Roger, and in 1998, they sold Barlow to Lennox Industries. Later, Lennox acquired Service Experts, so Barlow became Barlow Service Experts. Vance remained on board as the General Manager until Fall of 2008.

Decision to Start Fresh

As business slowly became taken over by corporate culture, Vance and Lori began to long for a return to the personal touch and responsible customer service they had grown used to in their many years at Barlow. It was time for a return to the standards of excellence and quality that were established back in 1954 by Roger Barlow. It was time for a breath of fresh Mountain Air! Envisioning a new locally-owned business which would hearken back to an era of personalized customer service, Vance and Lori drew on their expertise of running a successful HVAC business in today's market and created Mountain Air Conditioning and Heating. It was an extremely difficult decision for both of them. Barlow had always been a part of Lori's life, and Vance had been working there for 29 years. As far as they were concerned, though, they only knew how to do business one way - by putting customers and employees first.