I had this company come out as i was having issues with my tenants water heater at first being luke warm and then cold. A 2006 Bradford White Model 48 gallon. Unplugging and restarting had it working for a little while. I had to pay $45 for them to come out and give me an estimate, which in some respects i understand but still it seems a bit much.

The technician pulled up and was in his van meandering around for ten minutes doing who knows what before he finally appeared. He came down to the cellar and poked and pried and then started the song and dance about how the water heater is from 2006 and they usually last around 15 years and it might “be time for a new one”. He was unable to diagnose what the problem was and gave me an estimate for a new water heater, which was nearly $5000.

I informed him i had another estimate coming later in the day that was a “one man company”. He then interjected to me “I’m not gonna lie, but he will be a lot cheaper than us”.’ No shi* sherlock! Not only was he a one man company but he was more thorough with diagnosing what the problem was. Due to the igniter shutting off automatically tells us that something is causing it to shut down for safety purposes as it would try to start but then it would shut down after a few tries!

My one man company determined the exhaust pipe was blocked and we went to the side of the house and checked it. Sure enough it was clogged with leaves and miller moths! After clearing those from the plastic exhaust pipe the water heater worked fine!

I am staying away from these large companies as they i feel they do not do their due diligence (with diagnosing a problem) and instead try to push replacing something when it doesn’t need to be just to make money off of a uninformed customer. This is the times we live in now. If anyone is in need of a much better and cheaper HVAC person, please hit me up as you are rolling the dice with these bigger companies!