Hero Plumbing, Heating & Cooling

It went great start to finish. I called and they were prompt to respond and give me an estimate. Ridler was always on time; always prompt, professional, and polite. They worked very well in a 1908 house with tight spaces. They left the work site cleaned up every day. They freed up a lot of space by installing a super efficient water heater and wall-mounted boiler. Our energy bill has since dropped significantly. I have used their services since, and I will use them again.

They did a lot of work and it cost me a lot. They got us in very quickly. They had a counselor talk to us first and immediately called us to find out if they could come. They came early during the day and we felt comfortable leaving them alone in our house to do whatever they had to do. They completed the job exactly when they said they would. They also worked really hard to get the work done on time. We had a small leak in one of the pipes and they were right back to fix it. We felt very comfortable, as we could call them whenever we had any problems and they would come out to take care of it. We are really happy with their service. If need be, then I would hire them again.

Very well. We came home and the house was at 56 degrees. We called at about 5pm and Nan contacted Josh to see if he could come as he was on another call. She called right back and he came over within 30 min. (If he wasn't going to be available she had another company for us to call.) He relit the furnace and identified it was a bad wiring connection. Also discussed age of furnace (probably installed in 1970) and our options for a new furnace with all the new federal and local rebate programs. I did think he was a little too quick to go to the buy a new furnace option but with our furnace being over 30 years old it's probably the right thing to tell us especially since a new rebate program came out just today. He did make us feel very comfortable and there was no pressure and he will be contacting us with additional information once he contacts our neighborhood contact regarding loan options. He talked about his small family business and was very friendly without being pushy.

First of all, let me make one thing perfectly clear, RIDLER IS OUTSTANDING!!! I moved to Minneapolis a few months ago and bought a house that was greatly in need of an HVAC overhaul. The house was built in 1907 and the heating was controlled by two steam boilers feeding one pipe. In other words, if I turned on the thermostat, the whole house was heated ? incredibly inefficient and expensive. Further, the house had no air conditioning and we were interested in having central air installed. I had 5 or six well-known companies out to assess the issues and present solutions. Without out going into all of the details of the plans that we were presented, I?ll just say that Josh Savage at Ridler presented to us a plan that was head and shoulders better than the others. The plan that Josh provided was better than the competition from the standpoint of design, cost to install, and cost from the standpoint of the utilities. Josh?s plan created heating and cooling zones that provided for far greater efficiency and comfort. Even more, he added individual thermostatic controls on the radiators so that the house no longer had the unpleasant uneven heating that is commonly experienced in homes with radiant heat. Just prior to starting the job, Josh called my attention to the fact that my home would be a perfect candidate for geothermal heating and cooling. I was skeptical to say the least but Josh offered to give me a detailed quote and I thought that it might be worth a look. Several days later I received a highly detailed proposal which provided clear evidence that geothermal would cut our gas bill by 45-75%. Further, Josh informed me that individuals who install a geothermal system after 2/17/09 can receive a 30% tax credit on the installation. I spent an hour on the phone with the Department of Energy as well as the IRS to confirm that this credit is available. This credit is now widely known and much discussion of it can be found with a simple Google search. Without going into all of the details, Ridler installed 7 geothermal wells (each 180 feet deep) in my driveway, as well as 2 heat exchangers in my basement (eliminated the need for those noisy condensers outside the house). The heat exchangers make as little noise as a refrigerator ? nice! They also installed one air handler in the attic and one in the basement. The heating and cooling in my house are now pushed through a forced air Unico high-velocity system. I had heard that Unico is the best manufacturer of high-velocity systems and called the company to see who they would recommend in the Twin Cities to do an installation. I spoke with a top executive at Unico and was told that Josh Savage at Ridler is, without question, the most knowledgeable Unico installer in the Twin Cities. As you can probably tell by now, I did tremendous research before selecting Ridler. My project is now complete and I can say that Ridler did an absolutely flawless job! The Ridler team is as neat as it gets and does not leave until their work is perfect. The guys are extraordinarily detail oriented and take great pride in their work. There were MANY little places throughout the job where Ridler went above and beyond the scope of our agreement ? they never once asked me for one additional dollar. Ridler's prices are much more reasonable than any of the other companies with whom I spoke. Look at the other reviews on Angies?s List and elsewhere and you?ll see that there is no point in talking with other companies. These guys are OUTSTANDING and Josh Savage is a genius! Thanks for delivering better than promised, Ridler!!!!

I had been using Centerpoint for the yearly boiler check-up but they wouldn't be able to come out for over a month. Someone in neighborhood reccommended Ridler's. I'm glad they did. When I made the appointment it was going to be about a week before they could get here, which was okay but they had a cancellation and were able to come two days after I had originally called. They were very professional and explained the boiler system to me and what to keep an eye on, etc. They seemed very thorough and I plan to use them in the future for any and all heating and cooling work.

Riddler was AWESOME. I called last week to try to get an appointment and they fit me right in. Gary was awesome and identified right away that I had an issue in with the exhaust out of my heating system. He opened the access to the chimney to find that it was entirely clogged. There was no exhaust escaping. (This also pointed out that the batteries in my carbon monoxied detector were no good anymore. As soon as I replaced them, the dector went off.) He cleaned that out, put the exhaust pipes back in place and started on the boiler itself. He answered the couple of questions I had, explained things very well, and reassured me that once I had replaced the liner in my chimney, that I would be all set as the boiler itself was running very well. Gary wasn't sure if Riddler did chimney liner replacements, but promised to check and call me back with info. He already called to say he was sorry they didn't - but recommended I check on Angie's list (:-) to find someone who could. I had been calling for weeks with another company to try to get an appointment to have a tune-up done. I'm so grateful that I got fed up with them and called Riddler. Gary's help today could very well have saved our lives.

The Ridler/Uptown folks are unparalleled when it comes to knowledge, expertise and professionalism. Josh Savage came out to give us the original estimate and spent a lot of time explaining all our options. Josh is incredibly friendly and knowledgeable and answered every question we had in a clear and concise manner. We got other bids that were comparable, but going with Ridler was not a difficult choice. We had a Triangle Tube PE 110 installed. They were able to get us on the schedule very quickly, which was great because the weather was quickly getting colder. Peter and his installation team were wonderful and able to complete the job in just one day. By the time I got home from work, the house was toasty warm!

The consultation was thorough and professional. The Suggested path was well thought out, but just did not fit my vision. Plus the price was slightly higher than competitors

We originally hired Sedgwick but they had not done alot of high velocity installations and when some obstacles were encountered they called Ridler to help. They basically came in and took over as they had done many of these installations before. They were able to supply the entire house with cooling ducts and just seemed like experts in this area. Would strongly recommend them to anyone considering high velocity central air installation.

They seemed to know their business well. They fixed it once but it still wasn't working, but they did come back and made sure it was working and did some extras to make sure we were happy before they left time.

I called to set up an appointment, spoke with Nan who was friendly and gave me an appointment time. Josh Savage then arrived promptly, surveyed what our needs would be, took the time to ask me what we had in mind, and emailed me an estimate promptly within a couple of days as promised. He followed up with a phone call and invited us again (as he did at the appointment) to come to his home and check out his boiler and radiators as they would be what he would recommend installing in our home. We were interested in seeing physically what they would look like, knowing that pictures never really give an accurate impression. Therefore we went over to Josh's house on a Saturday and saw the boiler and radiator, which pretty much sealed the deal for us. I should note that we had gotten a total of 5 bids, and Josh's presentation and openess to let us into his house to see the actual hardware made it easy to go with Ridler. After putting 50% down, Josh's team went to work, installing the new boiler first (which took about 1.5 days) and then eventually the pex piping and new radiators. We had hired an abatement company (Ridler does not subcontract out to include that in their estimate) to remove our asbestos wrapped piping, old boiler and old radiators, but since they could not do it right away, Ridler took out all the radiators. They did have to wait until the abatement company removed all the asbestos wrapped piping before they put in pex piping. In the end, they replaced our boiler and main floor radiators that were damaged by the freeze, and then added on a separate zone for our 2nd floor (previously heated by electric baseboard heat). The bulk of the work was done in a week. There were some minor details (like a small leak in one of the connections which caused pressure drops in the system requiring us to add water to the system 1-2x/day) and control knobs for 2 radiators (one still yet to be installed) that were fixed about 2 weeks later. Nan the receptionist/administrative assistant was incredibly helpful and friendly. She sent us a Centerpoint Energy Rebate form that we weren't even aware existed for those who have purchased a high efficiency boiler ($200) and provided us with extra copies of our receipt to help submit this. She was also very wonderful about passing on any concerns we had promptly to Josh when we questions. Overall we love the system and were happy with the friendliness, knowledge base, responsiveness to our concerns and professionalism of the Ridler team, so much so that we've already put money down for another job to be done by them this spring (installation of a minisplit air conditioning system). I cannot say enough about Josh, Nan and the rest of the Ridler team, they were right on and we would highly recommend them to anyone looking for installation of a hot water heating system!

It went well, and I am a little sad I couldn't hire both companies.

Outstanding. Josh is super attentive and really great to work with start to finish. He even replaced our drain nozzle on the boiler at no charge. The workmanship is superb and clean up was good. Would definitely recommend them to anyone with an old home/boiler system.

The estimate went well and we are likely to hire them when we do the work. It is part of a kitchen remodel and we are still in the planning phase.

The guys that came out to do the installation were very efficient. Pricing wise they were very fair. They cleaned up all of their mess when the work was done.

I had Ridler and others first give me estimates over 2 years ago. I was impressed with the sales person (Pete's son) then and called them back when I was ready to get the work done. Pete didn't spend much time with me but he returned an estimate in a timely manner - it was in line with what they bid previously and it was a lot less than an similar estimate from another local contractor that I also got this year. After scheduling boiler removal and asbestos pipe insulation removal the work was performed in a timely manner and Ridler (Nan at the office) kept me mostly informed. We did have a small mix up since I was responsible for scheduling the removal contractor but they worked around this. The work was messy and did leave some mess inside and outside my house - I think contractors should always strive to be better in this area but overall they did pretty well. The workers were friendly and knowledgeable. They also replaced a small bleed valve on one radiator - I haven't gotten the final bill yet but imagine that will be included.

They were very professional, they were very easy to work with. There price was lower then the other quotes we had gotten. They were very responsive and they were always on time and very prompt. They had excellent customer service.

Very good installation, the piping work was museum-quality, all if it was securely anchored, plumb and level. They even took an extra step of securing one radiator with black pipe instead of copper for safety and rerouting the lines to avoid freezing in a crawl space. The true test will be this fall at startup, but the installation looks great and the guys were willing to work with a particular homeowner (me) to get it just right. A few decisions had to be made to finish while I was away and not able to participate, but they had good explanations why they did what they did (see freezing pipes issue, above). Also, they upgraded the specified boiler to a slightly more efficient model at no charge. Worked very fast, four guys on the job and it was essentially done in one day, where it had been predicted for two. We had one callback because they forgot to fill in where the old boiler was, but otherwise we were very satisfied. They also worked with us to eliminate the electrical work and let me pull the permit and do that myself, saving some money. We tried to add moving the existing HW heater to the scope at the last minute, but the extra cost was going to be more than we expected, which was the only disappointment. A few more things, Pete's initial sales visit was very good, he gave us lots of options to choose from and was very personable. It was clear that he knew HW boilers and was ready with suggestions for abatement and demo of the existing boiler, also letting us choose to sub that ourselves to save the markup. They also invited me to inspect the cast iron radiators, (which were used), prior to delivery and Nan, the office manager, is a delight to work with. All in all, we would recommend Ridler. We were given very personal service and the installation quality was very good. Their price was also the best of the two other prices that we received, which clinched it for us.

I used this company because they offered the combination of on demand hot water and furnace. I was impressed that he had a solution to our hot water usage problem. They installed the unit in three days. This company were total pros. The price reflects the quality of the furnace.

They are an excellent company to work with. The workers were extremely clean and courteous and they always kept to their time schedules. When Pete came out to give the proposal he actually drew out a diagram of how everything needed to get added to our existing boiler so I knew exactly what he would be doing.

Josh did a great job explaining how the system would work and installation would go. He had pictures to show what the system would look like. Ridler did a great job installing the system. They were very clean and there crew was respectful. I wish all service companies were this respectful. Wish I would have done this years ago. It's great not having musty noisy window air conditioners.

They did an excellent job of replacing my boiler with a new one rated at 82% efficient, but a week after instillation I had scheduled an energy audit that found the new boiler to be operating at 76% efficiency. I wrote Pete Savage the company's owner three times to ask if this is normal or if some adjustment is required. I GOT NO RESPONSE. I think my questions are reasonable. I think their lack of response is rude. I think their unwillingness to stand behind their work is wrong.

After reading the great reviews here on Angie's List, I called Ridler to see about a fall check-up on my home boiler system. Nan returned my call quickly and let me know that they were really backed up this fall and wouldn't be able to get to me in a timely manner. (Apparently, two of their techs are serving in Iraq at the moment!) She then went on to refer me to a competitor who might be able to help me out. (Stay tuned for a review of the competition).

We received several bids on a new air conditioner for our home. Ridler's bid was a little higher but we were impressed by the knowledge and responsiveness of the company. Josh also had a better plan than the others. We replaced the original boiler and installed central air. The work was done quickly and efficiently. Workers were pleasant, showed up on time and cleaned up after themselves. I think Ridler's strength is there communications skills. We always felt informed on how things were progressing.

THE GOOD: Josh showed up on time and was professional, efficient, and polite from start to finish as he examined the house, determined what type of system to use and the best way to install it. I received his written bid in 2 days. He determined that a high velocity system using two condensers (one for the 2nd and 3rd floors and one for the first) was the way to go and he described to me in detail how and where the various components would be placed. All in all, a very satisfying meeting. After I got 3 other bids I had Josh come back over and again walk me through where and how we would run everything. He was just as professional during that meeting, taking time to go over the details again & allay my fears. THE BAD: Not much. Ridler's bid was higher than the one I went with but that was due to the decision to use 2 condensers rather than one. RESULT: I went with another Angie's List company but the decision was very, very close. I wouldn't hesitate to use Ridler in the future.