Sarah Carlisle (Arctic Mechanical)

Sarah Carlisle is the owner of Arctic Mechanical, an HVAC company serving the Twin Cities. 

As a child, Carlisle grew up in Fort Ripley, a quaint town just south of Brainerd that one might miss when they drive on Highway 10 if they don’t have a map. 

“There is a bar, a gas station, and a baseball field, and that’s it,” Carlisle says of her hometown, which 2023 census data indicates contained only 83 residents. 

After high school, Carlisle left the remote tranquility of Fort Ripley and moved to Chicago to study biology, but soon into her time in the Windy City, she realized that working exclusively in healthcare wasn’t for her. 

“I wanted to pursue a career in medicine, but the school and the area of study was not for me,” she admits. 

“And now here I am owning an HVAC business. There was a right turn in there somewhere,” she adds with a laugh. 

When Carlisle left Chicago, she was struggling, devoid of purpose after her preconceived life trajectory was upended.  

“That’s what I call my teenage crisis,” she says sardonically. 

“The life that I thought I was going to one day have fell apart when I was seventeen, so I needed a reset.”

In search of answers, or perhaps in an attempt to evade finding them, Carlisle jetted off to Africa shortly after 9/11 in order to teach English. 

Her time abroad could be characterized as nothing short of transformative, but Carlisle had no ambitions of being a globetrotter, and she later returned to Minnesota to finish her education at the U of M in the Twin Cities. 

“I told my advisor that I wanted to use what credits I already have and study something that would let me graduate as soon as possible,” she recalls, which led to her entering the sociology program. 

After graduation, Carlisle spent the next decade working with adults who suffered from mental illnesses and developmental disabilities. 

“I loved the healthcare and social work aspect of the job,” she notes, but when her employer was bought out, the work environment changed, so she transitioned to a hospital to continue serving others. 

During this time, she also met her husband, who owned a modest HVAC company called Arctic Mechanical. 

By 2017, the couple had kids, and Arctic Mechanical was thriving, to the point that the HVAC enterprise needed to assemble a team in order to further prosper. 

By then, Carlisle had already been assisting her husband when she could, but notes how “that was before I had kids and actually knew what free time was.”

To accommodate the evolution of Arctic Mechanical, Carlisle left her day job and started working full-time at the HVAC company.

“I was a nice support mechanism behind the scenes,” she says, but the reality is that Carlisle quickly established herself as a bona fide business owner who possessed the requisite gumption to make Arctic Mechanical a real player in the Twin Cities market. 

So much so that in 2021, after consulting with her husband, it was agreed that she would assume ownership and he would remain involved in the installation side of the business, where he excelled. 

From afar, the change in command could have been interpreted as an organization in flux, but Carlisle and her husband simply knew what needed to happen for both them and the business to elevate. 

“I’m someone who when faced with a problem that I don’t know the answer to, I’m going to figure it out,” she emphasizes, nary a trace of self-aggrandizement in her voice. 

“In hindsight, I developed these types of leadership skills through all my years in social work, where I was constantly inundated with problems that didn’t have easy solutions, but I was motivated to try to solve the issue anyway.”

In the last several years, Arctic Mechanical has become a staple of the Twin Cities HVAC market, servicing residential and commercial clients who are in need of a new AC or furnace system. 

“Our bread and butter is replacing the 25-year-old furnace that needs to go,” says Carlisle, whose business has accumulated a perfect 5.0 rating on Google (based on over 300 reviews).

Their rise can be attributed to the predictable metrics like quality workmanship and exemplary customer service, but Arctic Mechanical also spends their own money to give their clients additional warranties on parts and labor, neither of which are covered by manufacturers. 

“That’s how confident we are in our techs and the products they install,” Carlisle insists. 

As far as price is concerned, Arctic Mechanical is very fair.

On most 2,000-3,000 square-foot homes, they charge anywhere between $4,500-$6,000 for a new AC or furnace unit. 

For bigger homes that may elect to add modulators to their new units, the price creeps closer toward the $10,000 range. 

But it’s never just been about the money with Carlisle and Arctic Mechanical. 

Yes, they install great products at fair price points, but they have more so garnered praise for their commitment to their clientele.

For example, Carlisle recently encountered a woman who was denigrated by another HVAC contractor due to her messy home (the litany of debris would have prevented a tech from being able to efficiently swap out her furnace).  

“The previous HVAC contractor who came out wasn’t very nice to this particular woman, and basically blew her off because they didn’t want to deal with the situation,” Carlisle explains. 

“Yes, her situation was complex, but I eventually personally went out to the home to move things around and facilitate everything because she needed help, but more importantly, I wanted to show her that I cared about her and her home.”

Adds Carlisle: 

“It’s very easy for an HVAC company to talk about how they have great customer service, but sometimes those are empty words, and so if there’s ever an opportunity for me to go above and beyond and actually embody what we preach, I’m more than willing to do that.”

Looking ahead, Carlisle and Arctic Mechanical are aiming to secure more contracts in the commercial HVAC space.

At present, roughly 30% of their jobs are in the commercial space, and the other 70% of their work is residential. 

“Every year our commercial side seems to grow a little bit because of the relationships we have developed with remodeling contractors,” Carlisle says. 

“We have phenomenal technicians who love to be challenged, and so they, along with me, are excited about the prospect of doing more commercial jobs in the future, plus continuing to have a positive impact on the Twin Cities community.” QS

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