American Leak Detection of New Mexico

I had American Leak Detection do a helium test in January 2019 through my Rental House Management Company for a gas leak. When the plumbers came to fix the leak, they said the test was useless and then determined the correct cause of the leak along with fixing it. After this happened, one of the American Leak employees informed a manager of the "non-performance" so that this bill could be waived, but the manager not only insisted this bill be paid, but was going to impose late fees if it was not paid shortly after the conversation. I will never (nor does my management company plan to) use American Leak again - non-performance along with being expensive.

Poorly. I recommend the Albuquerque Leak Detection service instead. Why? Because the American Leak Detection team never located the leak, despite it being so obvious that a competitor I hired for a second opinion, from Albuquerque Leak Detection found the leak in a few tens of minutes. Poorly also describes the nature of this interaction because what the American Leak Detection team didn't have confidence that they found the leak the first time and charged almost $400 to give me a best guess about where they might look next, requiring an additional fee. The additional fee was estimated at almost $2000 and would have required demolition of concrete flooring in my water heater / furnace closet of the garage so that a closer look could have been taken. Fortunately, I didn't accept this recommendation and I got a second opinion. The leak wasn't anywhere near the approximate region indicated by American Leak Detection. Instead, the leak was discovered by the Albuquerque Leak Detector 40 feet away, in the backyard. The leak was the result of a leaky valve off of a hose faucet. After locating the leak, I requested that American Leak Detection evaluate their work and consider giving me a refund. They consented, their manager was professional and came to inspect the situation in two additional visits. But that required two additional visits that accomplished nothing when it came to locating the leak, required many phone calls, and after almost a full month of time after the final visit, I received a partial refund, less than half of the charge for the ill-fated visit. Considering all the cost and time, it just wasn't worth it to deal with this company, despite some of the kind and nice people working there. I couldn't trust them to do the thing they advertise to do and it was up to me to stay on top of the situation, even though I was paying and this wasn't my area of expertise. When it comes to finding leaks, good work means almost everything and good intentions mean relatively little if the leak isn't found. Now, it is likely that this instance was one of the unfortunate cases where things just went wrong. However, because this is a pricey service - no matter who you select - and because of how quickly their competitor was able to demonstrate that they found the leak after American Leak Detection tried for hours, I recommend that you avoid this company and select an alternative. Try the Albuquerque Leak Detector, whose team is led by a chemical engineer who has a well-thought through method for detecting leaks. I found the pricing comparable and respect the Albuquerque Leak Detector team for their professionalism and competence.

Techs arrived on time. They set up their equipment and tested the house and irrigation system for leaks. No leaks found in the house plumbing and water system. Found one slow leak in an irrigation control valve. We have had the control valve repaired, and water usage has returned to normal.

Went well would hire again

Good. Explained processes as they worked. Very thorough.

After having the local Water Authority out to do an audit(no luck) and a plumber out to try and locate the leak (as I would have him back to fix it) - again no luck, I call American Leak Detection. Similar price to other like businesses. There for about 45 mins. Located leak by sending air through the system and listening, offered to repair it.

Very well. They fit me in, even though they were tightly scheduled for the day, working somewhat later than their normal hours. Stephanie was knowledgeable, professional, and well-equipped for the job. She didn't mind letting me observe and answered my questions during the process. (One of the things I want, when I pay for a professional service, is to get a little education in addition to the service itself!) Stephanie first verified my amateur troubleshooting as being basically right, then pressurized the system from an outside faucet and (1) verified that there were no leaks beyond the main line, under the slab, (2) located/marked the main-line leak as being about a yard or so away from the city meter box. (Note: The only reason I indicated 'B' for Price is that I'm not, in general, a big fan of fixed-pricing for a job. I'd like to at least have the option of doing time-and-materials. But I do think I got reasonable value overall.)

The actual work was done by Franchesco and his crew of two helpers.  The process is too complicated to explain in detail.  It took two days due to drying and setting of the epoxy and sections of dry wall had to be removed to access pipes.  After the epoxy lining was applied and dried the pipes were pressure tested to make sure there were no leaks.  Once the pipes were reconnected the boiler was fired up and all heating zones were checked to make sure the system was working properly.  All the work was done efficiently and with a minimum of mess.  Franchesco and his crew were efficient, clean, helpful in explaining what they were doing.
After the plumbing work was completed, American contracted with Kundert Construction Co. to close up the openings that had to be made in the walls and repair the drywall.  This husband and wife team were great!  (See my review of their company)  All of their work was included in the American contract.

Its been a year and a half, I haven't had any problems since. They did a good job in finding the leak. I had them out here more than once. They've always managed to find the leaks and they were underneath the slabs. They had to go in and fix it. Those are major endeavors. It was cheaper than redoing all the plumbing. They were pretty much here when they said they were going to be here. It took about 4-5 days and my house totally upside down during that period of time. Its not anything I can do about but they did a pretty good job. They did fix the walls and stuff when they had to go through the walls. I had to have it painted. They did fix everything otherwise.

At first I was impressed that they were willing to pick up a key from to to perform the service at a vacant rental.  I explained where the leak was and that I thought that there was more than one.  They did detect one leak but not the other.  When I tried to get them to come out they explained they could only do one leak at a time, something that was not explained to me the first time.  They were willing to come out for another $400.00.  I did not see the value in this and had I know I would have dug the line up and found the leak myself.

great

Very polite and responsive employees.  Answered all questions and provided suggestions. 
Not sure if this service was really needed, and I may have spent unnecessary money on this since I knew the main line had the leak.  It would have been wise for me to save the $380.00 and used it toward just having the main line replaced.  They suggested a repair of the main line for $1800.00.  I found a plumbing company that would do a main line replacement for the same price, not just a "Band-Aid" repair!  My house is over 20+ years old and instead of spending the money just to document a leak, all I needed was the main-line replaced! My $140.00 water bill per month should have been documentation enough that I had a leak and I did not need to spend money on such a service. My lack of common sense on this issue cost me money!

They were unable to find where the leak was loated. They said if it gets worse they would come again and take a look. 6 months later they came out and they said it was most likely around a tree, but they still couldn’t find it. They charged us for both services. We had our plumber come out and he dug around the tree and didn’t find the leak there, but he was able to find the leak by the base of house.

I was not home when they did the work. I thought it was a bit expensive.

THEY TOOK TOO LONG DOING THE JOB. THEY WOULDN'T RETURN MY CALLS AND I HAD TO PRACTICALLY HARASS THEM TO GET THE WORK FINISHED. ONCE THEY FOUND THE LEAK HOWEVER, THINGS SEEMED TO GET BETTER.