Dan Matlack

Review of Needham Oil & Air

As ever Needham Oil & Air responded promptly to my...

As ever Needham Oil & Air responded promptly to my Saturday call regarding water on the floor around our heater unit. Two weeks earlier I had called to report the problem and needed to be away when the tech arrived to check. He diagnosed a failed expansion tank; ours was finishing its seventh year. He replaced it while I was out. Had I received that tech's card I'd have filled out a happy review of his service.
Two weeks or so later I noticed far less water still dripping from the unit. I called a second time and Jim arrived less than 12 hours later. He diagnosed a poor seat in the expansion valve and explained that such things can happen after a repair as the new tank's bladder expands and contracts a few times. Lest anyone think that the first tech tech should have caught this problem, I suspect that the drip did not show up while he was there. I don't live in such a perfect world and I knew he had squeezed the job in on his busy weekend of on call work.
Back to Jim, on his arrival he saw me running a saw in my basement and taught me that the intake unit on our heater ought to be shut off at such times or it would suck in the sawdust. My son works often at our workbench and creates a lot of dust, so I was happy to learn of this problem. When Jim heard that report, he recommended that I install a fresh air intake line and quickly showed me how to do it. I intend to accomplish that task within the week. Then he solved the leak problem. Throughout he was gracious and efficient.