L M.
05/10/2020 12:00:00 SA
PROFESSIONAL, FAST -- EXCELLENT EXPERIENCE.
My husband found them on Yelp and called them based on their good reviews -- and we also like that they're local, long-established, and family-owned. We called because our water heater had been leaking an increasing amount of water-- orig. we thought it was overflow from the pressure valve). But the night before and the morning we called, only warm/tepid water was available for bath and shower.
We called on Thursday, mid-afternoon, and Tim was at our house within the hour. Instead trying to sell us a new water heater, he suggested that might be the case -- but that we first try turning down the water temp (which was as high as it could go) and see if it stopped the flow, in which case, a cheaper solution might work. We did that -- and also put a bucket underneath the overflow valve. Next morning, water was cooler and when we saw the amount of water in the bucket, it was pretty clear we needed a new heater.
We called mid-morning -- it was Tim's DAY OFF -- and he still came by, was here in 15 minutes. We'd read online about water heaters and found their life expectancy is usually about 10 years. I purchased this property 17 years ago and know the water heater wasn't new THEN (hey, I was single, only married 5 years ago -- my husband didn't know how old it was and I had no idea 10 years is life expectancy!)
Tim had also suggested that with just 2 of us and 1 bathroom, we didn't need to replace our 50-gal heater -- 40 would be plenty. Smaller size heater is cheaper and we'd also save the cost of keeping an extra 10 gallons hot all the time. Tim had it installed in under 2 hours, took the old one away, cleaned up. BTW: the space he had to work in was very small, being stuck between the furnace and the other flat's separate water heater -- so installing it wasn't easy.
Having been single until well into middle-age, I hate being in a situation where I have to replace something right away and feel at the mercy of the repair person. Tim said that the unit he installed was the most popular of the 40-gal heaters they install, that his company likes it because it has fewer working parts and holds up well. I believe him because when you're an independent business, it doesn't make sense to sell your customers bad products -- and if you have a 1-yr guarantee on work as these guys do, doing a bad job is a lot of hassle and lost time.
Been 2 days with new heater. We have it on the LOWEST setting now (vs. the highest before) and it is scalding. So -- so far, so good!