Plumbing Express and Utility

Terry M.

We had a great experience with them - quick response, and they correctly diagnosed an issue others hadn't with our boiler. We'll definitely use them again!

Pete P.

Fantastic service. We had an appointment to service our HVAC with an arrival window of 8 - 10 am. Mr. Cunningham was at the door at 8:00 am sharp. This is the first time I have ever seen a serviceman so prompt! The problem was quickly diagnosed and repaired. Derek was courteous and very knowledgable. I will recommend him to my neighbors!

B R.

The main sewer line was cloggged. John and Josh did an awesome job, using a water jet. They were very nice and the price was very reasonable too. Will call them again for sure.

Jay D.

Comparison of Capitol Plumbing (Capitol) and Paul's Plumbing and Heating, Santa Fe, NM (Paul's) with Road Runner Aircon, Heating & Refrigeration, Albuquerque, NM (Road Runner)

My Burnham Series II boiler serves seven valved zones of in-floor radiant heating tubes in various rooms (and part of the garage) of a 2050 sq. ft. one-story house. I called these three companies for a pre-winter checkup because some zones appeared not to be working well.

All three techs found that the pressure side of the temperature-pressure gauge integral to the boiler was not working, but was stuck at about 7 psi. Beyond that, their diagnoses and recommendations differed radically:

1. Capitol's tech found two little nuggets of calcium or other mineralization under the burners, which I did not notice before or afterward. The tech claimed these nuggets were evidence of a heat-exchanger about to fail. Its failure, he said, would flood my boiler closet, which does not have a pan under the boiler as current code requires. He also found discoloration of the fiberglass insulation, which, he said, was evidence of ""rollout"" of flames, and he said my rollout shutoff switch was not working. He recommended installing a new boiler for about $9,000, plus $5,700 more for a water treatment system (for mineralized well water, common near Santa Fe), for a total cost of $14,700. He did not offer to replace the bad gauge, nor did he mention the input water pressure limiter. Charge for the visit: $146.22

2. Paul's tech soon found the bad internal gauge and played with the pressure limiter, but did not suggest replacing it. Wanting a second opinion, but not wanting to suggest a high-cost solution, I asked the tech to examine the heat exchanger. The two nuggets of condensed minerals found by Capitol's tech were gone, but Paul's tech used a fiber-optic system to discover small areas of mineralization in some corners of the heat exchanger's tubes. He seemed reluctant to recommend replacing the boiler. But when I asked him what a replacement and water treatment system would cost, he informally quoted a price of $14,000. Charge for the visit: $101.65

3. Neither Capitol's nor Paul's tech would put any quote in writing before I committed to a verbal price first. This to me was a red flag of sorts. On a later phone call, perhaps with a troubled conscience, Paul refused to commit to a replacement date, pleading lack of time during the busy heater start-up season.

4. I looked up the replacement boiler on the Web and confirmed with Paul the model number by phone. The boiler, a Weil-McLain CGa-6-PIDN - 146K BTU, costs $2,299, plus delivery, from the ecomfort.com website. That implied an installation charge of over $6,500. John Lial of Road Runner (see below) later said installation would take about a day and cost about $1,000, for a total price of under $3,500, as compared to the $9,000-plus that both Capitol and Paul's quoted orally.

5. I called Road Runner for a third opinion, and John Lial responded to the call. He has 37 years' experience with heaters and boilers and ran his own high-stress business for seven years, serving fire-control centers in Alamogordo.

John examined the boiler and pronounced it fit for service. He said no one replaces a boiler for *presumed* heat-exchanger problems before the heat exchanger actually fails. He said they rarely fail catastrophically but first spring small leaks, usually over many months. He advised me to install a small Proteus moisture detector, which will send me and my fiancee e-mail and text messages if water appears on the floor of the boiler closet. I bought one from Amazon for about $100 and installed it. Charge for John's visit: $74.74

Some time later, John installed a small screw-on gauge on the water supply, to supplement the bad internal boiler gauge. After a couple of weeks of testing, I was troubled that the boiler would not hold its rated pressure but suffered a pressure drop within a few hours after I brought it up to rated pressure (15 psi or greater) using the input pressure limiter. When I did this, the boiler safety valve sometimes also leaked.

A few days later, John returned, purged the system and replaced the pressure limiter and boiler safety valve at my request. Both showed signed of clogging with gunk, and there were signs of big particles in the otherwise clear purge water. After several hours, the boiler appears to be holding the limiter's rated pressure of 15 psi, and there are no leaks through the new 30 psi boiler safety valve. The price for this work was $338.

My conclusions are that Capitol and Paul's are willing to exploit customers' presumed ignorance (unfortunately for them, I'm an ex-physicist) to charge exorbitantly for unneeded work. I will use John Lial at Road Runner for all future work on my boiler or water heater.

Jon W.

I've called Roadrunner 2 times recently for plumbing issues at 2 properties. Both times, the technicians were friendly, professional, experienced, had equipment or replacement parts needed and got the job done. I'll continue to call John Vigil of Roadrunner when plumbing, AC or heating issues come up.

Alan J.

I moved to Santa Fe and purchased a house that had something called a ""Swamp Cooler"" on the roof. I since have learned Swamp Cooler are evaporation coolers, a science that has been around since the time of the Romans. Anyway, my realtor, realizing that I probably needed some help when I asked if there were alligators in the swap, suggested that I have units ""tuned up"" by Roadrunner. Having never owned a house equipped with an evaporation cooler before I was unsure of what a tune-up included. I thought that a it might include removing the canvas cover; checking the pump and motor; adjusting or replacing v-belts as needed; replacement of the fiber pads if necessary and checking the float with a general cleaning of the water reservoir. I, of course, assumed that parts would be extra.


I was on the west coast when the service expert arrived. He spoke to my wife, who texted me that the repair for the unit would be in the area of $1,451.39 ""or more"". She explained that there was a field mouse nest within the cooler's reservoir along with a multitude of other problems. I asked her to hold off on the repairs until I returned from my trip. We thought that maybe we would just go ahead and install A/C.

When I returned from my trip my wife provided me with a hand written estimate completed by the service expert.

After reviewing the estimate I was surprised to say the least. The expert removed the pump from the cooler and told her that it needed replacement. I guess he thought it was defective. I plugged in and it pumped water until I disconnected it two weeks later. Months later it still pumps away like the day it rolled off the assembly line in China.

According to the note given to my wife by the expert, the V-belts needed to be replaced in both units. $150 for the replacement of one belt and $127 for the other. I am no expert on these matters, but looking at both belts they looked okay to me. I replaced them both for $10.00. Is there something I missed here? Shouldn't the tune-up include adjustment of the belt? If the belt needed replacement, how much trouble would it be to replace it. Again, I am no expert, but it took me five minutes. What really is remarkable is that the expert didn't seem to realize that units are identical. The $150 belt was the wrong size. Apparently the last expert to service this unit installed a the wrong sized belt. Never-the-less, $277.00 to replace two fan belts seems, well, outrageous. Maybe there is something I don't understand about loosing the bolt, taking the old belt off, putting the new one on and then adjusting the tension.

He removed the float. Does it really cost $119 to replace it. By the way, I reinstalled it, and it is up on my roof as I write this letter, seemly floating as it should.

The expert found both of the 90 degree elbows in the watertight electrical conduit to be damaged and he estimated the cost of replacing them at $580.00. Was this work to be done by a licensed electrician? I spoke to a friend who owns a high voltage splicing company and he thought that for that price the work should be done by a journeyman electrician and the high amount must include a move in fee. I replaced both lengths of conduit in 30 minutes, which included replacing the wires and ensuring the installation satisfied the NEC.

The expert told my wife that there was no water service on the roof. He has a point here. I've never been a ""swap cooler expert"" but I would assume there is not water flowing to the roof because the supply valves must be shut-off. This after all was tuneup on a unit that had not been operating during the winter. Hummm, where could that ball valve be? Maybe when I realized that the water supply come up from over the bathroom and kitchen sink that I might start my search there. Eureka! I found it. I'm surprised he didn't tell the Mrs. that we had to run a new line from the Rio Gande.

I was born at night, but not last night. What value did I received for my $235 ""tune-up."" The only value I can see is that the expert removed the cover and left it on my roof. Was this high estimate a sales tactic to encourage the installation an AC unit? We did receive an estimate from the company to install two AC units.

With the exception of the replacement of the electrical, everything that I did to make these units functional should have been included in the Tuneup.

This reminds me of the fraudulent auto repair shops you occasionally see investigated on the evening news. What makes me think this is the estimate was written on the back of an employee time sheet. The front indicates the employees are paid a commission and also get remuneration for ""up sales.

They are not big on customer service either. I sent the manager an email regarding this and he didn't even bother to favor me with a reply.

Jeanne B.

We had a filter casing crack on our water filtration system at 6 pm on a Sunday night. Garage half flooded. Our distress call was picked up by their professional answering service who got a technician on the phone with me in 5 minutes. He was at our home within 40 minutes. We had the system repaired within 24 hours. Very professional, very pleased.

DeeDee D.

I would never use anyone else. Got lucky last year and tried Roadrunner for the first time to service my complicated ERV HVAC system in my very Eco-friendly and sustainable home. They sent out Tim Sandoval for the service, and he was familiar with the system, and knew exactly what to do.... I was super impressed as no one else in town knew what I was talking about. Clearly, Roadrunner keeps their people up-to-date on training. Polite, Professional, Intelligent, Efficient, and well-trained. What more could any home ask for? Oh! I know what else: I have signed up for their bi-annual maintenance service... which really, is the best deal in town. Thanks to Roadrunner, my house once again has clean air and a perfectly humming Mitsubishi HVAC. Thank you, Roadrunner! (and special thanks to Tim Sandoval.)

Matt S.

I deleted my old, less than great review for these guys after my latest interaction. The tech, Scott, was so nice and helpful, as was everyone I spoke with on the phone. Scott came and assessed the issues quickly, was honest about what was imperative and what wasn't, and what kind of cost we were looking at. He fixed several issues while here, even staying two hours later than estimated to make sure everything was completed before leaving. I will 100% use Roadrunner again in the future!

Deanya C.

We live outside Santa Fe and purchased our splitter units from Roadrunner. The product and service was excellent. Derrick and his employees go out of their way to provide good customer service. We love our Mitsubishi units. More recently, Roadrunner repaired our tin drain. They came to our house very quickly after I called and the drain was fixed. We highly recommend Roadrunner.