The Janes Company

I just want to pass along a big thanks to one of your service techs, Dennis. I was house sitting
my friend’s house for the weekend. When I arrived Friday night the house was cold and there
was no hot water. I text my friend who instructs me to look in the systems room for the service sticker on the boiler for a phone number… Okay…I’m not mechanical at all but I find the sticker/​label with the number for Janes Radiant and I call. It’s 5:50 p.m. on Friday now. The
nicest person answered I didn’t get her name but very helpful. I explained my problem with the house being cold and no hot water going into the weekend. A few minutes later I get a
call to my cell. It’s a service tech from Janes Radiant – he’ll be arriving approximately 7:00 pm
to have a look. 7:07 p.m. Janes Radiant vehicle in driveway… wonderful technician, Dennis
at door. Dennis was very professional, and quickly evaluates and makes repairs. Seriously
amazing customer service. Thank You! Thanks you! Heat and hot water back – feels so
good…

Okay… I have to back off my outrage a bit after having a long conversation with one of The Janes Company managers. After posting my reviews I received a call the following day to review my concerns.
Turns out that after discussing the situation they face when doing warranty replacements some additional costs are justified and make sense. The additional costs included inbound freight for the replacement tank, which they have to actually purchase upfront from the manufacturer, then they have to apply for refund and wait three to four months for the credit.
I am a business owner as well and understand that the total costs include more than just the replacement unit and now I understand that their warranty business has much higher overhead than regular plumbing work. In addition tying up $ 4000 for three or four months definitely has a negative impact on cash flow.
We discussed their typical charges for work and they are more in line with what I would expect to pay and therefore I have revised my rating to 5 stars… I was impressed by their staff all along and even more impressed after their response to my complaints.
Ben

I have been a customer for 8 years. The Janes Company has always done a great job at servicing my water heaters for my radiant heat and for hot water. They just replaced both tanks as they had a leak, the price was the best in the market. They came quickly finished the job, no extra costs were incurred. They cleaned up, hauled the old tanks away for free. I highly recommend them, good honest service and price.

Throughout the summer of 2014 we obtained at least a half-​dozen proposals for the replacement of our home’s antiquated propane-​fired boiler, and to make our associated radiant heat system throughout our three floors function optimally. We spent several weeks having different company representatives come inspect our house, sometimes repeatedly, to assess our existing installation and how it might be best modified or replaced. We also investigated various alternatives (e.g. ductless heat pump systems). While economy was certainly a primary consideration (and in this respect, unbelievably, one well-​known vendor proposed to us a replacement system costing over $ 80,000!!! Needless to say… rejected!), we also wanted a reliable, state-​of-​the-​art, fully integrated system, and not just some bargain-​basement, short-​life replacement set of equipment.
We ultimately selected Janes Company’s proposal, as we felt they understood our existing, rather byzantine, radiant heat system the best, and they offered the most sensible and reasonable upgrade solutions. Though a bit more expensive (since our separate propane-​fired hot water heater did not then need replacement) we opted for the Janes Company’s proposed option of a system to use the new «triangle tube» boiler to also provide all our household hot water needs with a boiler-​fed tank, eliminating the old separate water heater (we felt the long-​term cost savings, and the elimination of the other open-​flame pilot-​light still lit-​up in the old water tank, well-​warranted the investment).
The Janes Company technicians that came to our house were great; not only were they very knowledgeable, but they were also very courteous and considerate in their comings-​and-​goings and throughout the installation process. I then received a thorough tutorial on the function of the system after they were finished with all of the replacement process and the re-​charging of the radiant heat system.
It has been a whole winter now (about six months since we first turned our upgraded radiant heat system on), and we are about to switch the system off (as usual) for the upcoming year. We are very pleased! The system has worked from day one with no issues, has provided us continuous heat and wonderfully consistent hot water, and seems to function much better than the legacy system we inherited when we bought our house. I plan to continue to engage Janes Company to provide the (rather nominal) annual maintenance to keep our new system running in fine operation, too.
Well done, Janes Company, and our sincere thanks for a fine solution for our needs!

Called them to look at a broken boiler; they quoted a $ 75 travel fee. Later, they upped it to $ 150, plus $ 220 an hour to look at the system. The tech, while nice, arrived very late on Friday. He said he understood we had no hot water or heat and would call in so someone could give us a replacement quote asap. No quote Friday, nor over the weekend. I called on Monday and the receptionist said someone would call us back in 20 – 30 minutes. No call, ever. We moved onto another company and I’m glad we did. These systems are spendy.

Great experience working with these guys. Very friendly and willing to answer as many questions as necessary. I am very pleased with the service provided and would definitely recommend them to anyone looking for radiant heat!

Very pleased with the performance of our new heating system. The installers even gave us great insight on how to better understand the systems configuration and now feel if a problem should arise we feel capable to diagnose basic issues before needing a service call. This company has been super helpful through the whole process.

I can’t believe the other reviews considering how great my experience has been working with these guys. I bought my home a little over a year ago and we had about 1750 sq foot unfinished space that we’ve converted into a really homely space in large part to the radiant heating Janes engineered and installed. I managed most of the project, contractors and such, and the Janes guys were timely and helpful and completed there work on schedule and on budget. Like I said from my initial conversation with them to having them show me how it all works they’ve been great to work with and I would recommend them.

I really wasn’t sure how infloor heating systems worked, but since I’ve had an issue with air in my system, I’ve learned quite a bit…
What could’ve been a very frustrating and stressful situation was made much easier to handle thanks to Janes employees, Nikki and Dennis. First of all, Nikki was extremely patient and helpful — from helping schedule troubleshooting calls, to trying to get my tank change-​out expedited. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a «high maintenance» type of person, but Nikki helped ease me anxieties about the issues I’ve been having, rarity.
I also truly appreciated Dennis’ professionalism and thoroughness in helping me troubleshoot my problem and explain the issue to me in layman’s terms so I knew exactly what was going on. He took the time to rule out leaks in the floor (thank goodness!) and pressure tested the entire system until he found the problem to be in the tank. By taking the time to explain what he was doing and what he found, it gave me peace of mind and that’s something that’s hard to do these days when working with service oriented companies.
While it should be the norm to get good service, it’s often not the case so it’s refreshing to find companies out there such Janes that still provide excellent service. I look forward to having my new tank installed and having a nice and toasty home!

Well, I have to agree with the other 2 reviewers who had basically nothing good to say. I own a condo where Janes installed the radiant floor heat about 10 years ago. They provide maintenance annually to many of the residents and I signed up. Bad mistake. The system wasn’t working when they showed and the tech concluded it was due to air in the lines. He purged the system, refilled with water and left. The hot water never circulated so no heat. The tech gave me his cell so I thought he’d make sure it would actually work. Long story short, he visited again, try something, but it didn’t work. I called him but no answer. Tried about a dozen times to get hold of him. Never did answer. I called the shop. I spoke to a rep. Asked for the manager. He would not take my call. Anyhow, I paid them for a maintenance visit and they never did fix anything. To go back out, he wanted to charge me again for the visit. I wanted to discuss this with him. Rep said he wouldn’t speak to me. Very very lame. Ended up calling another company who came out, diagnosed the problem (new pump) and fixed it.
Terrible customer service. Basically a huge ripoff. Stay far away.

We built our house, Janes was recommended by a homeowner up the street. They were very responsive waiting for the floors to be in and being flexible during the busy summer months last year to actually come in and install. The system is 1 year old now, so far it is working very well.
We fired it up for the fall and were worried when one of the zones was a couple of degrees cooler. It turns out our builder severed a wire when doing the drywall. The technician came out this morning to solve the problem and was excellent. He showed up early, waited in his car, and rang the doorbell promptly at 7am which is unheard of anymore these days. He explained everything as he was doing it and we’ll be asking for Dennis for future service calls!
It is now keeping our house very toasty, yet it is not even the more expensive gypcrete version, but rather the version stapled to the joists. We actually have to turn it down now. A little more documentation would help, but other than that we are pleased and would recommend Janes unlike the other couple of reviews. We’ll check back after a couple of years.

I can only say that I regularly curse our home builder for selecting Janes for the radiant heating system in our new home. The system has NEVER worked properly from new and the customer service is infuriating. Problems:
1) System loses water and gets regular air bubbles, which causes two issues: the pipes gurgle very, very loudly whenever the system turns on, which wakes my infant son up most nights as the valves are in his bedroom closet (yes, I did figure out this was what is waking him up). This also causes unpredictable heating throughout the house, since air doesn’t heat the floors. One day the tile floor is nice and warm and the downstairs hallway is 70 degrees, next day it’s like walking on ice and you need a sweater. Awesome.
2) We get inconsistent hot water. This problem shows up more in the winter (joy!), I’m assuming because it has something to do with the heating being on at the same time (?). Happens throughout the house — we will be showering, or washing dishes, or bathing our son and suddenly the water is icicle cold. No warning and no warmth at all — as if the faucet is instantly turned all the way to cold. Lasts 30 – 60 seconds until it gradually heats back up. Can happen multiple times during a 10-​minute shower (for example) and is not caused by using other appliances at the same time.
So will they fix it? ha! Customer Service is non-​existent. The service «manager» is one of the rudest and most unprofessional people on the planet, and that’s when he’s available or will return your phone call at all (about 50% of the time). I cannot fathom how he has attained and held the position he is in — I can only imagine he’s a family member of the owner. But by being a pest I did get their service people out at least 5 times in the first year (all under warranty). Each time the guy fiddled with things and pronounced it fixed, but obviously it wasn’t. And now in our third winter still isn’t, and we’re officially out of warranty. Nevermind that we’ve had the problems since new and it still isn’t fixed — they want to charge us to do anything else. Called to talk with a manager but he never called me back (shocker). Called to talk with the owner and he did call me back, but over two weeks later, and blamed all the problems on the builder (of course our builder says that’s ridiculous, which I believe since Janes installed the system). And then he basically told me they won’t do anything until I can prove it’s their fault. How do I do that? I don’t even know what I’m trying to prove! Am I a plumber or in-​floor heating professional? Do I pay to have some kind of independent consultant come out here?!
So here we sit in luke-​warm home with a substantially sub-​par «high-​end» heating and hot water system. It will cost me more in time and money to sue them than to get it redone or fixed by someone else, which I can’t afford right now anyways. All in all we got completely screwed by Janes. I cannot communicate how strongly I recommend you NOT to use Janes.

I would not recommend this company. They are unknowledgeable when it comes to warranties. They offer only temporary repair solutions instead of permanently fixing a problem. They also tend to charge a lot more. They quoted me $ 1,400 and I found a better company to do the same work for $ 895, in a quicker timeframe. Shop around before you select this company.

We looked at their DIY kits for radiant installation and they were reasonably priced, but so too was the price for their professional installation. We had several bids, and Janes was quite competitive. They were very flexible with their scheduling, and the installer, Jake, obviously took pride in his work and was a pleasure to work with. They offer a quality product with good service, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them based on our experience.