Reliance Holmes Heating And Cooling Ottawa

Had Neil Durling come by to look at the Heater. Neil had also been by last year for the furnace. I like working with Neil. He so clearly likes his job and gets satisfaction from helping people out. Always courteous and conscientious. Very happy with my service.

Since the start of this year's heating season (Nov. 2012), our 30 year old furnace started acting up for the first time since we bought our house in 1999.

We called Holmes Heating since they were the installers of this existing furnace, which had been purchased by the previous homeowners in 1983. We figured if the one they installed before lasted through all these 30 years, they couldn't be too bad!

When their service technician Neil showed up (ahead of schedule!), he fixed the problem quickly and efficiently - demonstrating everything that was happening (a stuck exhaust vent damper and finicky blower fan controller) and basically giving me a quickie HVAC course right there in my basement. I quickly agreed with his recommendation that we finally replace our "antique" - having gotten much more service from it than could have been reasonably expected.

The next week, Dave the sales guy came by and explained all the options available to us. We went with his suggestion to replace our 9 year old water heater as well, especially since that would allow us to close up our conventional chimney and the associated outside combustion air intake pipe (since the new more efficient units would only need smaller PVC air inlet and exhaust pipes).

A few days later the installers, Andrew and Jason, showed up on schedule in the early morning and had everything installed and working by the end of the day.

They explained the workings of the new systems, cleaned up everything and took away the old furnace and water heater at no charge.

So far (first week or so) everything is working out great. The new water heater works fine - and although the new high efficiency furnace takes a bit of getting used to compared to our old behemoth (which absolutely belched out the heat when it was on) - it certainly maintains whatever temperature we request at the thermostat.

It's also nice that our basement is no longer the warmest place in the house (even after plugging all the registers there) - presumably because the old (now removed) exhaust pipe is no longer acting as a "radiator" as half of our heating energy escaped up the old chimney.

All of the individuals we dealt with from Holmes were amongst the most professional, friendly and effective home service people we've ever had the pleasure to deal with.

Overall, the whole experience went way better than we had expected or could have hoped for. We would not be inclined to write this review were it not for the desire to see that people doing a job well done get their well-deserved accolades.

PS - We went with the option to rent both units, which is why the Approximate Cost is only $100 - the monthly rental fees for both the furnace and water heater.

Neil Durling and Dave MacKie did incredible jobs fixing my furnace! Both came promptly, were polite, knowledgeable, helpful, and resourceful! I would highly recommend Holmes Heating.
Thank you so much for helping us out!!!

I arrived home from work to a cold (59 deg) house at 4:45pm and a found I had a non-working furnace. After an initial inspection (checked the intake/outake vents outside for clogging, checked the filter, etc) nothing obvious was found. Placed a call to Holmes. Guy on the phone said it was a busy evening with lots of calls, so the earliest I could get a visit would be 7-9pm but no guarantee. Also, told no guarantee on it getting fixed based on parts onhand. No sooner than 15 minutes later, got a call from the technician (Neil Durling) saying he was just finishing a job 3 blocks away and wanted to swing by for a quick check to see if it was something simple. He came over and after a quick look, determined it was indeed as simple as a cracked ignitor. Easy fix and part was in the van. All in all 30-45min and my furnace was generating heat and he was on his way. Neil explained everything well, answered my questions and was extremely pleasant to deal with. Top notch service, top notch attitude and all around really, really nice guy. I can't stress that enough...Neil is exactly the type of representative that ANY service organization should be proud to have working for them. Are you listening Holmes Heating? Treat him right, Neil is a keeper!

Our 2 year old rental furnace from Reliance stopped heating on Saturday. Technician told me it was the control board on the thermostat and would need replacement. I was literally left in the cold until late afternoon Monday. Norm was the technician sent to get it going again. Norm took the time to figure out what the problem was since just replacing the Board was not the answer. Took considerable persistence. Finally figured it out then Norm proceeded to put aluminum tape on various duct joints to improve heat performance. Appreciated his persistence and willingness to ensure I was not left in the cold any longer since it was -25 degrees last night! Thanks Norm!!

Alex did a great job. He arrived on time, was efficient and polite. I would highly recommend him and Holmes Heating. The $120 was for the fireplace cleaning. The furnace cleaning was covered by my maintenance agreement.

Holmes Heating maintains our furnace for the last 20 years and we are always happy with their service. Our furnace stopped working today. Norm has found the problem and fixed it quickly (broken thermostat). He was polite, efficient and very helpful.

I wanted to acknowledge the FURNACE WHISPER- Neil Durling for his patience and understanding during this long history of the furnace issue. Neil took the time to ensure the issue was rectified and did not re-occur.. Also want to acknowledge the support of Larry and Feddie. HH has been top notch for cust service.
Thanks again Neil - Dale

Neil Durling did an excellent job. Explained everything he was checking and why. He had to drive across town to get the part to fix the furnace. After it was all back together he felt the furnace was too loud. He took the time to open up the furnace again and found that the new part was defective and making excessive noise. He could have easily have just left it but he took the extra time to make sure it was fixed right. Much appreciated.

The technician arrived at the arranged time and in a reasonable time from our call for assistance. Our technician (Neil) did an excellent job of diagnosing the problem with the control board, replacing it and then double checking that all was well and at the same time explaining the issue to me. Thanks. Phil