Cal Plumbing & heating INC - Vista, California

Russ Dix

This is going to be a two part review of Cal Plumbing and Heating. The first part is a short, quick recommendation while Part 2 explains, in depth, the rationale behind Part 1.

Part 1: Cal Plumbing & Heating was extremely punctual, professional, and cost effective on two separate occasions. The owner personally came and worked on my furnace fixing it in short order. When I had to subsequently replace the unit, his employee was equally efficient and professional. My experience with other companies was not good (see part 2), so I was extra cautious with Cal. He delivered and I cannot recommend his company more highly.

Part 2: When our furnace originally started blowing only cold air, we contacted a company via Angie’s for service. They came the next day, identified the problem and told us the part would take 10 days and the repair would cost $650. We waited, with only a space heater for warmth, until they returned to install the part ten days later.

This technician, different than the original one, seemed uncertain about what he was doing, spending a great deal of time on his phone asking questions about the install. After more than an hour, he told us that he was going to have to take both the old and new parts back to the shop for troubleshooting.

Hearing nothing the next day, my wife called later in the afternoon to find out when we might have heat. She was told that they were quite busy and wouldn’t get to troubleshooting until the following week and it would be okay if “she found someone else”. That is when we called Cal Plumbing and Heating.

The owner himself arrived the next morning, assessed the problem, and said the missing part, which our first company still had at their shop, had likely “fried the motherboard”. Now we needed two parts! He said he had them both at his shop and could put them in that afternoon for $250. We enthusiastically agreed. That evening we had heat for the first time in 12 days.

The next morning, however, the furnace once again provided only cold air. A call to Cal had a replacement company, Cal was vacationing for the Christmas holidays, at our door the following morning. Yet another part had gone bad, this time to the tune of $450. The new company fixed it, but expressed concern over the gas valve, just about the only original part remaining, and suggested we replace it to reduce the delay in the heat cycle. We declined and enjoyed heat for the rest of the day and into the next. Alas, the furnace once again stopped producing heat.

We chose to wait until Cal returned from his vacation to address this new issue. When he arrived, he confirmed that the gas valve was creating problems and needed to be replaced. At this point, he counseled us that the heat exchanger also had significant build-up/corrosion. He said it could last another two years, but might only last two months, and suggested it might be a good time to replace the 38 year-old furnace.

While it was almost ten times the original repair, we agreed to having him install a new, modern, efficient unit in two days time. He arrived with a second technician, well within the target time range we had arranged, and immediately got to work. The tech worked a little over an hour to remove the old unit and install the new, making adaptations to the duct work in the process, while cleaning as he went. Cal returned at the end of the install to ensure all worked as promised and answer any questions we might have about warranty’s or unit function.

We couldn’t be happier with our new furnace and the service we received from Cal Plumbing and Heating. Had Cal returned after the furnace failed a second time, I believe we would have had the discussion about replacing the unit at that time rather than later, but that was a decision influenced by a lack of heat during the holidays.

Tom Kroll

Cal was awesome! Easy to schedule an appointment, showed up on time and very professional.
Expecting a costly repair we were happy to hear it was a simple fuse.
I highly recommend Cal Plumbing &Heating

Justin Morgan

Great Team. Fair Prices. Quick Service! I've been looking for a good plumber for too long. Cal is my new go to plumber. Thanks Guys!

JDS

Cal was a pleasure to work with, was very detailed and honest in his recommendations, and gave me a great deal on a nice mini-split heat pump. I also really appreciated that he stopped by during the install to check on things. Oliver and David did an excellent job with the install and took their time and went the extra mile to install a metal cover for the refrigerant lines that looks great. Overall I would highly recommend Cal Plumbing & heating to anyone.

David Maku

I hired them to re-plumb our bathroom plumbing system and met Javier. He was really capable and performed the full project in a short period of time. What I like the most is that he worked quickly and cleanly in our bathroom. I will continue to use this firm.

M.R. Johnson

Thank you David and Oliver !
After having some issue with our heater in our house we were lucky to find Cal Plumbing and Heating to repair our ducts .
When David arrived he immediately crawled under the house and checked all the vents and ducts and found the issue . David gave me several Options and was willing to work with our budget to get the job done .

We had another company out to check the problem and all that guy did was hold his phone in front of the heater and said he couldn't fix it.

David and Oliver were friendly , helpful, and did an amazing job fixing our system. They took away all the old ducts and made everything look clean and new. If You need any HVac work done, Cal will be the first people I call.
Thank you again David and Oliver for providing such great service .

Maria DeOcampo

I had a wonderful experience with Cal and David from Cal Plumbing and Heating. This company is professional and David did an outstanding job installing my water heater. He was so polite and enjoyable to talk to. They are top-notch! I highly recommend them and will be using them in the future. Thank you!

Linda Burns

I received prompt email and text notifications with my appointment status, which I appreciate. My appointment time slot was 8am-10am, and David O. arrived at 8am, which I appreciate.

I needed a leak under my kitchen sink to be looked at, and he found the issue to be the garbage disposal (which I had anticipated). I let him know that I was using a home warranty, and with that, he let me know my different options of different disposals. I did not feel pressured to make any particular decision, and I appreciate his integrity and great knowledge. Would definitely call them again! David is great!