Monkey Wrench Plumbing, Heating, Air & Electric

Luke M.

We had an exceptional experience with Daniel from Monkey Wrench. He came out to assess three minor electrical fixes. He was prompt, friendly, courteous, and neat as he evaluated our three problems, ran into some tricky older wiring issues but persisted, then gave us three line item quotes for the full repair. Two of the items were more than we cared to spend ~ thought I think the price was reasonable. We asked to have the 3rd repaired. Daniel dutifully fixed the third, and then surprised us by completing the 2nd for no additional charge. He had spent so much time sleuthing the problem that I think he felt compelled to give us the fix we couldn't afford. Amazing! Thank you so much for your generous time with us, Daniel : )

Linda A.

We had another company say we needed the whole gas fireplace rebuilt. They quoted us $1,800. We called Monkey Wrench and we were so lucky to get Rueben. He came in with a friendly smile put bootie's on to keep the floor clean and found the issue. The fireplace needed 4 batteries. He changed the batteries and charged us $89- for the service call. Saved us thousands of dollars for his honesty. We highly recommend.

Lou L.

Heating in our La Canada home stopped working. Monkey Wrench was called for a fix. A technician came to evaluate and sad that the HVAC unit needed to be possibly replaced. He called his supervisor to evaluate the situation. The supervisor made 2 recommendations: replace unit that had 2 options price wise - $5.5K or $10K. He said the unit also had a short so he disengaged the wiring and that in LCF, HVAC failures are common because of repeated Edison blackouts. I asked for a repair quote - he said the parts might take 2-3 months to arrive as they are from China & this should only be considered if we were to keep the home on a short term basis (under 3 years). I asked him to send me quotes on all options. I received quotes for the HVAC replacement & not to repair the unit.
I called another licensed HVAC contractor. He indicated that there are disconnected wires, an internal filter had not been replaced for a long time and he was able to immediately create heat in our home. However, he said this is temporary and that parts needed to be replaced for a fix. He was able to obtain parts in 3 weeks and fix our HVAC FOR $1300. It has been working satisfactorily for 5 days now.
Monkey Wrench has lost credibility in its technical competency, full disclosure of options, and questionable business ethics.

Grace C.

1) the technician gave himself 5-star rating right in front of my eyes. He might deserve the 5-star but the way he did it himself made me feel uncomfortable.
2) after he left, my heater's fan couldn't even be turned on anymore! So people with common sense can figure out why this happened!

Kerry M.

A lie for an upsell: and that's what this review is about.

I've used Monkey Wrench before and it was good. They're reputable, been around a while, and I've used them along with another large reputable plumber company in LA. Called them out to fix a toilet that was running, and the guy also checked out our tankless hot water heater while he was here (we didn't ask him to). He said, ""Yeah there are some minor error codes on the tankless... I dismissed them but it looks like you have really bad scale build-up in there and you need to have it descaled. It's a LOT of buildup though so it'll probably take a double descaling to get it back to normal. I can do it today if you like or I can come back in a couple weeks."" The cost was to be about $580 for the double-descaling. This seemed weird because the tankless is only 2 years old and a year ago when we had the other plumber out (who installed it), he said there wasn't any scaling on it at all. Rather than do the descaling right then, I called out the original plumbing co that installed it and said that we need to give it its routine descaling because another plumber said it had error codes on it, but he dismissed them, and said it was pretty bad and we had to descale it soon. That plumber said ""But you can't dismiss error codes... they stay on until it's fixed. Can I see the unit?"" So he looked at it and said ""There aren't any error codes on this at all, it's only 2 years old and it's fine. The other guy said there were error codes?"" and I said ""Yeah, a couple but they were minor so he said he dismissed them. And again he said ""That's really weird, because you can't dismiss an error code and this unit is fine - no history on it of any error codes ever. But I can do a descale because you really should do it once a year"" - and I asked, ""But he said the scale buildup was really bad - so bad that you'd probably need to descale it twice"" - and he said, ""No, it just looks like there's a little bit - like the amount you'd expect - but I can show you the runoff after I run the descaler."" And then when it was done he explained that there was only a tiny bit of scaling inside the tankless, not enough to matter but ""it's smart to do it once a year so you don't void your warranty"" - and then explained that if there was an excessive amount of scaling in the machine, the water flushing out would be pinkish or reddish. And our runoff was just gray - which is what the plumber said you want to see.

I asked this plumber if the Monkey Wrench guy had lied to us and he just shrugged and said ""I don't want to say that, but I can say that there's never been an error code on this machine and if he told you there was so much scaling that it needed a double descaling, I'm just telling you that it was a very minor amount, it wasn't bad at all.""

I've had this happen with electricians before but never a plumber. From now on I'm sticking with my regular plumbing service. Now I can't trust this one.

Ryna A.

Had them out for toilet repair. Was quoted $125 from first tech. Needed part so second tech came out next day and quoted $250 for the same job.
Called office but didn't have written estimate so they did me a favor !! did job for $200!

Veronika K.

Awful experience. I paid $6900 for the waterheater and installation. Later I found out SoCalGas offer the same waterheater with installation for $5100 ($3900 with the $1200 rebate). Technician told me I will get a rebate, but gas company sent me refusal of $1200 rebate because my old waterheater was tankless and technician specified ""tankless"" in his invoice. Besides of that, technician made big whole in the wall underneath the waterheater, which I didn't see from the side of the waterheater after he finished and paid full price. Next day their electrician made whole in the waterheater and attached electrical cord to it, without letting me know he has intention to do it. Because of that door of the waterheater can't be open. Manager refused to fix these problems. Would not recommend it to anyone.

Betty L.

I have been having very good experience with Rick Aguirre. He installed my tankless water heater two years ago and came to do the maintenance last week. Not just handling the job well, he also provided knowledge on the unit itself and how it should be maintained. He answered patiently for all my questions. He is a technician who is honest and trustworthy, and I highly recommend him.

T C.

These people bait and switch you. they quoted a price to book the appointment over the phone. their service rep called to verify. quoted and then day of service, they called saying they wouldn't work for the price they gave us. they do not stand by their employees pricing or integrity. dont use these people.

Kristin H.

If I could give monkey wrench a zero I would! One of the worst plumbing services! Initially they came to look at a valve that needed to be replaced in the bathroom. Ended up completely taking apart an entire section of the wall only to find out, they didn't have the proper replacement. And the repair man leaves. We are then notified via text mind you five hours later they needed to order the part. No ETA cut to a week later get a text that a technician will be here in a window between 2 and 6pm hours, no 24 hour notification mind you this was the same day. A month later and the job is complete . Horrible service from start to finish and then the final bill $6000 for a valve.