I had my old furnace replaced by Mandarin Heating and Cooling in Fall 2016. I got four quotes with comparable prices, and finally chose this company based on a recommendation of a colleague and the reviews on Homestars. Regretfully, I am very disappointed with their performance because of the followings:
Problems in vent termination.
After the work was completed, I checked the finished work against the installation instruction and found 3 major problems in the vent termination: (1) The air inlet and exhaust outlet terminals was too close (5.5 in), which was much less than the minimum allowed distance (12 in, in accordance to CSA International B149 installation codes). This problem may result in recirculation of the exhaust back into intake pipe, causing the furnace operates inefficiently and unsafely. (2) The heights of both terminals above the ground (16.5in) were lower than that of the required (20in, described below), and this may result in block of the terminations by snow accumulation. The installation instruction clearly states that 12in minimum clearance of termination above average snow accumulation is required; according to Environmental Canada, GTA yearly has 5.2 days with average snow accumulation ≥7.9 in”; therefore, the minimum height of the termination should be about 20in (7.9in + 12in). (3) The outlet vent was covered with a PVC screen while the installation instruction uses an “IMPORTANT” sign warns that: “Do not use screens in exhaust terminations. Doing so will cause freeze-ups and may block the termination.” Brian said the termination was fine, however, since I insisted corrections, Brian later sent other technicians and fixed these problems.
Eight unnecessary joints in a 6-feet gas pipeline.
Shut-off valve, elbow and drip leg are necessary, and the resulting joints are inevitable. However, in the finished 6-feet gas piping there are 8 more unnecessary joints. This is because short, mainly 6in, black pipes were coupled to replace long ones. There are 4 such extra couplings, resulting in 8 unnecessary joints (each coupling has 2 joints). For example, a 1-foot straight gas pipe inside the furnace was installed by coupling two 6in pipes. This "putting-remnant-together" kind piping is not only ugly-looking, but is also a safety concern. Brain explained that “using the coupling inside the furnace is a standard practice, it's 100% safe after leak testing”. However, it is a common sense: the more joints, the higher the gas leaking possibility.
Rough operation.
The workmanship of Mandarin Heating and Cooling was poor. The operation was rough. For example, the furnace was pushed and dragged into the furnace room in a rude way regardless of the nearby water heater; the rug they used was pretty dirty and not long enough to cover the path; some mess was left in the furnace room, including a cigarette butt (brought in by shoes?).
In my opinion, the installation was unprofessional and the workmanship was bad, I don’t recommend this company!
- Approximate cost of services:
- $3,600.00
- What could this company do to improve their services?
- Any advice to offer fellow homeowners facing a similar project?
- Company Response
We installed the furnace for Jenny about one year ago, after the job done, Jenny and her husband called us back and made a few complaints, I went back to the job site and looked into every complaints they had, some of their concern such as height of pipes, I said no problem and I got another technician fixed it right away. For vent outlet covered with screen, I told them we used it to avoid small animal or bird or other stuff getting into the pipe,and for the last 12 years in my trade experience,we had much more problems like this, but we never had any freeze-up happened because of screen, since they insisted, we took the screen out. For air intake and exhaust separation, it stated very clear on the Lennox furnace manual, "− Maximum horizontal separation between intake and exhaust is 6", Minimum from end of exhaust to inlet of intake is 6" -", we all know that manufacture's installation instruction has the advantage over CSA B149 codes if there is any difference. Again，since Jenny and his husband insisted, I asked technician made the change too.
For the gas piping, since it's very tight room inside the furnace,technicians had to use nipples, elbow and coupling to make the connection, that's a standard practice, our guys always did leak test on every joint to make sure 100% safe. For gas piping outside the furnace, our technicians did use a few couplings to make the connection, what happened was that they didn't have the longer pipes in the truck at that time, we all know, it's not looking very good, but it has nothing to do with rough operation, couplings made no more resistance to gas line.I did mention to customer that if they wanted us to replace the pipe, I can get guys change it. Actually it's really a shock to me today, everything happened over a year ago, I showed my patience and made all my effort to try to make them satisfied one year ago, it seemd to be ok, and they didn't say anything to me for about a year, but all in a sudden, they wrote a very bad review on us today, I really don't understand why they would do this to us, but I will let them know if they want us to change the piping, we will change it!