I have American Home Shield, so A1 Plumbing was the only company they would send out. My home is 12 years old. I had a new hot water heater put in December 2017 (5 yrs ago). That company came, drained, and put in a new hot water heater and attached back my instant hot water circulating pump in around 3 hours. No replumbing/redoing of existing valves/pipes/thimbles/etc.
Day 1 of A1 at my house went on for 7 1/2 hours (and the tank was already drained!!) and the man (he was polite enough) had to go to Home Depot to get parts. WHAT??? No water for over 7 hours. Suddenly, all my plumbing to and from the hot water heater PLUS my two year old recirculating pump needed replacing to get them up to city code (that when I called the city , hasn't been changed since 2015). WHAT??? American Home Shield paid for my hot water heater but I have to pay $1025 to get my system up to "code" even though code hasn't changed since 2015 and it was all fine in 2017. (??) I was SICK at the out-of-pocket expense, and know much of the work was totally unnecessary but it was all torn out, what could I do??
Warning: when using A1-they don't answer calls/messages (I tried 5 times the first day the young man was here). Hmmmmmm. After 7 1/2 hours, I was beginning to think he's remodeling my garage as long as this was taking and as much banging/noise as there was...and he STILL was not finished.....UGH He knocked at 8:30 pm to say he would have to return the next day to finish. What a mess & another day with no hot water! I'm no plumber, but I'm pretty sure I could've gotten it put in by myself in less than 7 1/2 hours.
Day 2: 2+ hours but he finally finished. A1 never returned my calls from either day, but the young man left without me paying him....so I'm betting that they'll remember my number suddenly! I will post comparison photos of before plumbing vs new plumbing.....looks exactly the same?????
City came out--all code things inside (nothing was changed) and in attic were fine, but after 10 + hours of installing the water heater-- A1 had installed USED parts on my NEW hot water heater. The city code inspector called the company to tell them the old parts are not acceptable and would leak, A1 will have to come back for the 3rd time to fix it correctly.
UPDATE: same plumber came--hoping parts were new this time. Not sure if city will have to come back. He made changes in about 45 minutes and was not pleasant this time around.
So, after nearly 11 hours, it's in and hopefully, up to code. If you have American Home Shield, you might have to use A1, but if you don't have AHS, I would recommend using ANY OTHER plumbing company before A1. My experience with them has been expensive & miserable. read more