The Steam Whisperer

Steam Whisperer was excellent. I spent an hour on the phone with Dave who provided me a TON of information to help me better understand the mechanics of the steam heat system in our home and potential explanations for issues we were having with banging radiators. The maintenance and repiping work was professional and prompt, including calm and professional management of the issue when the old water supply line began to leak during the repair due to our pipes being quite old in the home. We had previously worked with another provider who was not specialized in steam, and the quality of service provided by Steam Whisperer was dramatically better than other providers and the hourly rate is 40% less than another well-known heating company in our area.

We have relied on the Steam Whisperer for several years now for our 1890s steam heating system. Initially Dave got our system operating optimally again and got rid of the clanging. He nursed our old boiler along for a couple of years and then told us when it was time to replace it. They installed insulation to increase the efficiency of the system. The system works so well these days that we don't even notice it. I am completely satisfied with what they do.

They are very very efficient, the price was very nice and they did a good work.

Very well.

Review is very thorough and detailed. Oner item assessed by his technician was deemed incorrect - still investigating that, but otherwise OK. Still digesting the report

We were given an 8 step plan on how to best improve the heat in the house. The steps were prioritized and made the sticker shock a lot easier to digest – plus as Dave, the owner, put it; if steps 1-3 work well enough you can choose to skip the rest. (ultimately we have done 5 of the steps) The boiler needed to be reinstalled as it was a newer model but the former owner didn’t follow the instructions on how the pipes needed to be aligned (note instructions with diagram were actually taped to the side of the boiler). One room had at one point been two different rooms and had only one radiator so a second one was added. The appropriate valves for steam were placed on all of the radiators in the house (some had other types!). The thermostat was adjusted to a steam setting to allow for appropriate heating cycles to be performed. The house has an old small receiving room at the front door that was not heated, so another radiator was added there. Radiators in several rooms were painted hideous colors - they were removed, sandblasted and re-enameled. Sections of pipe in parts of the basement where the pipes were all exposed (which was a tropic paradise!) were wrapped to prevent the basement from getting too warm and allowing the heat to be shunted to the upstairs. I have to admit there was quite the sticker shock, but it has paid off immensely. The house is now comfortable in all rooms. And we couldn’t be happier with Dave and his staff.

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Brad and the steam whisperer team were very responsive, knowledgeable and professional. They were able to get someone to repair our boiler the same day. In addition to quickly identifying and fixing the issue, Brad took the time to teach me about the system we have (how to light the pilot, what pressure the system should be at, etc.). We have an old system and have had a number of other heating companies out to look at our boiler since we moved to our home, The Steam Whisperer is the first company that seemed to fully understand the system. I will definitely hire them for any future heating needs we have.

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He was awesome!

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This company understood steam heat.
They analyzed specifically why my system was not optimal.
They repaired my system through reconfiguration.
They also provided some upgrades to improve further.
Great result - WE HAVE HEAT

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He is probably the most knowledgeable steam heating expert in the Chicago area. I did a lot of research to find him. He may be a little more expensive than others but the quality is top-notch. With steam systems, so many people don't know what they are doing and that's all he does is steam heating. I highly recommend him because if you go through a steam company they tell you that they can service it but they really aren't experts at it where he is really and expert. He really loves this stuff. If you don't get them balanced right they just don't work properly.

The Steam Whisperer has been extremely helpful to us by acquainting us with how our 2 pipe steam heating system works. We just bought a 1928 home and had not previously had this type of a system. We had some clanking and Dave/Brad have fixed the issues. The system overall was never maintained. Needed to be cleaned, drained etc. Brad also came back to add some more water on the day before Thanksgiving since we had company coming to stay with us. We were concerned about the noise. It is a challenging system in that access behind e boiler is very limited, and Brad has been flexible and able to solve issues. I trust Brad and Dave and know that they will have my system running better than it ever had before. These guys are reliable, honest, and really care.

Dave had been over a few years ago to review my 80 year old two-pipe steam heating system for a possible reroute of vents and a new boiler during my basement remodel project.  I ended up not making any changes because everything worked and nothing was in dire need of repair or replacement but he made some excellent recommendations and helped me understand how the system works and works best.   It was a personalized steam heat lesson that I consider invaluable.  Last month I took up Dave on one of his recommendations to install two main vents on the long steam main to improve heating of radiators near end of steam main.   He was able to open up very old pipes using heat and the biggest wrench I?ve ever seen and got the job done very quickly.  He was very responsive and accommodating when I reached out for the appointment.  It was money very well spent as the house heats much quicker now and more evenly.  I?ve worked with many of the most reputable the local heating/plumbing companies in my area previously to fix small valve issues and maintenance on the boiler.  They are competent when it comes to cleaning the boiler and getting it to fire up but it was always evident that they didn?t understand the rest of the steam system.  That is where Dave excels.  He is extremely knowledgeable and passionate about the technology and he explains it to you and gives you a comfort level you just don?t get from the other guys.

I found Dave Bunnell (The Steam Whisperer) three years ago when we had all but given up on getting heat to all the units in our 6-flat building. If you live in a steam-heat building, you don't me to explain that it takes a lot more than a plumber to tweak a system so that every room in every unit gets even, efficient, and appropriate heat. As I write, three years later, our furnace gas bill has been cut by almost 40% annually (though we probably have to credit some of that to global warming), every room in every unit is comfortable, and we did a number of other projects at Dave's suggestion which have saved us money and improved the efficiency of our overall energy situation.  
Dave, whose company has moved to Chicago and is called the Steam Whisperer, lived and worked out of a tiny town in Central Illinois until last year--happily for steam heaters in Chicago. For well over 20 years--as long as anyone in our building could remember--we had not had good heat. Two of the three units on the south side had always been cold; the units on the north (boiler side) had always been too hot. some rooms got no heat, others too much, etc... I had a little boiler work experience and enough hard-won understanding of some of the subtleties of steam heat that I had hope that there was an actual art to this and that there was someone out there who had mastered that art. I had learned the hard way the limitations (and wasted expense!) of trusting steam heat to a plumber.
Finally, I sat down one day and googled around to see if there was someone with an online presence who sounded like they understood steam heat and might be able to work on our building or recommend a tradesman. When I hit on Dave's "Boiler Pro" discussion page I found what I knew had to be out there. The rest is history, but I will list some of the work we did.
Dave, who has degrees in architecture and engineering (does not do plumbing work) , came over and spent the morning with a calculator and a pad, assessing the condition of our system and working out exactly how much gas we were taking into the building and using in the furnace and hot water heater. I admit to being taken aback at the $300 initial visit charge, but it turned out to be well worth it (not to mention that at the time he was driving almost two hours each way to get to Chicago).
Out of that visit Dave produced a list of options for us to consider, each one priced out and with clear explanations of what each would likely accomplish. We began by insulating all the basement pipes. That immediately solved most of the south side unit heating deficiency issues, but--as Dave predicted--left other unevennesses in the building. So we went on through his list, adjusting the boiler cycle (we had to replace the thermostat because it did not have a sufficient cycle adjustment), adding in some relief valves, adding in adjustable radiator valves in selected rooms. Because he calculated that our main gas meter was too small for the amount of gas drawn in when furnace and hot water heater are both firing, we had Peoples Gas replace it with a larger one (they do that for free). By the start of the 2011-12 heating season, we had solved, completely, all of the heating issues in our building and we are still going strong.
Along the way, Dave pointed out some efficiency and safety improvements for our hot water heater--we had the plumber do that--and a big one: he urged us to consolidate our gas meters into a single bill. We never would have done that if not for him and it was a great thing. Most of your gas bill is the delivery charge, actual gas is very cheap. When you consolidate you do move to the higher paying commercial bill, but the savings are substantial. There was significant plumbing work to be done, so we estimated a three-year payback. Instead, at 1.5 years, as a building we have already saved the equivalent of the $1200 cost of the work. 
Having good heat is, of course, the main thing for which we are thankful to Dave. However, the savings in our gas bill is nothing to sneeze at. Our heating bills are, as I have mentioned, fully 40% lower now than two years ago. And then there are all the additional savings from the work that Dave recommended. 
Dave is also proactive. He makes suggestions based on his research and things he encounters in the field. He is pushing us to insulate our roof, for example, which he says will essentially allow us to turn off the radiators in the top units. Since he moved to Chicago last year, we are able to use Steam Whisperer as our regular boiler service company. At the moment, he is doing some work on the water-level indicators on our boiler.

The work went very well.  I included the details of the work in the service description above.

The Steam Whisperer is very knowledgeable in steam heating systems. They are fairly priced and the right people to call when you want the job done correctly. I have hired them and paid hundreds of miles of travel because I know the quality product I will get.