How many of you know what hard water is? If you answered "ice" that is not the correct answer no…read morematter how cold it gets here in Minnesota. Well at least in case of what I am talking about here. Hard water actually has some pretty detrimental effects on items in your home. Some signs that you have hard water are your clothes don't get clean when washing them. There are stains in the toilet (no not from that either), and your shower head is not working as well as it once did. Your appliances can actually wear out faster with hard water and your pipes could even get clogged. No I am not a hard water specialist, but when we moved into our home over 20 years ago, I wanted to learn as much as I could about our home and how to take care of it. One of the first items we purchased was a water softener from Merles. Now over 20 years later that original water softener that we purchased is still going strong. We definitely can tell the difference between soft water in the house and hard water outside. The other nice part to all of this is that the only maintenance that we have ever had to do is every few months add a bag of salt to the salt bin of our water softener. You can purchase big bags of salt right from Merles. They even have a punch card where you can earn a free bag. If you think about the appliances alone that could be effected by hard water (dishwasher, washer, hot water heater), this is the type of product that is not only important, it pays for itself. Merles has always been great to work with and if we are ever worried about our water, we can bring a sample in for testing. To me, water is water. Like when I drink lemonade and tell my wife that lemonade is water, just with more flavor. Well water is water, but there is no doubt that soft loveable water is much better for you and your home than hard water.

Merles was old-school trustworthy. With the business being family owned and operated since 1950's,…read moreI felt it was great to support, and other reviews seemed to share they had good experiences too so, why not. John examined our water and gave us a quote and Dave installed, and both brothers were very friendly and knowledgeable, even when our older house gave a bit of an issue on the install. When I called with questions, I was given helpful information too. I recommend for anyone wanting to know if they need RO or just water softening, I cannot say enough about the Merles family being great and knowledgeable!

My previous experience with a home repair contractor was horrendous - I wrote a scathing review for…read morethat vendor on Yelp. So to experience the exact opposite of that with Champion Plumbing reinstates my faith in knowing there are still decent, professional and reasonably priced contractors in the Twin Cities. I would not hesitate to recommend Champion to any of my neighbors. Darnell was on time, courteous, and professional from beginning to end - he answered all of my questions, pointed out FYI's so I was aware of certain things about my new water heater, and provided a clear overview of Champion's MVP program. I'm sure these guys are scheduled for multiple appointments each day but Darnell never seemed rushed, I felt like he truly wanted to do a quality job, made sure everything checked out, and confirmed that I was satisfied with the installation. He completed the job from walk in/walk out in under 2 hours. Obviously no one enjoys shelling out money for a new water heater + installation. But if you have to, do it through a company like Champion. I'm glad I did.

Our water heater pilot wouldn't stay lit. Through Minnegasco, Champion Plumbing came to put in a…read morenew water heater for us. Austin a polite, very knowledgeable technician came to get the job done. He treated me with genuine respect. He took time to explain everything making sure I understood. When the job was done, he explained everything that was completed & how everything works. I'm surprised at how Austin made this as painless as it was. Thank you for sending him to get the job done. I'd recommend this company anytime!

Trevor Thompson did a great job! He cleaned our vents, ducts and even ran a sanitation device to…read morehelp clear the air!!! He was super nice!! Would definitely have them come out again!

I called Rt's Air Duct & Furnace Cleaning and they were able to come out the next day, they'd had…read moreanother job postpone and were available. Rich and his son were friendly, professional, and on time! Rich explained everything that they'd be doing over the phone and again in person and gave me an upfront price. They used a large vacuum in the basement next to the furnace and a truck mounted air compressor to blow all the crud back to the mainline where they used another tool that banged around a bit and moved everything to their vacuum. Rich also cleaned the furnace. It took a little over an hour and Rich suggested blowing out the vent line on our furnace. I'm glad he did! It was full of debris from some work that had been done on our chimney by the previous owner. When they were done they showed me the before and after pictures and all the stuff that they had collected. I have a dog, as did the previous owner, and the ducts were filthy. They also sanitized the ducts at no extra charge. I will definitely have Rt's out to our house again in the future.

My husband and I had an awful plumbing leak and were concerned cause it happened on the coldest day…read moreyet this winter (-20 below!). I tried calling around the area only to get voicemails - with many businesses locally not opening their doors until around 8:30AM - and I was making these calls at 6:30AM. In addition, some mentioned that they weren't traveling more than "x" amount of miles for service due to the cold and windchill. Howver, I decided to give this company a call and Wayne answered! He was not only helpful, but guided me through everything on the phone until he could get a plumber their and provided his cell phone in case I needed to contact him prior to the tech coming. Wayne moved things around on his schedule - in regards to priority - and scheduled the visit to our home as #2 for the day. Connor came to our home and was really very nice, professional, and guided me through what I should look for and keep an eye on. He fixed our issue in a quick amount of time and offered much insight based on his experience. He was great (and so was Wayne!) and I definitely couldn't recommend this small-owned business more as they are honest, reasonable, and prompt with their services!

This company is awesome! In the past they have fixed my leaking kitchen faucet and my garbage…read moredisposal. Today they fixed my faucet in my tub shower. Sam was very knowledgeable and told me everything I needed to know about the repair. He was efficient and fast! They have helped me so many times and I would recommend this company to anyone!

We have used Krinkies a couple of times now and could not be happier. Very responsive, great…read moreservice with advice and suggestions without pressured upselling. Prices are really reasonable and we got a reminder for annual service and cleaning.

Easy to contact and schedule. Showed up on time. They charge a little over $100 to visit, which…read morecould be applied to work. They do have coupons on their website to wave this with a repair. In my case, they sent their senior guy (Joe, master plumber, electrician, everything you can think of), and he suggested waiving the trip fee in exchange for the hour he spent diagnosing my Daikin heat pump communicating system (zones, zone board, etc.). That was $195, and I thought it was fair. The fix was mostly to adjust my zone board directly rather than through the thermostat, and also to analyze my plumbing needs for other projects. Nice guy, knowledgeable, I enjoyed talking with him. For the HVAC work, Joe had to call Andy, who is their Daikin pro and duct engineer. Andy knows what he's talking about, more than any other HVAC person I've talked to (4Front installed my system in a mess for the previous owner, Binder HVAC charged me a lot for wasted time because they didn't understand Daikin systems, while Twin Cities Heating and Air, Midwest Heating and Cooling, and Golden Valley Heating and Air all had no idea what to do and had weird suggestions). If you have a Daikin system, ask for Andy. He tuned my zone board, fixed some miserable duct work and leaks, and better yet taught me about how things work beyond the mysterious Daikin "algorithm." He was patient with my questions and suggestions, too. This work was about $400, which is way less than the $3,000 I got bilked out of at one of the other places. It took a few hours. For the plumbing, they sent Frank, who is another senior guy specializing in plumbing. Frank worked fast, was courteous, and did a few extra little jobs for me when I asked for advice on them, such as greasing a fused spigot and dabbing some silicone on a hole in the shower frame. He also educated me about my water system, including winterizing and shutoff procedures. For the plumbing work, Frank installed a water mixing valve and also terminated a leaking pipe in the ceiling. This work was about $600. It took a few hours. In both cases, they brought along an apprentice, each of whom was equally courteous and attentive. It was very endearing. For billing, there are a couple of things they do. 1) the charge is the price. They don't do the most granular breakdown of costs in the invoice, but they do calculate it and you can ask what the calculation is. It is not an estimate or a minimum charge, more like a bid. The nice thing about that is that it will cost that and no more, which means they are happy to stick around and help here and there without charging for time. For larger projects, I'm not sure if they would charge the lesser of the bid vs labor time, but I would hope so. I haven't needed them for something big yet. For example, Pulse Electric is an electrician service that never charges more than their bid, and charges for time if it's less. I think Krinkie's would just charge the bid, but I got the sense they would be reasonable if, say, a 3-day project took only 1 day. 2) They have a subscription service that seemed like a no-brainer. For $20/m, they will come out twice a year to tune your furnace/AC, and you also get 20% off all other services, which paid for itself with our plumbing and ductwork needs. Use these guys! I love having them as my go-to people now.

Highly recommend Dependable Drain. Kitchen sink was leaking inside the faucet and dripping into our…read morecabinet below, Chris picked up our previously order new faucet from the store and came out at 7pm. He was fast, efficient and extremely nice to deal with, definitely will be hiring again if/when we need it.

We had a pipe burst. Dependable Drain came over and were very helpful -- efficient, affordable,…read moreinformative, and even helped us with a few extra bits that came up when we turned the background back on. We recommend highly and would hire again without hesitation.

I can't recommend Sparrow Plumbing and Valentino highly enough. They've been a lifesaver and saved…read moreme hundreds of dollars. The first job Valentino handled for me was repairing a leaking shower temperature regulator after another plumbing company had already made three separate visits and still failed to fix the issue. Valentino quickly diagnosed the problem, repaired it correctly on the first visit, and went the extra mile to ensure everything was adjusted and working perfectly before he left. Since then, Sparrow Plumbing has been my first call for any plumbing need. They've handled everything from installing plumbing for a new washer and dryer to repairing my home's main water line. Recently, I discovered my home had excessively high water pressure. Sparrow Plumbing came out quickly, installed a new pressure-reducing valve (PRV), adjusted the pressure to a safe 70 PSI, and even replaced my main water shutoff ball valve at no additional charge. It's that kind of service that keeps me coming back. Every experience has been the same: honest advice, fair pricing, prompt service, and exceptional workmanship. It's rare to find a contractor who consistently delivers this level of quality and professionalism. The only thing I wish is that Sparrow Plumbing offered more home services, because I would gladly hire them for those too. Their plumbing work is absolutely top-notch, and I recommend them without hesitation.

I had meant to take care of this sooner but time got away from me…read more We had our water heater go on the fritz the day before we were scheduled to leave town for a week and we were over a barrel. Our normal plumber wasn't available and we couldn't find anyone that could come to take care of that before we left town until we contacted Sparrow. Came out that day and given the age of the heater we knew a new was gonna happen. And yeah, I'm the type thats suspicious of a craftsman that has immediate availability. Its usually for a reason. He came in and hauled the old one out and installed the new one and we haven't had any issues with it in the four months since the install. I had already researched what the price "should" be and he was in line with that. A bit of a talker, but cool, professional and did a quality job. Very happy with the result. Would use again.

Great local family owned business with great customer service and really decent pricing. We called…read moreand they came out very quickly. Jacob did a great job. Everything back to normal and clean up in a flash! Thank you!!!

Once again Kevin and his crew come to the rescue, this time for a failed water softener. These guys…read moreare responsive, efficient, knowledgeable, friendly and reasonably priced . We've used them for several years at various family homes.