DRF Water Heating Solutions

The guys that I dealt with were great. I got a call in the morning letting me know where I was in the schedule and a call when the plumbers were on their way. They were polite and helpful. Placed the old toilet and the box for the new one where I wanted it. They made a stressful situation easy especially since Home Depot sold me the wrong size toilet.

Employees arrived on time and started job. Then realized that faucet was not complete. We returned the faucet and got new one. Employees returned the next day and installed. No fee was charged for second return.

The installers, plumbers, called gave me a time when they would arrive. Removal, and installation went without trouble. They demonstrated the new ignite system, They replaced old galvanized gas piping with new coded pipe. They cleaned up after the installation was completed, They left the box the heater came in, cut up and ready for recycling, which was picked up by Nuway Recycling. I paid almost double for the water heater, but the it came with a 12 year warranty on parts and labor. I usually pay for the additional service because I believe it is and insurance policy against future problems. At 72 I do not have the energy or inclination to repair water heaters and at 84 I am sure the inclination would not cross my mind. The insurance goes with the house, another plus. Overall the experience was easy.

I scheduled an inspection with DRF to review the feasibility of replacing an existing natural draft hot water heater with a sidewall forced draft type. My goal was to avoid expensive chimney repairs, since the new hot water heater cost is the same as the chimney work. The contractor came out and reviewed the hot water heater location and approved is installation. Since he did not have a forced draft heater on his truck, we scheduled a separate installation. At that time, a different plumber came out who said that the hot water heater could not be installed as required by code or the manufacturer's requirements. I had put off the chimney repairs to do this work. Now, since I cannot use the hot water heater due to the chimney condition, I get to move into a house with two little kids and no running hot water until the chimney work can be scheduled. I do not know if I am more dissapointed in how I got jerked around, or that I almost had a hot water heater improperly installed.

We waited all day but once mike and tam arrived at 5;30 they were professional and efficient. Mike told us we couldn't use the plastic pan and provided paves bricks instead.

Once they got the toilet installed, it started leaking out into the kitchen. They ended up having to cut drywall out and replace the drywall, which was a big mess.

Their plumbers visited our home to install a water heater. I wasn’t at home and my wife was managing the install. She was upstairs when the plumbers started working. Couple of minutes later, they started packing up and told my wife to get the main water valve fixed, which they said broke as they were trying to turn it off. They said the water valve was old and on the verge of breaking. My wife asked if they can fix it and was quoted $200. Really??? You break something during a job and just walk away without taking any responsibility. We had to go through so much trouble for their handiwork – stay without water for the night, coordinate with the city to turn off the water supply to our home and then turn it back on after replacing the valve. I followed up with their management over the phone many times and got the same lame excuse – the valve was too old and on the verge of breaking. When I followed up with Home Depot store manager, he spoke with DRF and provided the same account as above. When I asked him to provide this explanation in writing, he took 5 days to get back and changed the account, this time stating the valve was dysfunctional to begin with. Wow! At the end of it, I feel pity for their management. When I got the valve replaced through another plumber, it took them $15-20 worth of parts and 15 minutes for the job. DFS wouldn’t stand behind their work to evade such a cheap fix, and instead lose $1,000 business on the water heater. Response to provider: You quoted the following in response: "Plumber attempted to turn off the water to begin the installation and discovered that the main shutoff (Gate) valve was not functioning." This is not true. The main shutoff (Gate) valve was functioning properly and the water supply to our home was normal. The plumber the broke the valve while trying to turn it off. The plumber admitted that on the spot, but blamed the valve as being too old. Your customer service advised the same over phone, not once but twice. You may want to listen to those phone conversations, which as I was reminded, were being recorded. If the valve was already dysfunctional, I wouldn't be leaving this review or asking for a reimbursement. And neither would you be offering me a reimbursement. You already spoke to my wife over the phone and she advised you the same. But we haven't received any emails or request to provide plumber's invoice for $195. I would be glad to provide the same. You just need to tell me who to send it to. Since email doesn't seem to working in our case, you can correspond to me via US mail. I believe you already have my address.

I called the hardware store and ordered a 50 gal - 12 yr warranty on parts/labor. They came at my earliest convenience. DRF was courteous, efficient, thorough, were very careful when bringing the new water heater in and the old one out not to scuff my newly painted hall walls, and left the area clean. My new G.E. water is great.

It went very well. They came in, they were professional, got to work, and I would not have known they were here. We worked with DRF through Home Depot made the process a little more complicated but DRF did an excellent.

We really liked the picture of the technician sent to us right after we made an appointment and the phone updates on when he could be expected. He did a great job and was very professional. We will be using this company again for all future repairs!

Very professional, called in advance, were on time, very neat and courteous, cleaned up well. Even though we were the last stop and they finished at 8 PM, they maintained their professionalism; even giving instructions twice, once to me and once to my wife.

We have same system in WI and Thomas the plumber was very insoritive and answered every question with a smile. I feel confident that I can flush our system in WI without an issue.

Very good work. Courteous, timely and informative during install. Will call to re-schedule and complete job w/ dishwasher install. Also identified gas line connector leak & will hook up during follow up visit.

Contacted company through Home Depot for a Water Heater replacement. Phone representative was helpful and provided multiple options on both warranty level, services, pricing, etc. Received a quote for a 9 year/50 gallon tank, delivered & installed. The price initially seemed high, but went home and got another quote from another firm which was in the same price neighborhood, but was only a 6-year warranty/50 gallon tank. Another vendor wouldn't provide a quote without coming to the home first. DRF price was fixed and included includes any code-required upgrades, additional parts, etc. Also included a smoke detector, water detector and Gas/CO detector--it was advertised as a "$65 value", but you can't take a $65 discount if you already have them. There is supposedly a full 9 year labor warranty in addition to the tank, which only had a two-year in-home warranty. Installation was within the time window provided, and there were no additional costs or surprises. The installer was effecient and fast, and left the site clean. Left the box behind, as they told us they would. The installer made one offputting comment. My wife was home when the work was performed, and when complete commented that "here's the controls, so make sure you show your husband"--as if she wouldn't understand the need to turn off the water or gas herself in the event of an emergency. Also seemed put out by a couple of other questions. This was the least professional aspect of the installation. Also didn't leave the manufacurers owners' manual for the water heater--easy enough to download the PDF, but there was no reason not to leave the full packet of information behind.

Everything went great. Very professional, courteous and helpful from start to finish and at a low price through home depot. Highly recommended.

These guys contract for Home Depot. DO NOT USE THEM! You're at your own risk. I just wasted an entire day dealing with these folks who claim they will price match. Nowhere is their policy written, so they told me over the phone what they needed. I provided just that only for them to change their story after the fact and say that they needed even more and an emailed quote wouldn't work either, had to be hand written in person on site was the story now. The techs arrived as I was trying to price match prior to the installation instead of attempting a refund for the difference and I was forced to turn them away after their estimate wildly varied from what I was quoted over the phone. All this for a simple installation in a building with, as the tech stated, no special needs or out of code items that would alter a basic installation quote. Sad really, they were $300 higher than local licensed businesses and gave me such a hassle to price match as their policy states they would that I had to send the techs away before they got started. Glad I did. I will simply be calling one of the many many other licensed plumbers that are highly rated here who can provide the exact same service without all gouging consumers and making you jump through hoops just to get it down to the fair price others are offering out of the gates. Run, don't walk, away from DRF and Home Depot's contractors. ****This provider is lying 100%. Everything I said was true to my word, they are playing damage control. Do not use them. You're choice.

They found a lot of faults with the old installation so they had to replace a bunch of pipes and brought it up to code. Overall, they did a good job.

I had a signed contract with a deposit of $500 over a year ago. I decided not to continue the contract for reasons unrelated to the work and Kim was absolutely professional in handling it. There was no pressure at all to maintain the contract and refunded my deposit without any hassle. I was blown away by their professionalism, their honesty, and their integrity.

I was not overly thrilled with them. The service was fine, but it turned out that I also had a water leak. The plumber acted as if I should of known what he was talking about and just left. I found that he was rude and condescending. I then had to get another plumber in to get it fixed. I would never use them again in the future.

They pointed out some already existing problems that we had from whoever did the plumbing on the original water heater. We then had an inspector come out and he agreed that we didn’t meet code. We were able to get them straightened out. We found them to be very helpful. They did a fine job and we haven't had any problems with the water heater since.

We had no problems with them. They were able to get everything taken care of.

Everything worked out fine. The service was good.

They were good. They were very polite and efficient. They were also very clean and cleaned up after themselves.

STAY AWAY from this company! Our hot water heater went out on Wednesday and I went on line to Home Depot and someone from DRF called me within 5 minutes. I purchased a 75 gallon GE tank and was told with installation it would be $1360. (the tank was $819 on the Home Depot site). The installers arrived Thursday at 11:30 and Jesse immediately told me my heater was not up to code. I live in Lincolnshire and my house is 14 years old.I was told that to bring it up to code it would be an additional $502. Instead of questioning this I went along because I had no hot water. After they left only 90 minutes later with the installation costing more than the heater I began to think I was ripped off. I went to Home Depot in Vernon Hills to complain and asked an associate from plumbing to price the additional parts they charged me for ( using DRF's sheet). This is what I found on some items as priced by Home Depot (they use the Home Depot logo on the DRF pricing list), a T and P relief valve sells for $2.97, DRF charged $54, a copper saddle valve sells for $7.67, DRF charged $99,a dielectic union that sells for 2 for $4.27 that DRF charged me 2 for $46 and my favorite, a expansion tank that sells for $60 that DRF charged me $181 and it screws in and out, NO labor needed what so ever! I am wondering if corporate Home Depot knows that my story sounds SO similar to other reviews on the YELP site. This is how the pricing worked out to be: DRF bundled price for a 75 gallon GE hot water heater and installation, $1360. Additional parts and labor of $504. Pricing at Home Depot: $819 for a 75 gallon hot water heater, 75.38 for parts if purchased at Home Depot( as priced by a Home Depot plumbing employee). Total for the heater and parts: $894.34 (at Home Depot) Total for the labor: $969.89, so for a 90 minute job, $646.00 an hour for labor. I contacted corporate Home Depot and began working with Michael who assured me I had come to the right place and I should try to work it out through corporate. After investigating he told me in a recorded conversation that both he and Home Depot find DRF to be competitive and HONORABLE in their pricing. Michael also told me that DRF has a 30 day price guarantee and that they will match others prices in cash. I said to Michael in this recorded conversation that I didn't think any local plumbers or ABT would give me their prices and he agreed with me. Joe a manager form DRF offered me a $25.00 gift card to remove my review from YELP, but at $600.00 an hour for labor they would ring my doorbell and then have to leave. If they come and say they will do it for the price quoted, okay, if they say it will be hundreds more do what I SHOULD HAVE DONE, tell them NO THANKS and show them the door. I'm confident that plumbers and plumbing companies shouldn't be making $600.00 an hour for labor.

I bought a hot water heater through Home Depot, and called their install line to have it installed. DRF called me back to schedule a time, and gave me a quote of $350. They gave me a day, but not a time when the installers would arrive, just a note that they would call me the day-of and give a better timetable. The day of the install, the dispatcher called me about 7:30, and told me I was 5th in line for service, but couldn't give me a better timeframe than "some time this afternoon probably". The installers showed up around 3:00, and swapped out the water heaters in about 45 minutes. The work looks very good and the installers were very courteous. My only real complaint is that the install came in almost $200 over the initial quote, for just adding a couple of dielectric fittings and a saddle valve (parts that are probably less than $15 total at a hardware store). Also, DRF required me to go to village hall to get the building permit myself. I have heard that other contractors will pull the permits for you, but I can't confirm this, so I'm not marking this as a plus or a minus.