Decided to give a new company in the area a chance and agreed to have them complete a new water heater installation back in late June. They are based in Minnesota and had recently started an office in Columbus. They are currently a small operation here in Columbus but they mentioned they hope to expand a bit. I found them through Angies/Home Advisor after posting a job there. I had noticed a slow leak developing in my 12 year old unit and started reaching out to places. They were one of the couple businesses that responded and actually engaged with me as a customer properly through email, which I prefer.
In short, It went very well.
I sent many emails back and forth and their sales guy (John). He was courteous, detailed, and pretty upfront with everything. We spoke on phone once as he walked me through some of their policies and processes. Again, all pretty straightforward. I sent him photos of the area of our current heater, he took note of a few things they’d have to adjust to bring things up to code. I was most worried that there would be hidden fees, taxes, install cost, etc. There was NOT. All costs were quoted upfront as a single, final cost, it included any taxes, etc. Once the cost was settled I even double and triple confirmed the cost (again, paranoid from past experiences) and to be sure the sales guy John had me take more photos as he wanted to make extra sure they didn’t have to do a lot of extra work in my house. Ended up being minimal adjustments to bring the hook up to current standards so no extra fees. Their price was good, warranty good, so we were good to go.
They were fast – we settled on a SUNDAY (yes, sales guy John and I were emailing throughout the weekend and even on a Sunday) and installer was at my house Monday morning, ready to install the heater. Installer (Nathan) arrived on time and gave me details on the process. He walked me through it all slowly, mentioned how he has to start by doing some prep work and that the heater was coming via a delivery service about 15-20 minutes later. He went right to work.
Installation took about an hour and a half or so (including all prep work). At end I asked a lot of questions, as we were chatting he realized he didn’t install a rod that was part of the deal – not only did he immediately rectify and install the rod, he also added an on/off valve coming off the hot water port which we didn’t have. I was very happy as he didn’t have to do it but wanted to prove how good their service was and I was damn impressed.
Of course you should do your due diligence, talk to multiple places, see what they offer. But I 100% recommend these guys. Since the install, I’ve been keeping an eye on the tank. It’s been performing well/as expected. I have noticed something weird happening on the top of the unit near the ports, I plan to reach out to them soon about it.