AAA Plumbing & Heating

Gary showed up on time for the initial visit, and provided a good quote. He came when he said he would to install the new tank and that part went smoothly...we had hot water before he left. We had maybe a 2 day delay waiting on his electrical subcontractor to come back and clean up the wiring and another couple of days to get some people to pick up the extremely heavy old tank. At no time did this cause us any issues in the home. All in all, it was a good experience and i would reccomend him for similar jobs.

Our 4-year old tank-style (traditional) water heater was destroyed by a basement flood (~6-8 inches) that resulted from the Noreaster of March 2010. When we purchased this tank-style water heater 4 years beforehand from a different plumber, we had considered tankless, but were quoted prices approaching $5K so we went with the traditional style. If I had known how sensitive these tank-style heaters are to flooding we may have just gotten the tankless 4 years ago. Apparently if the gas burner, lighter, or valve assembly is submerged in water at all, the entire water heater is considered destroyed and must be replaced. Well this other company installed it right on the floor, without any cinderblocks to prop it up, and it didn't take much water to snuff out the pilot light and destroy the heater. A more local plumber had come by and confirmed that the heater was destroyed. While we could have just gotten another traditional water heater and put it up on cinderblocks, we realized that that only buys you a few inches, and what if the flooding is worse the next time? Tankless water heaters hang on the wall, so you would need several feet of water in your basement to destroy them. Plus, we were interested in the environmental and cost benefits, so I started looking into them for this time around. We had no hot water for a few days, so we both showered at work. While I looked into Rinnai, State, and Paloma tankless heaters, Noritz seemed to have the best technology, so I was most interested in Noritz. Noritz seemed to be the only company even attempting to differentiate themselves on the basis of technology. I found AAA Plumbing as a certified installer on the Noritz website. Many people's hot water heaters were destroyed by this storm, so it was difficult getting people out to the house to quote on a new tankless. Gary (from AAA Plumbing) was one of the first plumbers to be available for a visit, and I ended up being very impressed by how quickly he figured out the best place/way to install it (another plumber we talked to was somewhat confused by our basement's awkward layout). I had done some research on the Noritz website as to the proper model of tankless water heater for our size house and our water demand. Gary proposed the exact same model that I had independently arrived at being appropriate for our house, so he seemed to know the product line very well. Over the next 24 hours I got a few more estimates on Noritz and Rinnai tankless models and they were all dramatically higher than AAA's quote (which Gary said was a firm price, which was also a huge advantage). Also, the other plumbers either didn't think heaters were available, or were unsure of local stock. Gary knew that the unit was available and he could start sooner than anyone else I had talked to. This was critical because by this point we had gone 3 days without hot water. So the scales tipped heavily in favor of AAA Plumbing. I went to work and my wife stayed home while they worked Friday morning and afternoon. The job apparently went very smoothly, the only surprise was having to drain the heating system because some hot water heating pipes were in the way of the new tankless. The heating pipes were redirected and the heating system was back to an operational state by the time I got home from work. We were not charged extra for this little surprise. With rebates this new tankless heating system ended up being competitive on cost with a traditional tank-style heater. This was a fantastic deal. After you get used to the slightly different operational characteristics of a tankless water heater, they are great and we're very happy with the system so far (24 hours later as of this writing). I should also mention that they (AAA) were very gracious to our neighbors who apparently by Friday still had a lot of water in the basement, and showed up asking for help while AAA were in the middle of the job. They went over to our neighbors' house after finishing our job to consult on their water problem, which probably also involved destroyed heating equipment. Overall A+ job, excellent company.

They did an excellent job, but they weren't truthful. They charged $75 an hour for labor. So, there was 4 hours of labor which came up to $300. The technician did good work, but instead of taking two and a half hours he took 4 hours to finish the job. I did inform him that I found a filter for $240 and asked him to get the filter only if it would cost that much. I also told him that I would purchase it myself if he couldn't get it for that amount. However, he installed a filter and wrote a bill for $977. So, I took him to the small claims court and he lied over there. He came out with the retail price that they give in the plumbing supply houses. He had come in with the price of around $400 and that's why the bill was $977. It wasn't what we had agreed on, but I lost. I bought a service contract from him and he left the plumbing association and he never told me. He never honored the contract and he lied again in the small claims court. He said that he sent out notifications to all his customers. I would never use his services in the future and wouldn't let him into my house, either.

He showed up on time, the estimate was right on. He did a very good job. He came on a Friday to do the estimate and was back on Tuesday to start work. They were very diligent in pulling all the correct permits needed.

They were prompt, excellent service! Fair price. He showed up when he said he would.