Active Temp Control Inc

I did most of the research myself online and thought I had found a reputable company and a product that would match my home's needs. So I called Mr. Tankless and I went ahead with the purchase in relatively no time in late Aug 09. The Navien is perfect (so far - 2 weeks into the installation) with 15 years manufacture warranty. Unfortunately the specific installers, and from the looks of it Mr Tankless as whole, are DEEP in issues and past complaints. The installers were young, wearing jeans and what would easily pass as clubbing gear. I've purchased a furnace from another major contractor and the installers wore industrial overalls which implied that they took their job seriously and were prepared to do the job at hand, instead of the Mr. Tankless guy who was raising his low-rider jeans every 5 minutes to cover his butt crack. I asked them of their proficiencies and the main guy who was also the one guy who spoke English well enough to actually have a conversation said out front that he has a history of gas work but hardly any background in plumbing and actually "hates doing plumbing". He mentioned later that he was extremely tired and making mental mistakes because he was out until 4am the night before. Now I'm probably his age, possibly a year or 2 older and I can easily spot out a young go-getter who knows how to balance work and life, and I can also spot those my age who still don't appreciate having a job and don't take many things seriously enough. This guy and his partner fell very definitely in the later group. He also mentioned 1 or 2 stories of the harsher client complaints he had to deal with.

They quickly assessed the layout of the laundry/furnace room and the exterior wall for venting. They vent this particular tankless system (and probably others) with 3-inch pipe. So you would expect that they have a 3-inch mortar bit handy. They in fact don't. They use a very much smaller bit and place multiple holes while blowing out the back end with every hole. The next day when there was enough daylight I inspected the outside wall (it's an 80 year old house and those walls are load bearing) I see 2 massive craters, see attached. A grenade could have made less damage. That's something I can live with, as I can repair the brick and mortar myself, and hopefully no structural damage will happen. The rest of the installation was sloppy, hardly any use of a measuring tape, no level as the venting and the tankless were all placed by eye, and the installers spoke their own language most of the time. I'm an immigrant myself, and I will speak in a foreign tongue in the presence of people who are familiar with it, but I will not do so in the presence of customers or anyone else who doesn't understand that language. It's a matter of respect to the customer to show that you are not concealing anything.

The intake vent is recommended on being a rigid pipe, yet they opted to use a flexible metal duct for the intake. The installer wasn't too sure if it that was safe or if it caused any hazards.

Part of the plumbing installation involves the use of flexible pipe. This type of pipe comes with its own tool kit so installers can install it correctly, see attached picture. The installers only had the crimper. They didn't have the expander, and the rest of the tool kit that would be used to make a more secure connection. They didn't measure the length of the pipe and the recirculation run (the length of pipe used to churn the hot water through the tankless for a second time) was just spread out through a ridiculous path across my laundry room ceiling and around the furnace. The part of the plumbing involving copper was extremely sloppy and extremely rushed and hurried. Remember the installer openly admitted early on that he has no plumbing background. He used a high temperature flame (possibly a MAPP) directly on the pipe regardless of the surroundings. He had the solder in front of the flame thus melting it before the fitting was heated instead of placing the solder behind the fitting to utilize capillary action. He could have possibly overheated the fittings. He didn't clean the fittings with a wet cloth to cool them off and remove excess flux, instead he actually rubbed more flux onto the steaming hot fittings and the flux quickly melted and fizzled. They also didn't come prepared with enough solder so they used some of mine that I had laying around.

I wasn't there during the layout of the recirculation pipe. It didn't sit well with me once I saw it, and the next day after viewing the craters on the exterior walls from the drilling, as well as my doubt on the intake vent, I decided to call in about my concerns as well as asking for them to refit the recirculation pipe in a way that it doesn't take up such a large space (after all it is flexible and can be coiled). I work in a business environment, and I have a lot of experience dealing with people who are under pressure and/or not content with the status quo. So I also understand when someone is trying to deal effectively with those irked people and genuinely trying to resolve their situation. I asked to speak to someone with a technical background, and the person I spoke to came across like he has heard so many complaints that he was now indifferent to the whole thing. I told him about my concerns and he said he'll call me back that same day. He didn't call me back, so I called him at the end of the day in which time I'm sure he sent someone running to the bank to deposit my cheque that I handed to the installer so I couldn't back down. He actually forgot who I was and then said he completely forgot to call me back. To get to the point he offered his reassurance that the intake pipe can be flexible and that it doesn't affect the performance of the system. He seemed indifferent about the craters and said that they normally have a 3 inch mortar bit. He also promised to send a crew to do the minor and quick work involved with refitting the recirculation pipe. I told him to send a different crew; one that actually has the tools and the plumbing background to get the job done. Low and behold he sent the same crew, dressed in clubbing gear. They got the job done in no time. I thanked them and deep down I hoped that I never have any issues with my tankless so I never have to deal with that company again.

I have recently purchased a furnace and A.C and also replaced my water heater with a tankless one.
I shopped arround and Active Temp offered me a very good deal for
the combo and they did a very good and fair job installing the units in my house.
The installers seem to know their wokr pretty well and the
Admin. staff helped me with the rebates.
Overall, I would recommend Active temp.

Active Temp Control installed a furnace in my home recently and I am very unhappy with my choice in company. I would like to say that they were accomidating, tidy, efficiant, and just great, but the truth is they were NOT. The staff there is super rude, and not very helpful. I really didn't enjoy talking with them. The installers that came to my home were horrible. They were not very sure of what they were doing, as well as very messy. There was a HUGE mess!! I have been in touch with the manager Kimberly and all she did was blame me for the mess they left.

Active Temp Control sold me a tankless water heater at a great price. The salesman was not very helpful at all. They took forever getting the unit installed and the installers were sloppy and left a huge mess. I was entiltled to some rebates as well, and the people who take care of the rebates were very rude and I had a hard time getting my rebates processed. I would definately NOT reccomend them to family & friends.

It is quite upsetting to find a company / contractor that has done a poor job on your home and also blames the customer for their mistakes. I actually went back to review carefully the contract I signed with them and there is a clause that states "Active Temp Control Inc. shall not be responsible for breakage or damage to existing structures during installation of its products." I should have been more diligent in reading the front AND back of the contract before signing.

Several of the company's statements in their response are inaccurate. Firstly, I had wanted the company to come on the weekend to access the problem, but THEY said my situation was not considered an emergency and told me to call back on Monday if I was still hearing the running water.

Secondly, as noted in my review, when I called on Monday, the service manager was supposed to call me back to set up an appointment. He never called back to set up the appointment even after repeated calls for the next few days. On Wednesday, the receptionist made the appointment for me for that day.

Lastly, the technicians installed a new copper pipe which ran from the tankless system to one of our existing copper pipes which was connected to the hot water tap. If the company had investigated the problem, they would have realized that the junction where they soldered the new copper pipe to the existing copper pipe was directly above the hot water tap. To make a long story short, if a soldering job is done properly, the solder should not drip, but in this case, it was a messy job and after we investigated it ourselves, we found that the solder dripped down the pipe to the hot water tap, melting the washer inside, causing the leaking water.

Some advice to others looking for a contractor:

1. Get referrals from friends and family or research on the net
2. Ensure they are licensed and insured
3. Read the contract in detail
4. Price should not be a sole consideration as a poor job will cost you more in the end

I wrote this review to help others make more informed decisions regarding contractors, but also to try to get the company's attention as to the major problems they have in their operations. Hopefully, they will rectify things for the future, take responsibility and not blame the customer for their mistakes. After all, without customers, there is no business.

I purchased a tankless water heater from Mr. Tankless (division of Active Temp Control Inc.) as the price was good. However, after the installation was done on Friday afternoon, I heard running water through the pipes near the tankless water heater and water dripping down the drain in my basement. On Saturday, I called Active Temp to ask someone to come and check this out. They said the 24/7 service is only for emergencies and mine was not an emergency. I had to call back on Monday. I called back and the receptionist said the service manager will call me back. I never got any calls back, even though I kept calling back several times for the next few days. Meanwhile, the water is still running and I'm afraid my water bill will be enormous.

Finally, the receptionist said someone will come on Wed afternoon, but they never showed up for the scheduled time. They showed up a couple hours later, but said that the running water had nothing to do with the installation. I asked how that could be since I didn't have this problem till they showed up. They claimed it was a plumbing issue and I should call a plumber. They then left in a hurry.

My husband later checked the tap to the laundry tub in the basement and it turns out that the washer in the tap was melted from the solder used by Active Temp when they were welding the new pipe to our existing pipe. Since the washer was melted, this created the running water we were hearing. I called Active Temp about this and they of course have not called me back.

Terrible service and work.

We purchased the water heater through their Mr. Tankless division. The price was good and the salesman was responsive. However, the installation was not good.

1. Called me on original confirmed installation date, at the time when the installer was to arrive to tell me that the unit was backordered.

2. Arrived 2 hrs early to the next appointment and we were not home. They returned after we called them but then left because it was raining.

3. Arrived 30 minutes early to next appt. Having inspected our installation site on visit #2 he was confident it was a 4 hr job. Part way through he cut a brass water pipe thinking it was copper and then spent 30 minutes trying to repair it. The installer was rude to my wife and did not listen to her request to keep the front door closed since our cat would otherwise get out. After 5hrs we announced that he was done but there was debris (cement rubble, plastic filings, fiberglass insulation, wire, etc) all around our laundry room and in the next room. My wife brought him a vacuum which he suggested she use until she asked that he clean up his mess himself. He vacuumed a bit but still left a lot of debris inside the house (including cement rubble and fiberglass and plastic filings on the carpet.

4. Later that day I inspected the work and found the following defects:
- the cement patchwork he had done did not seal around the exhaust pipes
- the air intake pipe was not connected properly - the main pipe was offset from the elbow into which it was supposed to connect
- the heater's drain hose leaked onto the floor
- he squeezed the exhaust pipe over the existing copper hot water pipe and stressed a solder joint which then began to leak.

5. Repeated calls to the service line always resulted in the response that "someone will call me back to set an appt". Three days later and no one has called back, despite me having called them four times.

Incredibly messy workmanship! Following the initial installation, multiple phone calls were required in order to have a simple problem resolved. Repair appointments were not kept, and no phone call was received to say they weren't coming. I'm still cleaning up pieces of sharp metal and wire, and plugging holes in my basement wall from where they drilled large holes. I won't be using this company again.
Update : August 16, 2009, The new central A/C unit isn't working at all, yet again. My small 1100 sq ft house is a smoldering 80 degrees Fahrenheit. When I first turned the A/C unit on it didn't work at all, and the technician was honest enough to admit that they had 'neglected' to charge the a/c unit unit with the coolant. I wonder what the next excuse will be? I paid a lot of money for a furnace, central a/c unit, and a water heater, and this contractor doesn't seem to care about servicing clients after the initial payment has been made. Be Warned!!!