McManus Oil Heating

McManus Oil Heating never let me down! I recall one Christmas Eve--my heater motor gave out and McManus came over with the hour to repair--couldn't ask for better service! Because I hold a contract--cost was $0.00.

I was referred to McManus Oil Company for a second opinion after being told by another company I needed major repair work on my oil burner. I contacted the McManus company, a family owned business, and spoke with Mrs McManus, who patiently listened to my concerns and scheduled an appointment for the next day. Mr McManus arrived as scheduled. He thoroughly inspected my oil heating system, chimney, etc and assured me my system needed nothing more than cleaning.  The work was completed with good results.  I was so pleased with their service, I signed up for their annual service contract which includes annual cleaning and maintenance of my system, including repairs and parts. On research, I found McManus Oil also has the lowest oil prices in my area and I now use them as my oil provider.  My experience with McManus Oil Company has been GREAT! I have never had any problems with the work performed and their rates are very reasonable.  I highly recommend their services.

McManus came to our home on Dec 13 after being referred by Oil Depot (our fuel oil delivery company).  Our boiler was running fine at the time with no problems - we simply wanted a preventive cleaning and tune-up in advance of the coming winter season.
At the service call, the McManus tried to scare my us into purchasing a new fuel pump for an additional $400 on top of the $175 cleaning and tune-up fee.   We declined the new fuel pump replacement because it seemed very expensive and our boiler had been running fine prior to his visit and ran fine the previous winter.  McManus then warned us that our boiler would soot-up and that it was a fire hazard and carbon-monoxide hazard -- saying as he left that we'd be calling him back soon.  He even asked us to sign a waiver acknowledging his warnings.
We later learned that the fuel pump part is $50-100 and part installed including labor is runs $200-$250 with most repairman, plus labor is often covered within the typical labor rate for a $175 cleaning and tune-up by some servicemen.  So $400 was indeed outrageous on top of the $175 McManus was already getting from us.
Less Than Three Weeks Later - our oil-heat boiler for baseboard radiator heat was not working right.  Our entire house smelled like oil and the carbon-monoxide alarm in our basement was beeping - so something definitely was not working correctly.
This time we called Ferro Oil.  Ferro's serviceman, Dominic, came to our home that afternoon - he was very professional and courteous - he cleaned everything out and by-the-way his deep cleaning included the combustion chamber was ignored by McManus.  Dominic also gave the unit a typical tune-up and quickly got the boiler unit working properly again.
Most importantly, Dominic from Ferro corrected either inadvertent, or possibly purposeful, mistakes left by McManus.
According to Dominic, McManus did the following - (i) he did not check or clean the combustion chamber which was heavily caked in layers of soot, (ii) he used the wrong oil fuel nozzle putting too much oil into the chamber,  (iii) he had the pressure at 250psi when is should've been much lower at 140 psi - again putting too much oil into the chamber, and (iv) he kept the oil filter cap loose when caused the fuel pump to spit and misfire.  These mistakes produce an exaggerated amount of soot within our boiler unit which is why is backed up only three weeks after the McManus cleaning service.
Dominc from Ferro found No Problem At All with our fuel pump after making the proper tune-up adjustments and after correctly tightening the fuel filter top.
We are telling all of our friends, family, and neighbors about this experience because we can not believe that our boiler, which was working fine prior to the McManus service call, was then left, after a simple annual cleaning, in the described condition thereby posing a serious risk to our home and to our family.

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It went very well.  I strongly recommend this company and the owner Bill McManus.