Empire Plumbing Heating & Air Conditioning

I have been a customer of Empire for over 10 years. They installed a new furnace and air conditioning unit. They come twice a year to service my units and I have never had a problem with them. They are expensive but the work is quality. They also put new furnace, air, duct work and insulation at my mom’s house and she had a great experience. They are too expensive for little jobs but if you have a bigger job they can be counted on to do a great job.

excellent, professional, efficient — fixed the a/​c problem right away in one visit (works GREAT now!). Fair prices. Super nice, polite — will definitely put them «in my Rolodex» & call them again, if needed.

Empire is great! I’ve used them several times and would highly recommend. They offer free estimates and communication with their office and technicians has always been easy. Doesn’t get better than this!

I should have read the reviews before calling this company.
Bad experience. They changed our water filter and caused a leak. And when I called to solve the matter, although somebody came to fix the leak, they totally ignored me when I asked for help with the damages. (and I’ve sent the email with all the information several times) I ended up needing to call air movers and a dehumidifier over the weekend to avoid bigger damages.
Next time I’ll read the reviews before.

How do you give a place 0 stars or negative stars? But for some of these people that gave 5* must have not known that they were ripped off, I guess some people are just naïve. Just look elsewhere for your services, this place is not worth my review because they quote you prices out of thin air and expect you to just accept the pricing they give you. How about no?
Most people can find better deals online and this is one company that is afraid of that so they will fix it right away for you with at 10x more then regular rate or they will do something that would sabotage your system where you would have to call them back for repair
Just look at the negative reviews and listen to them. This place doesn’t deserve to exist anymore. Good luck empire, see you guys on the bankrupt list soon.

DO NOT GET RIPPED OFF!!!
DO NOT USE EMPIRE! THEY ARE LITERALLY CROOKS! They purposely unplugged wires behind our backs after we requested time to consider their proposal!
Short version:
After asking for time to think about Empire’s proposal, the tech got me to leave him alone for a minute and he unplugged a couple wires from my air unit. Knowing that if I tried to fix it myself, I wouldn’t be able to forcing us to call them back and probably would’ve charged more to plug in the wires THEY UNPLUGGED.

DO NOT USE EMPIRE! THEY ARE LITERALLY CROOKS! They purposely unplugged wires behind our backs after we requested time to consider their proposal! Details in review below.
Short version:
After asking for time to think about Empire’s proposal, the tech got me to leave him alone for a minute and he unplugged a couple wires from my air unit. Knowing that if I tried to fix it myself, I wouldn’t be able to forcing us to call them back and probably would’ve charged more to plug in the wires THEY UNPLUGGED.
Long version:
Our air stopped working and we could not fix it ourselves, so we called Empire who installed the air unit. They stated that would do a free evaluation (great!).
The tech came on time (great) and quickly found that the capacitor for the air unit was broken and offered to fix it for around $ 260. I felt that was kind of steep so I asked him if we could take some time to think about it. He seemed upset and started putting everything back. Then strangely, he asks me to set the thermostat to cool. I think it is strange, but I go ahead and do so. After I come back, he puts everything away and leaves mentioning «do not turn it on as it may break even worse». I reply stating that he just told me to turn it to cool. Then he said «turn it off then» while hurrying into his car and takes off (keep in mind this in important to the review).
The capacitor only costs $ 5-​$ 15! $ 240 to put in one screw and two wires? I wouldn’t mind if it was $ 100 or less just to save the headache. We installed the new capacitor but then noticed that two wires have been unplugged from the circuit board. Before the unit was making a sound when turned on. Now with the new capacitor it was completely quiet (not even turning on). Apparently, when the tech asks me to change the thermostat [now I know it was to get me away so he could sabotage us], he randomly unplugged two wires. We knew this as we had inspected it before the tech came there were no loose wires. Luck of the draw, we found where the wires went [there were 4 possible locations] and with the new capacitor our central air is functioning properly.
Obviously, we were INFURIATED. I can not believe that they would unplug wires just to try to take advantage of us. This is the SLEAZIEST experience I have ever faced and hope no one has to deal with these criminals. I feel like this review is not capturing the amount of anger and frustration we felt when we found the wires. I hope everyone who takes this time to read this lengthy review not only avoids doing business, but passes on my experience as people like this just can’t be trusted.

Keith came to do my Yearly Maintenance check and was friendly and quite informative
He checked my air condition unit and said my filter was still good. The reason I chose to stay with Empire is because I called to have my unit check after I was told by my previous Air Condition Company that I would need a new one. Empire came out — flipped a switch and it worked perfect ! There was no charge !
They are honest, clean, nice and ON TIME technicians.

EMPIRE WILL RIP YOU OFF!!! DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!
We were totally ripped off by Empire. Charged $ 900 to have the furnace cleaned (no parts) by technician Reg #213. AC worked for two weeks. Called Empire back out and was charged another $ 435 to have a «new» run capacitor installed by technician Reg #13. This technician said that this may not work and he may have to replace the compressor which would be another $ 500+ at which point we became skeptical of their integrity. Surprise, broke again two days later! Have since had another party look at the unit. We now know that a run capacitor costs $ 20 and the one they installed was neither new or installed properly (just stuffed in, kin of like they thought they were coming back). WILDLY OVERPRICED AND CHARGED NEW PRICE FOR USED PARTS!
Wouldn’t recommend these guys to my worst enemy. Rip off!!! Will be reporting to BBB.

Highly recommed. Their service was fast and reliable. Darcy was helpful and was able to get us an appointment fast

Had a problem with my plumbing over the weekend so i called. I spoke with a gentleman named Donny. He was very kind and sincere about the issue i was having. He set me up for an appointment first thing Monday morning. Very pleasant customer service. I will be using Empire again in the future. Thanks Donny for your help!

I had Empire install an ac & furnace into my house about 2 years ago. They have come out for maintenance twice a year, always show up on time and make sure everything is running in tip top shape! They have come out for several plumbing emergencies, always able to come out same day at the time given. Darcy is always helpful when I need something scheduled! Empire has always provided professional service at a good price! I will always use them & refer them to all friends and family!

First class service. The service was on time and went beyond what was expected. Phil was friendly and very knowledgeable. He also provided advice on care and maintenance of drains.

My experience with Empire was quite positive. The plumber, Phil, was quite friendly. He worked hard at unclogging the sink in my apartment, even when the clog proved to be far deeper in the pipes than expected. The price for the service was quite reasonable. The next time I have a plumbing problem, I will surely call Empire again.

Friendly, clean technician who was on time. Called late at night and Donald answered and was courteous and helpful. Overall a good experience.

Specifically, we dealt with Irvine Furnace Repair, which is part of the «Empire Family.» We had a furnace that was giving us some problems shutting off before reaching the desired temperature, or not going on at all.
I called and set up a time for the repairman to come out. Mark was a nice guy. He wore those little booties to keep the carpet clean and seemed to be very interested in helping us to find our problem. He seemed knowledgeable about the systems, and after 25 minutes had pretty much figured out what he though the problem was.
According to him we needed to replace the IPI (Intermittent Pilot Ignition) and since we were replacing that, we also needed to replace the automatic gas valve. He said that would be about $ 1100! ALSO, that our fan was very dirty, and the whole thing had to be pulled out and cleaned because that was causing low flow, which even if the IPI was working would cause it to shut off by itself for safety, and the whole cleaning would be another $ 250 or $ 300 dollars.
I was thinking, $ 1400!?! Are you kidding? Then he started talking about how it might be better to do a whole new unit, since they’re only $ 2000. THEN he said, but if I wanted a higher efficiency unit they’re about $ 3500. I thanked him, but told him with a price tag that high, I was going to need a second opinion. Man, did he leave fast. No written quote, no card, no «call me if you decide to have us do the work.» I figured out why when I started looking into it.
I am a generally handy guy, but when it involves natural gas OR equipment I don’t know much about, I prefer to pay to have it done. But for $ 1400, I figured, maybe I should look into it myself. I have one of those reusable filters so I rinsed that out… it wasn’t really that dirty. Then I thought… I wonder how hard these main fans are to clean. I disconnected a couple of «quick connector» type plugs, pulled two screws and the fan came out as easy as cake. 20 minutes with a vacuum and a couple of damp towels later, I had saved myself $ 300. I was inspired. I looked at the IPI… it was just a box with all quick solderless wire connectors. I looked up the IPI unit online. Johnson Controls didn’t make my unit anymore since the unit was 15 years old, but a couple other companies did. 15 minutes on the internet and I had the new part shipped two-​day for $ 125 including tax and shipping.
It took be about 40 minutes to watch a video online then put the new IPI in, and the furnace has worked perfectly since.
TOTAL COST was $ 125, plus about two hours on my part. I would have been happy to pay someone $ 500 to do this work, so I didn’t have to buy a part, wait for it, and teach myself how to install it. But $ 1400 or more… I don’t think so! He didn’t really do me any harm, and didn’t even charge for the assessment, so I’m not going to give him one star, but I just don’t feel like this is an honest company you can trust to give you a good deal.

Typical plumber. These guys will take advantage of you unless you do some homework. We needed a water heater replaced. We didn’t check around and came to find out that these guys charged us over $ 1,000 more than others. Our fault. We thought they were trustworthy based on other Unilocal reviews. When I called the owner and asked for a break on the exorbitant price, he gave me a sarcastic response not worth repeating. When I told him I was going to post on Unilocal, he said, «go ahead. I just won a case against a Federal judge who posted a comment on me. I win them all.»

Mark arrived on time at 8 AM since I was on a schedule. He diagnosed the problem as a furnace circuit board. Since the furnace was out of warranty and quite old and oxidized the best choice was to put in a new one. I was stuck leaving the workers in my home unattended. i had to trust them to be honest. I came back home and everything was clean with no dirt around. The unit was very quiet and heated the house better than the previous two furnaces that I have owned. It heated the whole house unlike the previous one that left us always cold downstairs. Will definitely use again for plumbing and heating in the future.

Empire is the most dishonest company I have ever dealt with for home repair. We called them today to fix a clogged kitchen drain. I had spent a few hours before they arrived isolating where the problem was. When the guy arrived (I wasn’t home and my wife had to deal with it) he quoted her $ 295 to run an auger thought the pipe. I had already run a 20 ft auger down the line but it wasn’t long enough. He claimed that since he needed to run «the big auger» that it would cost extra. When she balked at the price he dropped it to $ 225. I told her via text to tell him no. We called another local plumber here in HB named Leon who I would highly recommend if anyone wants to contact me. He came over 2 hours later and spent 15 minutes fixing the problem and he charges us $ 90. I’m so F-​ing pissed off at Empire and am now wondering how much they have screwed me over in the past for other services we have had them do. I will never use them again and am warning everyone I know to stay away from these guys. My wife said it best «the guy just seemed really shady and sleazy».