Bell Plumbing & Heating Company

We signed up for the Bell Service plan last month. We just used it again today for a serious clog. Looking to use it again for a new hot water heater. Our plumber Bill PataLuna was awesome, great service, great information and future prevention. Very happy customer! more

I have had excellent service with Bell Pluming and heating from my prompt estimate by Doug Beck to installation by Mike Edmiston and Lawrence Lopez. Their contract electrician Tracy Scott with Greiner Electric even arrived early and helped me shovel out snow so the crew would be able to access my driveway. Thanks Scott! The result is I have comfortable heat in my house for the first time in 13 years. Most importantly I did not feel that they tried to oversell what I needed. I can highly recommend Bell Plumbing and Heating from my experience. more

The tech, Bill Pataluna, was courteous, efficient and knowledgeable. The tech was on site about an hour after the emergency was called in to Bell on a Sunday morning. We are highly satisfied with the installation and will continue to call Bell for our plumbing needs. more

I would strongly urge everyone to avoid using Bell Heating & Plumbing for any emergency repairs. During a recent cold snap I had a copper line break that was part of my baseboard heating system. When I called Bell, they could come to my house, but as a policy, they would not give me any estimates over the phone even though they have flat rate prices for every fix imaginable (more on that later). They clearly want to get to your house so you feel obligated to agree to fixes at outlandish prices. For full disclosure, I discovered the leak when I came home from work, and Bell was able to service my call after hours. I would expect to pay a premium for such work, but not to such an extreme. As for the actual plumbing work, I had already identified the leak areas prior to the technician arriving. Part of the leak was where copper pipe rounded a corner in the house through a section of drywall. The flat rate I paid to "expose frozen pipe"? $407. The work involved? Taking a crowbar to the wall to break maybe 2 square feet of drywall which took maybe 5 minutes. (This first charge was the only charge I was informed of in advance, by the way. All other charges were presented to me when the technician was leaving). Next up, the technician needed to fix the broken piping. During this work, he removed a section of heating register (the part that actually dissipates heat into your house) that was only replaced with straight copper pipe, something that would need to be replaced again later. He welded in two small sections of new copper pipe (~3 or 4 feet worth for a total material cost of about $10 at home depot). This took an hour plus, especially since some welds leaked the first time the system was reloaded. The "Freeze Break" flat rate? $597. The final step of the puzzle is draining and purging the system. As part of filling back up the heating lines, you must first remove all air from the lines. This takes some time (maybe an hour), because you have run water through all the lines and slowly bleed out all the air, and then you have to add enough water back to the system to get it at the right pressure. The "Drain and Purge" flat rate? $220. So everything included, we are talking about over $1200 in charges for a few hours of service (including drive times and some time to look over the system upon arrival) and about $10 worth of material. At first, I chalked up these charges to just being an expensive after hours call, but it was only when I started asking around to other plumbers that I really started questioning the service. First of all, by not replacing the register, the heating capacity in my home was reduced. I even placed several calls back to Bell for quotes on fixing the register, but never received a call back from the technician. The second mistake I came to discover is that no glycol (antifreeze) was put back in my heating lines which is a best practice for boiler systems. Without the antifreeze, I ended up having a burst pipe again a month later in the same spot that was repaired (the piping with no register), even when I was extremely sensitive about keeping my heat pumped up in the house after my previous incident. That was it for my dealings with Bell. I called up another outfit when my second break occurred (Mountain Aire, if you must know). They basically did the same repair, only it was completed correctly. They installed a new register, fixed broken pipe, improved my system by installing several ball valves so I could have greater control over my system, and then purged my system and reloaded it WITH a glycol solution. So with material (register, copper pipe, ball valves, and glycol), and a few hours of work, I got a bill for $526.50 ($215 of which is material). Admittedly, this call was handled during the day, but they did respond immediately. Once you remove material cost (since Bell’s was negligible), we're talking about almost a $900 difference in price for the EXACT SAME SERVICE between two companies. Is the after hours premium worth that much, or is this price gouging a customer in a vulnerable position? I’ve made up my mind, and I won’t be using Bell’s services in the future. more

We could not be any happier with the recent experience we had with Bell Heating. A couple days ago, we smelled gas coming off of our furnace. We called Xcel and they notified us that we had a leak from inside the furnace unit which required prompt addressing. This scared us. We called Bell and they scheduled an appointment quickly. Our technician, Jeff, arrived on time, was incredibly knowledgable and at no point did we get the "I'm getting scammed" feeling. Price quoted upfront, was surprisingly fair, and issue was resolved. Great work. We will use Bell, again. more

Bell plumbing and heating, and there service associate Brian, were very helpful and efficient. I would definitely return to the for other service if needed. Thank you for great work. more

I will not be recommending Bell Plumbing. This has been by far the worst experience that I have received from a company. I had a competing company come out for an estimate on moving a heating duct in an unfinshed basement. Later that day I called Bell Plumbing to get an estimate for the same work. I was told by the scheduler that the person who was to come out and perform the estimate would be able to do the work that day. The estimator came out on Monday and was not able to give the estimate on the work that needed to be done and I was told that another person would have to come out to do the estimate and it would be another week to two until they were able to complete it if we went with them. He then talked to me about having my furnace serviced. Since he was already there and it hadn't been done in several years, i ok'd him to do that. Well, I still havent received a call back from Bell to have the estimator come out for the original work i was wanting. After a week going by with no word from them, i went back to the original contractor who was able to come out the next day to complete the work. While they were there, they looked at the servicing of the furnace and told me that it didn't look like the tech from Bell had done anything of substance with our unit. So not only have I still to this day not heard back, I got charged 3 times what a local competitor charges and didnt get what I was wanting from them. When I called asking for a reduction in charge or refund, i was told that he took measurements. I will not be calling back. more

My heater went out on the morning of whats to be the coldest night this year. I called and the friendly gal who answered the phone set up my appointment with ease! Jeff was my service tech and not only was he ON TIME but he went above and beyond getting my heater up and running! Jeff is the guy you want!!! more

Doug Livingstone is excellent-really good at what he does. more

I used Bell plumbing today to clear a clogged sink. Technician, Brian Schmahl, was very helpful, knowledgeable, courteous, and efficient. He cleaned out the drain quickly and gave me tips on how to keep it from clogging in the future. I would very much recommend Brian and Bell Plumbing in the future! more

Our water heater went out which resulted in a very significant leak. We called your competitor (*!** - rhymes with fun) that did the installation 11 years. They said the heater was covered under warranty and we only had to pay for labor and code upgrades (est. $800). *!** showed up on time and quoted us $1750. The bulk of the cost was in "code upgrades". These are not building code upgrades, rather, trade association upgrades. We called Bell and told *!** "no". John Willing arrived 1 hour later and did the complete installation for $1120, the same price we were quoted on the phone. John was very professional and helpful. Great job Bell. Sorry *!**, the experience with you was not fun. more

Jason Rios was on time and very fast. He took time to explain the problem very well to us!! Thank you for an excellent job. more

I had trouble finding where my tub was leaking from and Jason found it and offered suggestions on how to minimize the leak. He even called back with the name of a Bell employee who specializes in tile and caulking work. I would recommend Jason to any friend who needs a plumber. I have kept his card to ask for him the next time I need plumbing services. more

Chris was prompt and friendly and solved our air conditioning problem very professionally. I would highly recommend bell plumbing and heating. more

After finally receiving an invoice in July for repairs done in April to two different rental properties, I called to question one of them. Even though they say their service call fee is "$49" I received a bill for $114.00 for a second visit after a major repair 4 days prior to a furnace. Supposedly it says they found the furnace filter was "clogged" so it tripped the reset switch. However wouldn't a reputable company have checked the furnace filter as part of the service on the first call? Besides that, I learned they didn't even replace the filter - the tech told our tenant he did not have the correct filter, so he wrote down for her the filter she needed and she had to go buy it and install it herself, but we received a bill for $114.00 for him to come and tell her this and hit the reset button. When I called, I've been basically told tough. I will never, ever use them again. Their billing is a screwed up mess and it's impossible to get real answers from anyone in customer service. more

bill and brian very courteous and professional. more

We are renting a house where the air conditioner was installed just before we moved in. It has been nothing but problems and they tell us nothing is wrong with it. Finally after the third trip out they figured out it was not turning on all the way. They were also terrible at returning calls (Karen I believe) more

Bill Pataluna was thorough and helpful. more

7/8/13 We are very happy with Jason Rios. Great personality, polite and efficient. Impressive and we want him to service our Laredo Home Apartments when ever we need help and work to be done. Thank you Jason!!! more

I had a bunch of plumbing issues: 2 toilets that wouldn't flush, leaky shower head, clogged drain, PRV needed. Also needed to identify a leak source. Jason got all the work done, neatly and efficiently, and even called in Ryan for a second opinion. The cost was very fair for all the work I had done. more