Schaal Plumbing, Heating and Cooling

Roger K.

I was looking for a new HVAC system, and for most this is a once in a lifetime investment. I got four different bids, all different as night and day. Schaal was without doubt the worst. Being a modular home with the furnace in a closet, I was interested in moving it to the basement. The other three bids said it would be no problem with all the extra room, but with Schaal the price doubled. In the basement, the others were actually cheaper. At one point they even talked about replacing all of the duct-work.

They even sent two guys so they could agree with each other. The bid itself was very simple in that there was no identification of item but brand. It's like saying I'll sell you a Ford for $10,000. If you are going to sell me a big-ticket item, you might want to let me in on just exactly what you are selling me. All other bids I received were good for 30 days. Schaal's bid was good for 7 days...that says a lot.

T B.

Very friendly, knew what to do, wasn't overpriced. Very satisfied with their service.

Abby R.

Quoted us a high price to repair our AC. Ended up just paying the diagnostic fee and getting a quote elsewhere which was almost half the price Schaal gave us.
Also after confirming the appointment an excessive number of times by email, call and text messages they still called on the day and had the wrong time in their system.
Services: Ductless heating and AC services, Repair HVAC

I posted my review to google and it's clearly been removed. They were really talking up their google reviews...

Jayne M.

Thank you to Joe Burkle for assessing my plumbing issues. He looked everywhere to check for any and all issues and was so patient with all my questions. He explained everything to me so I understood the issues and I have a better understanding of how all the pipes are routed and connected. I can't say enough on how hard he worked to diagnose the issues and it was very appreciated. Excellent service! Thank you Joe!

Also, a thank you to Scott Ault for his visit to provide the estimate for the repair work. Scott was very thorough and made sure I understood what would be done and the whole process. Again, excellent service!

What stands out so much from both Joe and Scott, they were both really easy to talk to and explain the situation and I felt comfortable asking any question and I felt like I understood how the repair process would work and everything that will be done.

Highly recommend.

Seana P.

They are wonderful! Prompt and reasonably priced.

They actually had to come out twice, once when we had no heat and no idea why and the second time when we just needed a stronger part to keep things running right.

Both guys on the first visit were very nice, knowledgeable and professional. They explained things in ""normal"" terms and made sure I understood.

Craig Thomas was on a solo trip the second time and he was very nice and seemed quite interested in mundane conversation as he fixed our heater.

He answered questions I had about other projects we had, that we will be tackling in the future.

Definitely recommend Schall Heating, Plumbing and Cooling!

Donna T.

I will never call this company again! I had Schaal here in June to check my furnace and air conditioner. They told me I needed a new furnace at the time and recommended I also replace the central air...they had showed me a picture of dust that had accumulated in my furnace...I had a bad feeling about this and cancelled the person who was to come and give me an estimate! Just today I had to have another furnace man come to my home and get my furnace started for a minor problem and was told my furnace may last me many more years! Makes me sad and a little mad that a company will take advantage of people like this! My recommendation would be to stay away from even calling them!

Greg S.

Had them out a few weeks ago to tune-up my furnace and it is running quieter now than it has since we have lived in the house. Tech Billie explained the services she performed and I really feel like I got my money's worth as she spent nearly an hour on it.

With my old provider, I felt like they were in and out as quick as possible and I always questioned the need to spend the money. Glad I found Schaal.

Vanessa M.

We had Schaal install our new furnace and air conditioning about 1 year ago, and then recently they came out to provide an inspection. The installation of the furnace went by very smoothly, the staff was professional and worked very cleanly, they did all new duct work, and moved our furnace/AC unit from the main living area to the basement. All in about 4 days or so. The furnace/AC works very well and I really appreciated that they sent a technician a year later to inspect everything and to let us know what other services were available. The inspection and maintenance explanation was also thorough and professional, and the technician was quite knowledgeable and friendly. I definitely would work with Schaal again!

Robert B.

We used Schaal because they were available for service the day our furnace stopped working. Upon inspection, the tech said we had a bad board. Cost to replace the board was quoted $1131 for the part and $55 to go pick up the part. Having had the same part replaced three years earlier, I checked my previous statement. It was about $550 at that time. (statement was for board and two inline surge protectors for $901). So I scheduled Metro Heating who had previously serviced it. They charged me $642 including tax and trip charge. The Schaal tech told me Schaal had a big parts increase that year due to the tariffs and said that Metro was selling me the board for $50 over their cost. That was a crock of BS that I verified with two other companies. I had scheduled Green Heating and Cooling to service my two furnaces today, a week after Schaal had been here. I asked Green to quote me the price to replace the same board. Their price was $551 for part, $89 for the service call, no charge to pick it up and no charge for the annual service if they would have been performing at the same time.

In my opinion, Schaal was attempting to rip me off. They may think that when a furnace is down in cold weather the homeowner is not likely to
let the tech leave without completing the repair. That is what have happened with me had I not recalled that the previous repair for the same problem was 50% cheaper. In this case, Schaal would have charged me $1364. Metro charged me $642. Green would have been $685.

You can be sure that I will let others know what I think of Schaal y'all.

Athena A.

Stay away from Schaal... and any other larger HVAC company.
Here are my few experiences with them.
1st - 12/27/16 - I had a routine servicing at which they found a small leak with the pvc exhaust pipe which was causing condensation to form and leak into the system - they called this ""acid rain"" and said its very dangerous. Although it is an issue I feel this avenue is a this fear tactic and a rush to sell you on something -this should be a huge red flag. After I agreed to the fix not fully knowing what it entailed due to the danger it posed they were going to charge me over $400 to ""repair/replace/pvc intake"". This entailed $20 worth of PVC and 20 minutes of effort. After the fact when I realized this I gave quite a bit of pushback on cost and the tech called his manager and they lowered it to $235 saying the reason for the billing was due to the operation of the business which I understand to a degree but not at a 400% increase - the 235 was still a ridiculous price but just goes to show the insane markup / sales they have and that either their overhead is way to high and they are passing that cost on to the consumer or their techs get commission. Either way I don't know how you can say you have been a trusted HVAC company in the area for 70 years when you are outright overcharging people who don't know better.
2nd - 7/1/19 - New estimate given on a replacing TXV valve / dryer (doesn't include refrigerant) which was causing issues with my AC unit cooling properly. The tech came back with a price tag of $1800 saying it would take approximately 4 hours to do the work. I was incredibly surprised at an estimate that would be nearly the cost of a brand new unit. This $1800 also was stated that it wasn't a guarantee on fixing the overall issue which they were only 60% confident that it would, they stated it would fix this ""part"" and if other issues arose costs could get higher, and as soon as they install the part I own it. Much like the first scenario this appears to be a fear tactic to upsell to a new unit all together making me think this fix is futile and a waste of money. The tech went out of their way to say if it's a long term solution he would consider buying a new system. My current system is 7 years old and because of my 1st experience I did a bit more research this go around to get comparable cost and what I could see online was 200 in parts and another 200 at most for labor. That puts Schaal at charging $400 / hr for their techs (which is what they were trying to charge on my last experience). I called a smaller ma and pop shop (one of those that don't need to market/advertise and they operate on word of mouth for being honest and trustworthy and asked them if they were to replace a txv valve and dryer.... They gave me a quote $325 - $375. They had looked at my system and determined is was just slightly low on Freon which they said was a $40 fix and if the TXV needed replace we can explore that more expensive $300 cost later. Needless to say the low Freon was causing issues and my AC is working well with no issues and cost a fraction of Schaal's quote.
My advice if you have to deal with them - Ask a lot of questions to understand what service you're getting. They don't break out the cost of labor and parts like they should instead they label the service as a package so you don't fully understand what the service entails, as a consumer this limits your ability to compare prices and research for yourself. I will commend them on their techs, they are friendly that said don't fall into that trap of having your best interest because they don't they are in a business to make money. I first hand have seen a fear tactics, timing, and now something that is so expensive and its possible it won't work you should just buy a new one. Additionally, they have wiggle room to get the price lower as mentioned with my first experience. I have seen some comments on here from the owner indicating it's not a sales environment and they pride themselves on competitive pricing in the Des Moines area. This is misleading as yes it is competitive when rating yourself to similar HIGH overhead / highly advertised / sales HVAC companies.