Plumbing Express and Utility

David F.

I recently remodeled my home. I called several heating and air conditioning companies and selected Roadrunner because they gave me the most thorough proposal. I ended up taking their recommendation to install mini splits. I love the result. In the winter the heating was perfect. Now that warm weather has come my wife and I love the air conditioning. The system is quiet and efficient. Possibly best of all the system is constantly cleaning the air in our house. Roadrunner did a great job. They were great to work with and the end result was exactly what we were looking for. I highly recommend them!!

As an update to the review I wrote above, I called RoadRunner out for a repair. They were prompt and did a great job. It's one thing to do a great job when you're waiting to get paid. It speaks volumes when a company does a great job following up after they've been paid. I wish I could add a sixth star! Thanks guys.

Dane W.

I've had a terrible experience dealing with Roadrunner/their staff. I called yesterday to see if they could send a plumber/contractor out to diagnosis what I believe to be a leak in a bathroom. Considering the urgency of the matter, I was told by a rude worker, ""Janelle,"" assumingely their customer service rep/scheduler, that a plumber would've possibly been able to come out yesterday after he finished a job he was on and do a diagnosis. If not, she agreed to call me and let me know either way, and let me know if they were going to come out ""very early"" the next morning, so that I could schedule my day and plan accordingly. I never received a call from Janelle, unlike she promised, so I figured I'd wait until this morning to see if they called with a time range that they were going to show up, or maybe they'd just show up after a while. I woke up around 6 AM and waited nearly six hours for a call or for someone to arrive at the door. I didn't receive any communication, nor did anyone arrive at the agreed upon location. So I called after waiting about 6 hours for some follow-up, and spoke with Janelle again, explained to her my circumstance and asked if anyone is coming today. She responded very rudely by raising her voice, cutting me off, speaking over me, and essentially calling me a liar because she claimed that her employee's GPS showed he was at the location at 10:36 AM (which, by the way, is not ""very early/first thing in the morning""). I swore to her that no one knocked on the door, rang the doorbell, or even gave me a courtesy call to say they were here. I even suggested that maybe it was possible he was at the wrong location/door unwittingly, but she wasn't having it and offered no concessions for wasting my day, which was scheduled around what we agreed upon the day prior. All she said after I inquired is that she was sorry she didn't call yesterday because she was ""busy."" That's ridiculous. A two minute call or email would've sufficed, c'mon. Nevertheless, a call by the plumber/contractor upon his supposed arrival today would've been helpful. All she had to offer to me was them possibly coming out LATER NEXT WEEK to do a basic diagnosis.

I then decided to try calling a manager of their company before leaving this review to see if we could work something out, and spoke with another unhelpful, rude, and unprofessional woman named ""Linda."" She and Janelle essentially mirrored one another, making me sound like a fool for saying no one showed up or called. I have the proof... regardless, why would I lie?! It's in my interest to get the potential leak addressed ASAP, which is why I took off an entire day to have the urgent issue addressed promptly and professionally. I'm disgusted and offended by the immaturity and attitudes of the two Roadrunner employees with whom I spoke. I'll be sure to refrain from doing any business with or relying on them in the future, as they aren't reliable, are accusatory, and have wasted precious time regarding an important issue. I couldn't recommend them to any friends or loved ones. STAY AWAY!

Andy C.

Excellent call back time and service, all on a holiday weekend. Thank you Derek for being so responsive and efficient in solving the problem and finding the parts on a Sunday afternoon. Fees were reasonable too, even with weekend charges. Thank you!

Coleen D.

I recently called Roadrunner to do an estimate on some repairs on a property in Santa Fe. They came on Monday nearly two weeks ago and I have been attempting to get a copy of the estimate ever since. 5 voicemails three person to person calls and 6 text messages have yielded no response. This company used to be on my recommendation list to clients for heating and plumbing repairs but after this absolute disrespect of my time I can no longer recommend them. Call TLC Plumbing instead.

Jim D.

Roadrunner gave us the most comprehensive quote compared to two others. Everything was spelled out to fit AC to our existing heating system with all questions answered, (thanks Bill). Install went well thanks to Tim and Josh - very professional.

Brad A.

The guy they sent wouldn't listen, I had to tell him everything twice, he seemed confused and didn't get it. I showed him floor plans for our addition he kept getting it wrong. He said he couldn't make a determination of what was needed. I got frustrated after explaining the layout with the addition for the fourth time. He accused me of yelling at him. I told him to leave, he reopened my front door and shouted at me. I told him to leave the property immediately he responded by saying, ""fuck you"" and giving me the finger. I really had heard good things about your company and I am extremely disappointed as you came highly recommended from friends. I have never been so rudely treated in my life by someone seeking my business. I can't tell you what to do but if it was me that guy would be fired.

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.