Unsafe, water heater install, expansion tank fell out of wall, water leak, and was ignored when I called and text for help
Beware repeat offender with less than 2.0 average reviews over several sites, including Better Business Bureau. They also go by multiple names so rather than the several hundreds that I have seen it could be into the thousands.Their voicemail that you sit on or I sat on probably four hours in one day, indicates if you order before a certain time they guarantee they will come out that same day to install a new water heater. But if that water heater install goes bad from their shoddy work they will not come out for several days, if at all. And when you finally convince them to come out for a scheduled emergency appointment they will not let you know that they are not coming out. They will just no-show you.Also, in my experience, the gentleman who did the incomplete install, was clearly overworked and stressed out and calling his manager telling them he needed sleep and nobody cared about the workers.
Delta Mechanical was sent to install a new water heater through Home Depot. As a licensed contractor, they are required to follow code and their own written scope of work, which in my paperwork includes: “inspect stand or location of unit,” “fill and test unit,” and “review install with customer.” That is the level of inspection and testing I understood I was paying for.
That is not what happened. When the technician installed the new water heater, the wall directly behind it was visibly wet. He still mounted the expansion tank into that saturated wall, did not properly inspect the surrounding area, did not come inside to run water or confirm the system was working correctly, and then left. The very next day, the expansion tank fell out of the wall, the new water heater was leaking, and there was still water around the installation.
I called and texted Delta multiple times that day asking for help. They did not respond to my repeated calls and messages. After I kept calling and Home Depot also contacted them, Delta finally agreed to send someone out that same day – and then they simply did not show up, with no call or warning that they weren’t coming.
I originally contacted them believing I needed a new water heater, but as the licensed experts on site, Delta should have recognized what the second contractor saw immediately when they came out: the wall was soaked and there was a separate issue that needed to be found and fixed. The second plumber came prepared with a replacement heater in case it was needed, but after actually inspecting the area they found and repaired a leak inside the wall and told me the heater itself did not need to be replaced. I ended up paying Delta for a new water heater installation that was unnecessary and then paying a second contractor to do the inspection and repair that should have happened before any replacement was done.
During the visit, the Delta installer spent part of the time yelling on the phone to his office that they were sending him from Phoenix to Sedona to Flagstaff, that there weren’t enough hours in the day, and that nobody cared about the employees. He repeated the same things to me in person. I have some of this on security camera footage. It was obvious he was exhausted and overworked, and it showed in the rushed, careless way this job was handled.
Delta Mechanical’s ratings are around 2 stars or less on several review sites, After going through this, I honestly don’t know what’s worse: that Home Depot is still routing emergency customers or customers at all to a less than 2.0 rated repeat offender or this company, that does work like this, treats its own installer like that, and then abandons customers when they ask for help.