Best Water Conditioner Installation in Washington DC

Ryan was timely, professional, efficient and reasonable.  It was a pleasure doing business with Elite and I look forward to using them again in the near future for some house projects I am planning.

Thanks,
David

Dan was quick to respond to my Yelp quote request on the day after July 4th, a Sunday. The water heater in my rental house had sprung a leak and made a big mess right when my poor tenants were moving in. The quote was in line with other numbers I was offered and he could get to the work on Monday so I scheduled with him then.

He and his crew showed up in the agreed upon window, unfortunately I was in the basement and didn't hear them knocking, but once I let them in it was a quick diagnosis, some draining and hauling out the old tank. In came the new tank and an up-to-code gas shut off was installed too. They all appeared competent and were professional throughout the job. The price was exactly as quoted. I would definitely hire them again.

Tony arrived on time, gave us an estimate to replace our garbage disposer and performed the work.  He did a great job!  I've used Marines Service Co. for quite a few years and will continue to do so with my plumbing needs.  And I highly recommend them for this.  I used them once for a drywall repair and will not do that again.  I had a leak in a pipe that ran in the ceiling in my living room.  They came out and did a great job repairing the leak.   I was told that they could repair the drywall, also.  So, I called and scheduled the repair.  It was not done properly, because there is a 'shadow' where the repair was made.  The guy that did the repair told me to paint it several times and the 'shadow' would disappear.  It did not.  So, when my paint contactor came out to paint the room, I pointed out the 'shadow.'   He was able to literally lift that piece of drywall -- I could see it move!  It was not installed properly.  It is not cost effective to try to repair that entire area, so it was repainted do the best of their ability.  I highly recommend Marines Service Co. for plumbing needs, but not so much for drywall issues.  Unfortunately, the picture I took does not show the 'shadow' so that it can be seen.

TL; DR: Pretty good all things considered. Some snafus with the installation. In any case, I hope the new Lennox heat pump will be headache free but I won't hesitate to have Snell come out if things go wrong.

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The outdoor unit of our 15 year old heat pump wasn't working. Snell HVAC responded quickly to my call for service and just as quickly diagnosed the problem: the motor on the outdoor unit was locking up and the capacitor on the outdoor unit was also only at 50% power. They recommended replacing the unit and I agreed. Installation date was 10/31/2016 (Halloween!).

An aside that has nothing to do with Lennox or Snell: our old unit was a Kenmore sold and installed by Sears and was a real lemon. Every 2-3 years something would go wrong and it must have cost us (conservatively) an extra $2K over the lifetime of the unit to deal with it. Oh, well. You win some you lose some. Hopefully the new Lennox system (14HPX paired with CBX25) will do the job for us with fewer headaches.

Ok, on with Snell review:

(1) I liked the technician (Kevin) who came out to diagnose the problem and sold us the new unit. He was knowledgeable, proficient, professional, and friendly. I hope we're in his usual service area if things go south with the new Lennox unit. I'd rate Kevin 5 out of 5 stars.

(2) I liked the people working at the Snell office. They were polite and friendly and they answered their phones! They have a dispatcher who calls to let you know when their technicians are a half hour away. They're also thoughtful and efficient: I didn't get any invoice or serial numbers from the installation guys so here I was already to be annoyed at having to track down those numbers so I could register with Lennox. I shouldn't have been concerned. Because the nice folks at Snell filled out the registration for me (I know this because I got an email from Lennox congratulating me on registering when I did no such thing). Think about that: Snell could have easily emailed me and said, Here are the serial numbers. Go register with Lennox. Instead, they took a few minutes and did it for me. Hooray for thoughtfulness and efficiency! I'd rate their home office and dispatch system 5 out of 5 stars.

(3) I liked the guys Snell sent to install the unit. They were nice guys. But here's two reasons why Snell lost a star:

(a) Snell promised installation would take just ONE day. However, the metal the installation guys need doesn't arrive until late in the first day so they have to come back a second day. That's ok. Stuff happens. However, second day comes and goes and they still aren't done -- because while they have everything installed they can't get the outdoor unit to turn on. Well, it's because the indoor and outdoor units are on separate circuits and they forgot to flip on the breaker for the outdoor circuit AND they didn't engage the main switch on the outdoor unit. I know this because technician Kevin came out on the THIRD day and diagnosed it all in about 5 minutes. So that's an extra 1.5 days I was out of the office because I had to hang out at home for installation / installation issues.

(b) The installation guys were nice guys. However, they weren't very careful with the metal shavings they created when cutting the metal to connect the new indoor unit to the existing ductwork. I found small, sharp metal bits outdoor in our parking space as well as small, sharp metal bits in and around the utility room where the indoor unit was installed. By small I mean about 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch long pieces though there were also nail-clipping-sized pieces. Also, they left tape and some unused metal in the utility room. Anyhow, just a small annoyance and not a big deal. Just thought I'd mention it since according to their website: When we are finished working we'll clean up thoroughly and to your satisfaction. We'll go over the job with you and make sure you're happy with the work. The installation guys didn't clean up thoroughly nor did they over over the job -- though they may have left abruptly that second day because of the frustration over the outdoor unit not turning on ...

So 4 out of 5 stars for the installation snafus.

Our furnace broke the day we left for vacation and Allied showed up the same day for an inspection and replacement. Bob was honest, prompt, and efficient. Our furnace has been pumping sweet heat ever since.

George is someone I highly recommend. He fixed our problem and came back a/c another problem and advises us to get our septic cleaned.

He called later to make sure that we were not having problems. When is the last time plumber called to make sure everything was good to go.

Reasonable and explained everything step by step.

Called on a Saturday afternoon.  The lady on the phone, Shelly, was super polite and let us know that Dr. David would get to us quickly.  We had a floor basement drain that was not draining causing us to have some standing water.  We didn't consider it to be a true emergency but Dr. David was there at 8:00 am the next morning, Sunday morning, 4th of July weekend.  He was very professional and courteous.  He was quick to check it out, let us know our options, and quick to fix us up.  Would definitely recommend The Plumbing Dr!!

Doug and his wife provide exceptional service at extremely reasonable price. I was unable to clear a clog in my kitchen drain. Not only did they clear the line, but they also secured loose plumbing so as to prevent potential future problems. Thank you.

This company was great - efficient, thorough, knowledgeable, professional! Chris' guys worked so hard to replace my tricky hot water heater!

If zero stars were an option, it would be my rating. Appointments scheduled with no show/ no call from the technician or company to notify. When I made contact with the company, each staff member that I spoke with was extremely unprofessional. Bobby, Wendy, Sherron and the unresponsive manager Chris. My deposit was taken on a service I did not receive and I was given the run-around on a rescheduling. Sherron was unnecessarily sarcastic and very unbecoming of what a company would want as a representative of their business. As a military veteran and current business owner, the service I received is completely unacceptable, and customers should not have to experience this level of ignorance. It's no surprise they have an overall rating of 2 stars on Yelp.

I used John G Webster for a repair during the recent heat wave here in DC. I'm giving 2 stars because he technician was competent and complete the repair.

But the company itself is a ripoff. I was charged over $400 dollars to replace the run capacitor on my compressor. It's basically replacing a big fuse and is a $30 part and a 10 minute repair.

The bill for this included a $95 service call and $300 flat rate for replacing the capacitor. I was not provided with up front pricing, as their website claims. The technician had limited English fluency and told me he had the part in his van and would replace it.

After replacing it, he told me he part cost $295 and he wouldn't charge me extra to install it. Apparently, what he really meant was that he was charging a flat fee. It literally took less than 5 minutes to install (it took the technician 30+minutes to walk to his van and back to get the part which should have been in his job bag to begin with). The technician added a $29 up charge for extra time.

When I called the company to get an explanation for the charges, one of the owners, Silas, gave a song and dance about being a 5-star company that has certified technicians and higher overhead. He also said a majority of the flat fee (which he acknowledged was high) covers a 1-year parts and labor guarantee.

When I requested a receipt, they removed the $29 up charge but there was no mention of the very valuable guarantee. I asked for the warranty in writing, twice, and still have not heard anything back.

Checking around, I found that $250 is the high end of the price range for a capacitor replacement and $400 is highway robbery.

Not a five-star company. Won't use them again.