William Lipp Hydronics

After meeting a lot more contractors I would say, Bill is not that bad! He does respond, have some clue of what he is doing and he is a nice guy.
Hope he gets experienced someone to continue the business.

The bathroom floor heater was the ONLY thing that was not in perfectly working order. I set– up an appointment 12÷23÷14 and a worker named Ector came to try to fix the problem. When he left he destroyed my heater. The hot water was NOT working anymore (and it was functioning before he came). He did NOT fix anything but he destroyed my heater. I called your company again so that you can fix what Ector broke. And you sent a man named Mr. Wonderful and he said he could not do anything to fix the problem. When I called again, your company informed me that there was nothing you can do. Needless to say, I was quite frustrated. Today, January 12, 2015 I received an invoice in the amount of $ 890.20.
I expected a much higher level of service from your company, and I am quite disappointed.

Unreliable. They missed our first appointment and didn’t call until the next day to reschedule. Then they missed that appointment too, with no phone call!

I called Lipp Hydronics to fix an electrical issue with the boiler. The team came in fixed the issue but they removed my old (but working!) thermostat. They replaced the thermostat which is definitely an old one (it has a lot of stains and looks worn out).
I was charged for a new thermostat, I made many calls to Teresa and spoke to her but there has been no follow up. They are insisting that a new one has been put in!
Lipp hydronics was recommended to me by a friend who had glowing reviews about them but they fell short on this one.

Installation of my new boiler was flawless and heat in my house is working great! Bill was courteous and honest with what it would take to remove the existing boiler and install the new one. They were in and out within 2 days and the bill was reasonable. Overall, I would recommend his boiler installation services. I believe he also does repairs and maintenance work on existing boilers. Hopefully this new boiler doesn’t require any for a long time! =)

I live in an Eichler with a concrete slab floor and both infloor radiant heating and plumbing below the floor. Friday night figured that I have a hot water leak between the kitchen and bathroom. On Saturday Bill answered my call, helped me troubleshoot, and had Hector on sight within an hour. Three hours later the pipe was fixed and the floor patched, and we were able to go on with our holiday weekend.
Pricing was based on a fixed rate per hour, and there was absolutely no upsell.
Repair was clean, competent and timely.

I owned an Eichler house in Palo Alto. Three years ago the owner of William Lipp came to repair my boiler that was not working. He told us that we had to buy a new boiler for around $ 6,000. We couldn’t afford it. For the next three years we heated with space heaters. Our electric bill shot up about $ 300 a month. When we were ready to sell the house, a different boiler expert, from Craigslist, inspected the boiler and $ 25 later, told us that it should last another 25 years. Lipp’s an opportunist crook!

Bill and son have taken care of our Eichler’s radiant heating system for four decades including a complete upgrading of the furnace. We have always been satisfied with their work and their billing. Communication has always been clear, friendly, and complete.

Mr. Lipp came to my rental house, where the radiant heat had stopped working. He told me I needed a new boiler, without even examining the old one. He said the price would be $ 8500. I asked him how much the boiler itself cost, and he said $ 3000, and I asked why the labor was so high, and he said, «You have to watch and you’ll see… it usually takes three days to install it.» I did not hire him and the problem turned out to be sediment in the lines. We flushed it out and the system works fine. I saved $ 8500. I do not recommend this person.

We have radiant heating in our house. Unfortunately, one of the room was not heating up. We had recently moved the boiler connected to our radiant heating system and since the system was not properly flushed after the move, that one room was not heating up. We had 3 companies come over and have a look at the system and were given quotes ranging from $ 1500 to $ 2000.
Finally, I found Bill’s information from a friend of mine. I was told he was an expert when it came to radiant heating. Sure enough, Bill and his son came over to our house and within 2 hours flushed the whole system out. Also, he found and fixed a minor gas leak. Now the whole house heats up perfectly.
Both Bill and his son were very pleasant to work with. They were knowledgeable and professional. If you have any plumbing needs and especially radiant heating related work, I’d highly recommend you to these guys.

By far the most experienced and knowledgeable plumbers I have ever hired. Neat, clean and extremely detailed. Great knowledge of Eichler home plumbing systems. Bill is the best !

Addendum to the previous saga — it gets even worse…
So the $ 100 screw in part that they tried to charge me over $ 600 to put in started leaking water after only a few months of use. The leaking was so bad the water started welling up in an area on the first floor.
Exasperated I shut down my heating system again. I did some research with the manufacturer, who said the power head that Lipp Hydronics put in was incompatible with the valve assembly of my system, and that it WILL fail prematurely. To top it off, the wrong part they put in is about ¹⁄₃ more expensive than the correct part!
This week, I started to call them and try to repair the damage that they caused. And again, I’m getting the same run around from their receptionist Teresa as I did last time. Which is, that someone will get back to me by the end of the day. But nobody ever does. This has already happened three times this week.
I’m going to take this to the mat. I’m asking that they replace the wrong part they put in with the right one. I’m asking that they replace the seat assembly the part sits in if necessary, because the manufacturer said that part may have been damaged by putting this incorrect part. I’m not going to ask them for compensating me for the 58 degrees my kitchen is every morning because our heat has to be shut off until this is fixed.
If this situation ever gets corrected, you’ll hear it here first folks. If not, you’ll hear it here first…
…a couple weeks later… things got fixed! The father and son Lipps came and took care of it, and my system is working again. I would say that the star of the business are clearly the Lipps and everybody else who works for them were universally incompetent.
I’m bumping them from 1 star to 2, and if you are looking to use them, I recommend you ask specifically for one of the Lipps to do the work, not one of their other service people. They will give you 4 – 5 star service.