O'Donnell Plumbing, Heating & Air

Landis D.

Gary suggested the minisplit AC project when visiting for an electrical/gas problem. After effectively communicating with us about a potential system we agreed to go ahead and the work was completed a short time later. Gary and Steve did the installation. Both are delightful to work with and provide both considerable expertise as well as experience.

Landis and Janet Doner

Mitch H.

Called to have them look at a leaking outside faucet. Came out the next day and gave me a quick estimate to replace the faucet of $399 less their $49 service charge for a total of $350. I declined their ridiculous estimate but of course I was still charged the $49. Found a local plumber to replace the faucet and an indoor water supply valve for $152 and it took him less than 25 minutes. I'm glad your business does so well that you don't have to be fair and competitive in your pricing. Never again, O'Donnell.

Julie S.

The heat pump of the home we have only been living in for one week began making a frightful noise and our thermostat began to drop. All this on the day of a blizzard, of course. I used the chat feature on O'Donnell's website, and John was at our house within 24 hours. He diagnosed the issue in 5 minutes. A second member of his team actually drove out to deliver a part he needed, so that he could finish the whole job in one visit. Truly exceptional service!

Andrea H.

O'Donnell Plumbing and Heating is an excellent choice for any one needing general plumbing for a new job, plumbing problems or emergencies. They took on a major job in our home and did it promptly and professionally within the time frame quoted. Because our home has equipment which is older whenever we had any issues, they were right there to get us up and running. Dave and his crew are courteous, honest, and clean...and you can trust that they will take care of your problem even if you are not there. I recommend them to all my friends and family and in my opinion you should feel confident in choosing O'Donnell Plumbing for any job
large or small.

Andrew L.

These guys are honest, punctual, and deliver a quality product and customer service. So happy to finally deal with a plumber that doesn't take advantage of people. They understand how the 100+ year old homes have been plumbed in Chestnut Hill.

Ray and John, the owner, are just really nice people. They do things the right way.

Patricia H.

I'm really surprised by the poor reviews here. They airsealed and insulated my attic and airsealed my basement this time last year. What a huge difference in the house! It is 100 years old and very drafty. The guys we worked with were professional and polite and gave us a few options. They split the job up across 3 months because of work we were having done in other parts of the house. They were just as pleasant to deal with the second time around. I called this last weekend to check on how the airsealing was holding up - I was getting mice in the house (ewww!) which indicated to me that the sealing had been compromised. Sure enough, Gary found a few places where other contractors were working and had created openings between our addition and the crawl space. He even climbed in the a very small crawl space in the front of my house to check on the seal there. It's all sealed up again and I haven't seen another mouse since. No mice, the house is cooler in the summer, warmer in the winter and they were a pleasure to work with. Can't ask for more than that.

Robert S.

Excellent Company. Came on time. Completed work right on schedule. Explained every detail of new AC units/compressor. Clean, accurate, knowledgeable, patient with customer questions. Highly recommend Rob who sold system to me and completed all work , with help from Gary. Can't say enough about their excellent work. Happy with new system; Rob gave detailed deemo of new thermostat, also.

Jeff L.

DO NOT HIRE. We were in a bind, read the Yelp reviews and went with them anyway. They were nice on the phone and agreed to come early in the morning the next day, which was off to a great start. But once on location, they could not work their equipment, then realized they brought inadequate equipment and didn't have the tool they had promised us on the phone.

We wanted a camera to scope out some vents with low air flow. They said they could do that, but come to find out their large sewer camera didn't fit in the in slab duct work. When they first tried to make it fit, they started saying things like, ""Well this gives you a good look"" ""I don't see any problems here"" and ""the air flow is good"". Not sure if they were going to try to play it off as a job well done, but ultimately they admitted it didn't work and didn't charge us.

We were in a pinch because we wanted to inspect a house that we have under contract and they new that. They quoted us at $375 to inspect the ducts with a camera. (A company we called after quoted us at $75. That company has been a pleasure to work with.) What killed me was them saying the air flow was good in front of the sellers agent when my husband and our home inspector disagreed.

Shame on us for giving them the benefit of the doubt after reading other people's experiences.

Cookie B.

Whoa! I just found out the hard way what O'Donnell Plumbing & Heating is about - or more to the point - what they're NOT about. They don't care about you as a customer, a friend, or a partner. It appears to me that they only care about money, not building relationships.

I had them do an energy audit a few months ago for a house that we recently purchased (they had installed the furnace). After the audit I still had questions about the furnace itself. I wanted to talk to someone about the capacity, efficiency of the model, and about the duct work for the heat distribution. I called two or three times and became more frustrated each time I called. I could never get past Jill, an office worker. She always answered the phone and she wouldn't let me speak to a technician and she wouldn't let me speak to the owner. The only thing she was willing to do was send someone to our house. I tried to ask her my questions about the furnace but she would just say that she wasn't technical. Duh.

Finally, after the frustrating calls to O'Donnell I called PECO and had them perform another audit. Their findings were very different and it still left me with questions about our furnace. One of the contractors associated with PECO called me and told me I could perform a simple test to help determine if the problem with our heat distribution is with the furnace or other aspects of the house. The ""tissue"" test would show whether or not there was ""return side air restriction"" in the furnace - or at least that's how I understood it.

This afternoon I called O'Donnell once again and told Jill that PECO had done an audit and that this test had been recommended to me. I wanted to know if the test was feasible and if O'Donnell might possibly perform the test if it sounded at all logical. Once again Jill offered to send someone to our house. I told her I would like to talk to someone first because the test could very well be unnecessary. It was my feeling that an expert would know exactly what to expect from this test, or if not, then they would come and do the test for me. I asked once again to talk to Mr. O'Donnell or a manager. She said John, a technician, had just driven up, she would talk to him and call me back.

I received a callback within 15 minutes and boy was I surprised!! Jill told me that she had talked to John, the technician, and they had decided that since I had no faith or trust in them, they felt it was time that I just move on and take my business elsewhere!! I was floored. Evidently they were mad that I had called PECO, even though I probably never would have if someone would have just talked to me (I'm lazy)! Besides, would I be a good consumer if I *didn't* get a second opinion?! The two audits came up with very different conclusions.

It's kind of ironical, but my heating and plumbing contractor in MA was named O'Connell and they were the absolute best! I knew all the staff by name, whether they be in the billing department, the manager of the heating or cooling department, or the owner himself! They never refused to take a call from me. I was always open and honest with them and they were always open and honest with me. I never once felt like they didn't care about me or that they were trying to take advantage of me. When I moved to PA I thought it was a good omen that our new heating and plumbing contractor was called O'Donnell - but that did not turn out to be the case.

My advice to anyone looking for a heating and plumbing contractor is to do your due diligence. Talk to people, get recommendations. Ask specific questions. Find a company that treats you like a friend, not a number, and find one that contributes to your community.

I will NEVER recommend O'Donnell or any company like them. This loyalty business goes both ways. I tried to be a friend and honest business partner with them and they treated me worse than a junkyard dog.

One last thing, and I don't know if this is a PA thing, a Philadelphia thing, or what, but while I'm ranting I might as well throw this in the mix. I had never run into companies that want to charge by the job instead of by the hour until I moved to PA. O'Donnell charges that way. It seems shady to me. I tried using Lowry Electrical services once. They also use that method for charging and when a guy came and gave me an outrageous estimate for installing an overhead ceiling light, I asked him how they calculate that ""per job rate"" and he said they calculate it to get $500 an hour!!

When settling on service providers find someone who treats you with respect and does a good job for you and stick with them. Hopefully I will eventually find a good heating and plumbing contractor. If anyone has any recommendations I'm all ears.

Philip R.

I thought I could put O'Donnel and Son, Plumbing and Heating out of my mind. But here I sit on my lunch hour and across the street is an O'""how screwed up are we""Donnell sign. To wit, Winter 2014, my very aged mother called O'Donnel to have her heater inspected. Of course they found something wrong but could or would not fix it because of its age and/or they could not get the part. They left leaving a paper with several replacement options, including an entire new system for a 1700 square foot house for almost $9000, which included A/C and Heat. My mother chose to have it all replaced.

Fast forward to the summer of 2014. The brand new A/C can not keep the house at 72 degrees when the temperature rises above 90.
Oh, fine! I call O'Donnells. They come out with two guys, screw around, lie to me or they are just way incompetent and dont understand what they are saying. Pick one.

Very, VERY long story short, O'Donnell's came back no less than five times, we have each receipt ticket, and ended up changing out the comptessor unit then the interior heating unit, AT DIFFERENT TIMES! Brand new stuff TWICE!

I called Goodman and asked for a Company Field Service Rep to please come out and fix this thing. Who appears? O' Donnells with their wholesaler from whom they bought the equipment, No Goodman person. So these 4 or was it 5 HVAC types put their heads together, do some pretend measuring and at that point agreed the heater unit did not match the a/c unit and thats when the heater unit got changed out. STILL SUMMER!

READ THIS: Before O'Donnells came everything worked fine, my 92 year old mother just wanted the heater checked! NOW, $8800 LATER, THE HEATER IS LOUD AND THE A/C still does not keep up.

My mother, remember 92, begged me to never call O'Donnelks again but please get someone here to decrease the heater noise. I did as she asked and the company we paid pulled a large piece of sheet metal out of the plenum that was testricting flow causing most of the noise. They critisized the use of a two speed motor rather than a variabke speed motor and confirmed for me the tonnage of the compressor was too little for the house's design, I.e., that unit will never keep up with hot/humid PA summers. I won't conclude suggesting whether to use these guys or not but like others here said, if you need accuaracy in when they arrive or what they tell you, look elsewhere. Philip R.