Easy to contact and schedule. Showed up on time. They charge a little over $100 to visit, which…read morecould be applied to work. They do have coupons on their website to wave this with a repair. In my case, they sent their senior guy (Joe, master plumber, electrician, everything you can think of), and he suggested waiving the trip fee in exchange for the hour he spent diagnosing my Daikin heat pump communicating system (zones, zone board, etc.). That was $195, and I thought it was fair. The fix was mostly to adjust my zone board directly rather than through the thermostat, and also to analyze my plumbing needs for other projects. Nice guy, knowledgeable, I enjoyed talking with him.
For the HVAC work, Joe had to call Andy, who is their Daikin pro and duct engineer. Andy knows what he's talking about, more than any other HVAC person I've talked to (4Front installed my system in a mess for the previous owner, Binder HVAC charged me a lot for wasted time because they didn't understand Daikin systems, while Twin Cities Heating and Air, Midwest Heating and Cooling, and Golden Valley Heating and Air all had no idea what to do and had weird suggestions). If you have a Daikin system, ask for Andy. He tuned my zone board, fixed some miserable duct work and leaks, and better yet taught me about how things work beyond the mysterious Daikin "algorithm." He was patient with my questions and suggestions, too. This work was about $400, which is way less than the $3,000 I got bilked out of at one of the other places. It took a few hours.
For the plumbing, they sent Frank, who is another senior guy specializing in plumbing. Frank worked fast, was courteous, and did a few extra little jobs for me when I asked for advice on them, such as greasing a fused spigot and dabbing some silicone on a hole in the shower frame. He also educated me about my water system, including winterizing and shutoff procedures.
For the plumbing work, Frank installed a water mixing valve and also terminated a leaking pipe in the ceiling. This work was about $600. It took a few hours.
In both cases, they brought along an apprentice, each of whom was equally courteous and attentive. It was very endearing.
For billing, there are a couple of things they do. 1) the charge is the price. They don't do the most granular breakdown of costs in the invoice, but they do calculate it and you can ask what the calculation is. It is not an estimate or a minimum charge, more like a bid. The nice thing about that is that it will cost that and no more, which means they are happy to stick around and help here and there without charging for time. For larger projects, I'm not sure if they would charge the lesser of the bid vs labor time, but I would hope so. I haven't needed them for something big yet. For example, Pulse Electric is an electrician service that never charges more than their bid, and charges for time if it's less. I think Krinkie's would just charge the bid, but I got the sense they would be reasonable if, say, a 3-day project took only 1 day. 2) They have a subscription service that seemed like a no-brainer. For $20/m, they will come out twice a year to tune your furnace/AC, and you also get 20% off all other services, which paid for itself with our plumbing and ductwork needs.
Use these guys! I love having them as my go-to people now.
