Wahl Family Heating, Cooling & Plumbing

We have been Wahl customers for more than 25 years.  We purchased our current home 9 months ago.  The furnace was inspected before purchase and found in good working order.  A Wahl technician just did a tune-up and reported our furnace as having a cracked heat exchanger and deemed it unsafe.  He then quoted us repair or replacement prices of between $2400 and $11,000 depending on options.  When he was informed that we had a home warranty contract from the home purchase he attempted to down play the option of just replacing the heat exchanger and had me sign a letter that he had informed me of the high levels of carbon monoxide my system was putting out.
A few days later another heating company did the home warranty check on the furnace and found no carbon monoxide emission outside of normal operation.  I have since installed a carbon monoxide detector that reports the CO levels in parts per million in the house and it has been registering zero CO levels since installation.
Déjà vu . . . . A year after moving into our last home another Wahl technician told us the heat exchanger in the 8 year old furnace was cracked and dangerous.  They convinced us to replace the furnace because they could get such a good deal from the manufacture warranty on the heat exchanger.  It still cost us thousands of dollars.

I don't believe in coincidence and I think I have been burned enough!

Water heater pooped out. Called Wahl to fix the issue. They came same day, and said we needed a new unit. Everything else after that was a total up charge that included An unneeded power vent heater and rerouting and new venting through the basement. After receiving their quote with no labor and equipment breakdown (only breakdown was same day service vs next week and the amounts if we chose to finance) we had a $5,000 quote in hand. Technician was also trying to up-sale my husband on other things that aren't problems.

Thankfully, my husband is fairly handy so after some investigation he was able to prove their recommendations as wrong and replace the water heater himself for less than $600.

Justin K was our technician for our furnace checkup.  He was prompt, explained everything very carefully to me and performed all of the work quickly and efficiently.  We have a preventative maintenance agreement for our dual furnaces and the checkup they perform is very thorough.

Nick provides great customer service and offered me several options for preventative maintenance. Extremely thorough and friendly service.

First of all I was not aware that this business works on commission. The plumber who came to our home told me we had multiple gas leaks in the line connecting to our hot water tank. Then I was quoted a price of 1900 dollars to fix this. I was told this was dangerous and was made to sign a waver when I declined the fix. I then called another plumber and had it checked out and was told there was no leak. I called and spoke to Wahl about this. The woman there was indignant and said the stand behind their staff and only hire the best. I was told this matter would be brought to the attention of the senior plumbing manager and they would get back to me. Of course they never called me back. Bad business!

I called Wahl to connect my washer and dryer to the water lines in my newly constructed home. These were previously installed in my prior residence and I was afraid to connect them myself since the laundry room is on the second floor. He guaranteed that if I paid for the $399 burst free pipes that and leak would be guaranteed. Total cost, just short of $500. The plumber had to come back a second time because he had to go purchase the parts needed.  Well it leaked less than 2 months later, damaged the laundry room floor and the kitchen ceiling and kitchen floor. At first they said there was a gray area because the leak was a result of reusing the old Y connector but the plumber said they would take responsibility for the repairs because They stand by their work. I don't feel there is a gray area and neither does my insurance company. I never asked him to reuse the Y connector and the gasket that failed was in the burst free pipe. He had to reuse it because he forgot to buy one. He also counted the number of pipes needed wrong and had to reuse one of the old pipes as well! They got people here to dry everything fast but to schedule the repairs have been like pulling teeth. They told me I had to pick out a floor from Home Depot so we don't have out of pocket costs. I want the floor that it was because it is in other places in the home and my home is brand new! The floor I want is cheap too, under $200, so I don't think I am being unreasonable. They also are failing to acknowledge that the kitchen ceiling and the kitchen floor both need fixed. Some customer service! I have filed an official complaint with the BBB and am prepared to take them to court for the repairs if needed. The leak was the cause of improper installation of the plumber and improper examination of the pipes with the plumber clearly admitted to.  Don't use this company, they say they will do something and do not follow through.

Service Technician Brad inspected and serviced our HVAC system on 10/10/18 through a referral from Home Depot. The service and technician were absolutely fantastic. He was extremely polite and quite knowledgeable about the system explaining the various options of recommended services and upgrades. The necessary repairs and upgrades were made without any type of high pressure sales pitch and a full written report submitted upon completion of his work. I would highly recommend him and his company.

We used Wahl family for a plumbing emergency! They came out within hours! Tyler was our technician. He was very thorough and honest about his evaluation upon arrival. We ended up having our problem fixed the same day! We will definitely be Wahl customers in the future!

Wouldn't you know it, when the winter finally set in my furnace went kerplooey (it's a technical term, look it up) and needed replaced. Called Sears and a few other companies, Including Wahl, who were the first to call back with an estimate and sent a tech right away. Sears never returned my call, if that's any indication of their business practices. The first thing the tech did was bring a few space heaters into the house to take the chill off and then restarted the furnace, saw that it was belching carbon monoxide into my basement, then red tagged it.

Let me reiterate, when I first made the call I was quoted a price for a new unit, 120,000 BTUs, at X amount of dollars. When the tech sat down with me to pick a new unit he was quoting prices three and four thousand MORE than I was quoted over the phone.

When I told him what their secretary quoted me, he made a call and suddenly we were in the original price I was quoted. That afternoon my new furnace was being installed.

What's the lesson of this story? You're still the consumer, don't give into higher costs, even if it's a dire situation.

Patrick Z. provided wonderful customer service.  He was extremely knowledgeable of the heating/cooling field and provided great insight to the setup present at my house.  He displayed great consideration of my home through the use of booties covering his shoes every time he entered/exited the inside of the house.  Lastly, Patrick Z. promptly arrived when at the scheduled time and provided efficient service on my AC unit.  I would recommend Patrick Z. to anyone that has any heating/cooling service needs.

Additionally, I would like to give a recommendation to Wahl Heating & Cooling in general.  The customer service I received over the phone when initially contacting them was top notch.  Further, I received a call ahead of the service technician s arrival to my house to make me aware that he was en route.  Overall, the experience with Wahl was great and would recommend them to anyone.

AVOID AT ALL COSTS! I'm doing you a favor by telling you to not even waste your time with Wahl. We called a them to come look at our 4 year old furnace that was installed by them. I was getting an error code and it wouldn't kick on. I took it a part on my own and saw that the water sensor wire wasn't making a connection. I figured it's under warranty so I'll call them to fix or replace the wiring. After an hour, the technician said he was going to have to replace the whole wiring harness. It would be around $800 plus the $109 service call. I thought ok no big deal all parts are covered under the warranty. He said there is not a warranty. I said why? The whole unit is only 4 years old and Rheem gives a 10 year warranty on parts. He said since we bought the house and weren't the original owners of the furnace that it was no longer covered. WHAT? The warranty covers the unit, not the owners. So we looked over the warranty and sure enough it covers the UNIT and furthermore we looked online and it said on Rheem's website that our warranty was still active. He then said he could replace the whole furnace and buy back this one... I didn't even ask the price, I just laughed. Imagine replacing a 4 year old furnace that just has one bad wire connection. I paid him his $109 service fee went down to the furnace, spliced the wire and reseated it. Took me 30 seconds. Furnace turned right on. Crooks. These guys are crooks. DO NOT USE WAHL.

I used to love Wahl and had great service till my last service call. I was told I had a leak in my Air Conditioner and it would cost me over $900 just to have it checked. Here is what really frustrated me they installed my system 4 years ago and I have paid them for the maintenance program and when they found that their own soldering was broke they had me pay over $1000 to have their faulty work corrected. Then after calling them for days with promises that the Manager would call me back they said they didn't honor their own installation over a year. I an not a plumber and have done many weekend soldering jobs and none of them have every broke in all of my years helping my family and myself with our plumbing. Then when I finally spoke to the Manager and she explained that I would need to talk to her boss and she again promised he would call I never got a call. I am tired of trying to have some professional service with Wahl and out of complete frustration wanted to have my voice heard so this doesn't happen to anyone else. Btw I will ensure I post this on every social media outlet possible. It is just a shame that my concerns have been ignored and I purchased both a furnace and air conditioner with the thoughts that this company would help me for years to keep my system in working order and they are really disappointing.

In the fall of 2014 Wahl provided an estimate to replace an old furnace of ours. Instead of replacing the oil furnace, we were advised to go with a heat pump. When the technicians came to install we were shocked to find that the heat pump was only intended to heat above 30 degrees. This is Pittsburgh. Now we are at present day and we still have the oil furnace and the heat pump. We have come to find that the oil furnace isn't just old but leaking carbon monoxide which Wahl never tested for. So we've been running it all this time. We knew it was old, but not dangerous. That is why we hire professionals to provide us with guidance. Wahl is misguiding. They also installed the A-coil directly on top of the oil furnace rather than providing the 6 inches of clearance it needed. The oil furnace will burn the A coil right up. There was not space for an additional 6 inches which is another reason why we should never have been sold on a heat pump in the first place. Wahl has endangered our family, installed the equipment improperly, and everyone who has been in the home to give us an estimate on a new furnace has had negative things to say about the work they did.

Great, same day service, I called at 11 on a Friday they were here at 11:45. Called back right away to let me know that my repair was scheduled. Patrick showed up on time. Polite, easy to talk to and very transparent explaining what he was doing, and all the possible costs to repair depending on what is actually wrong after his initial assessment.
VERY focused on quality of work, as apposed to just getting it done and billed for with the cheapest part.
You can also tell that they focus on quality first, by looking at the quality of their test equipment and tools. These guys look to do stuff that lasts!

He was even able to give me ball park estimates on upgrades that I wanted to make to my house. Great guy, great service, and quality warranties you can trust.

This is for heating and cooling, not the plumbing side of the business:

They are expensive, I will give you that. But they do quality work. I am completely confident that everything they do will be done correctly and on time. They've installed my furnace, my air conditioner, a new chimney liner, and a Mitsubishi Mini Split all without any problems. We had bought a booster fan previously and installed it ourselves and they reinstalled it (better than we did) when they did the furnace.

I only knocked off a star because they quoted me over $900 to do a nitrogen leak test on our copper lineset (which begins at $500). I honestly don't know what goes into doing these tests, but it was about the same amount to REPLACE the copper lineset, so it doesn't even make sense to me to do the test.

So all and all, I rather pay more to a company I trust, that I have history with, than to have a half-finished job for half the price. Just be prepared to feel like you're buying a car with all the price negotiations for bigger jobs.

I called for a new Bradford White hot water tank. The $99 service charge for Wahl to show up at my door would be applied to the total cost. They handle Bradford White. I want to do business with the local guys. Fair enough. What I got was a lecture on how old my furnace and air conditioner are, and that it would be a disservice to not give a price on these items too. And that we're between seasons, so the best prices could be had at the fastest install time, of course. Many hours in his van later (on the phone with his supervisor crunching numbers) I am presented with 3 options, all of which include financing said a/c furnace and water tank. At this point (4 hours later) it was cheaper to pay the $99 to make it all go away and call another plumber. Mind you, this is 4 hours later on my day off. When I finally get a price on JUST THE WATER TANK, it's way above the local average as determined online. But of course, the DEAL comes when I spend $11K on the complete system. This strong arm tactic may work on senior citizens. I ended up with water the next day, with another plumber, a Bradford White tank, a 3-hour job around $1100. Be forewarned.

They spent 2.5 hours at my home, to give me an estimate DOUBLE the cost of two other bids!!! Heat pump replacement.  Wanted me to finance the installation/heat pump.   Would not consider a cash price.  Don't waste your time with this company. Too expensive. Went through Home Depot, which sent Wahl. Will contact Home Depot with our complaint.

Since our last review, Wahl did give a refund on the incorrect part that was installed.   A few emails were exchanged.  Although they were not convinced that there wasn't any error made, they did do the right thing.

SCAM City. I have been in plumbing for a decade and hired many companies when I was unavailable to work on my own properties. This company is an intentional scam. They have no desire to fix the problem. The will charge you to show up, then charge another fee to give an estimate, then charge another fee to literally do nothing but stick the smallest wire snake in your toilet they got from the dollar store, and then finally let you it will be more expensive to fix a clogged toilet then another company would actually charge to redo your entire bathroom.

I had my furnace serviced twice by this company and both times it was a horrible experience.  The first time they replaced a part and charged me well over what competitors would charge after speaking to other providers and my uncle who owns his own plumbing and heating company (unfortunately he's 4 hours away).  The service tech was not able to justify all the charges.  His words were that's just what we charge.  The part that they replaced costs $250 online (which obviously their price would be cheaper) ended up costing me $900 to replace. It took 45 minutes to replace this part (taking old one out and replacing new one) and there was a hour in between waiting for the part from a nearby distributor. They knew they had me between a rock and hard place because it was dead of winter and I needed heat.  I had limited options at this point.  After the tech left I called their office to get justification of the charges and the manager Jennifer apologized because she knew that the tech over charged me.  She took off $150 which I still felt was not enough for the service that I received but for me it's not about the money, it's about integrity and doing what's right.  I understand that they have to get paid but to blatantly take advantage of someone is low class and dishonorable.  I chalked this up to experience and hopefully I didn't have to deal with this company again.  

Unfortunately about 2 weeks later, my furnace died again.  I called Wahl back again because if it was the part that they replaced it would have been covered under the warranty per the tech.  So begrudgingly I called them back.  The same tech came back and took 5 minutes to remove a small tube and blow in it and put back.  The furnace was running like a champ again.  His words to me was you'll have to pay the $99 service fee (which I knew about) and a couple extra bucks for my service.  A couple extra bucks ended up being $104.  $104 to take a tub off, blow in it, and replace.  Are you kidding me?  I was absolutely livid and didn't say a word to the tech because I wanted him out of my house. I paid their charge and told him to leave.  I called the office back to get justification on the charges this time and I was told someone would call back.  It took almost 3 MONTHS for the manager to call back.  I called back twice in that time period and was told they had a death in the family.  The manager Jennifer this time was rude and condescending.  She could not justify the charges and was giving me the run around.  She ended up hanging up on me.  I've never dealt with a company that had such low integrity.  I will never use this company again and hopefully my review will deter others from using their services as well.

Professional, respectful, and friendly! Three bold words to describe the service from this family business. David came in, setup the replacement of our old AC unit and water heater, and kept us in the loop every step of the way. We suffered from an EXTREMELY hot upstairs bedroom and office in the summer. Airflow from the AC was weak and not cooling well. After the new system was installed, it dropped the summer temperatures upstairs by 15 degrees. We are so relieved! The water now heats up faster than ever, and the new hardware in the basement is sleek and clean. Everyone on the Wahl team wore plastic boot covers to keep our carpet clean, tidied up all of their work, didn't leave a trace! They also got along with our paranoid dog and helped him feel at ease. Outstanding service and amazing production out of the new setup. Would recommend the Wahls to anyone looking for an honest respectful crew to update their home!

Wahl will try to sell you an entire HVAC system whether you need it or not.  I had a tech come to service an AC and he recommended $3,000 worth of repairs so I sent him away.  I called another company and paid $180.  Stay away from Wahl.

I would give a lower rating if I could. Home Depot sent this company out to the home I just purchased for a diagnostic. The cost was 109 dollars for this. As soon as the technician Stephan walked in, without looking at anything, he told me I needed a new furnace. he did not event attempt to light the pilot light. He said it wasn't safe and it was too old. He repeatedly told me that there was no way my furnace could be fixed. He quoted me at the lowest 5400 to 13666 dollars for a new system. He further told me that all my gas pipes needed to be replaced. I decided to get other estimates just thinking that he was telling the truth. The next company who came in had my furnace working in 5 minutes and just said I needed to get it tuned up before winter and didn't even charge me for it. Its a shame that there are such dishonest companies. Its such a shame that there are such dishonest companies out there.

Wahl Family Heating & Cooling treats you like you're part of the family--respectful, excellent service, knowledgable technicians  like Patrick Z. are hard to come by. It's great that they try to send the same technician if you request. They get to kmow your HVAC system and history...make suggestions, but don't up-sell. Give you options and advise yoi of upcoming discounts. Nicolle, the CSR, is polite, remembers returning customers and tries to work with my schedule. Great, trustworthy company. 10 stars to ALL.

The worst AC company in Pittsburgh.  First of all, I should have gotten additional bids.  The charge me $$8,500 for a furnace/ac complete system for a 1,300 square feet townhouse.  The following year they had to redo the heat lines because they were not installed correctly.  Then to keep your warranty they make you have to have service calls each winter and summer where they try to sell you more crap you do not need.  After five years the AC they installed stop working.  Steve, their service guy, came out and said, This could be $1,200 or $3,000.  He went out to his truck to make a call and I called Nicole back to complain how bad he smelled of cigarette smoke and I thought he was a con man.  Nicole stated, she would have a manager call me back.  Steve came back in the house and said this could cost up to $8,000.00. I paid him for the service call and told him to leave.  Nicole nor any manager ever called me back.  I then had another AC company, and they explain I had been ripped off with a cheap builder's grade AC system. If you want to be ripped off use Wahl.

We had 2 technicians out to address several issues: the water heater, a humming sound when the air kicks on, our water filtration system, a clogged toilet, and a sewer smell in the half-bath. The first guy came out to address our specific problems. He told us the following: the water heater can wait but eventually you'll have to replace it because it's leaking. The humming sound is from your electronic air filters and those are crappy so just don't even use them. Don't even turn your water filtration system on, the water here is fine. Use drano and an auger on your toilet. The sewer smell is probably a clog, use some more drano. He left and didn't actually fix anything. I wrote a check for $287 and everything was in the exact condition when he left as when he arrived. Two weeks later, another technician is out for maintenance visit and I ask him about all issues above. He tells me that the water heater needs to be replaced immediately and will go any day now, the humming is happening because the unit is not sitting on rubber, it's directly on the floor, the water here is bad and we should get the filtration system working asap, the clogged toilet is either the vents or the pipes, and the sewer smell is either a valve or a leaking pipe. His visit was prepaid as part of a package but again, everything was in the same state before and after his visit. What concerns me the most isn't that neither technician really did any work, or the money I paid them for minimal service, it's that they gave me such different diagnoses for the plumbing issues; each with varying timelines and costs. Who do I believe? And how do I proceed? Well, I don't trust Wahl so I'll be calling Steve Poremski and Knechtel Plumbing...whoever calls me back first will get my next check.

Dealing with Wahl has been an outstanding experience.  Brad did the most thorough, professional and comprehensive review of my air-conditioning situation.  This is my first time using Wahl, and I wish I would have used them for my 2 previous central air units.  I give all 5 stars to this family-owned, local company!

Company resolved my problem that I previously negative reviewed. They DO stand by their work!

We had an absolutley horrible experience with Wahl Heating and Cooling, from start to finish.  We originally called them because the previous owners of our home had used them.  In short, they sent a series of different repair men to our home, each of which kept identifying different problems, until we had paid approximately $1,000 in repair bills.  Then, they told us we needed a new unit.  They sent their comfort specialist to our home for a consultation.  He sat in our dining room and bragged about his experience at the Trane factory years before and gave us a quote, stating that they were deducting our previous costs.  I then asked for a brochure of the model he was recommending.  He did not have one.  I asked for a model number, so I could research prices, reviews,...He refused to supply it.  He went on to say they were giving us an additional $1,500 credit-he was referring to a government tax credit.

We refused to let them service the unit any further, and of course did not buy from them.  We had another company come and give us an estimate on a similar system.  Their estimate came in THOUSANDS of dollars cheaper-even after all of their so-called concessions.  

Do not use this company.  They employ a crew of second rate salespeople, as opposed to qualified technicians.

Asked them and several others for an estimate on an air purifier. Everyone else just gave me on. Wahl said that they had to charge me a $99 dispatch fee just to provide me with an estimate! But if I didn't want to spend $99 on an estimate, then I could spend $94 on an AC tune up and then at that time I would get the super secret password that would unlock my estimate! Stay away from these people. They're clearly just looking for cheap ways to fleece people.

We didn't actually use these guys we just got a bid from them. They spent a few minutes looking at  the job and said it's  $12,000.
we spent the day digging the lineup ourselves and paid another plumber 5 hundred dollars to repair it

Uses scare and intimidation tactics to sell high end products. Charges $89 to show up and then says the service fee doesn't get applied to cost if you don't make an immediate decision. Said we needed a new boiler at a cost of $5-10k. Then presented 2 options of $12 & $18k. After agreeing to the $12k and saying that's the total cost, Steve added another $2k for another required part. When I questioned him about this extra $2k he started totally BSing me. When we decided to get other estimates, he became very vocal and threatening. I seriously thought I was going to have to have him physically removed.