Schaafsma Heating & Cooling

I had previously had furnace and air conditioning work done at my home by Schaffsma heating & cooling. They are very professional, reliable, and honest. I recently had some furnace issues and they came out the next day. The repairman told me exactly what was wrong and what was needed to fix it. He said that needed to order a part for the repair and the very next day it was in and ready to be installed. I have had several relatives use their service and all were very pleased with their work and prices. I will continue to use their company for all of my heating and cooling needs.

Our technician Rob McIntyre was excellent, he did the initial diagnosis of the old unit and installed the new unit with a helper. Both were careful and conscientious to ensure they removed the old and installed the new without damaging our house or the new unit, especially since it was a somewhat difficult-to-access portion of our basement. I'd give 5 stars for the skill, knowledge, and interactions of the technician(s), they patiently answered my questions and guided me with a no-BS assessment of the needs of this job. They addressed all my concerns from choosing the right product (short v. tall, tank v. tankless) to plumbing concerns to a minor issue with the gas line. All Schaafsma people I interacted with were great. I'd give 4 stars for pricing and transparency, as Schaafsma's receipt consisted of 2 line items - $3,055 for an installed water heater, and a $250 discount. The price was reasonably in line with other companies, but I felt almost chastised when I asked for an itemized receipt, and I thought it was a lot for a water heater. The Bradford-White RG240S6N (40 gallon short) they installed is widely available for about $1,100, so the rest was for removing the old, bringing in the new, materials and labor for plumbing, gas line, vent line, new drip tray and drain, water leak sensor, and the City of GR permit. Total time on site was about 5 hours, including a couple of trips to go get some parts. First contact was the Friday after Christmas, new unit install was complete by ~2pm on Monday. I'm very happy with the end result and the process, and they did a great job. On one hand it was expensive, but OTOH it was done quick and done right by experienced professionals, and it got us back in business quickly with peace of mind for years to come. Not really specific to Schaafsma, but I feel like giving 3 stars or fewer to the HVAC/plumbing industry at large. I grew up in a house built in the 70s with a basic furnace that lasted 45 years, and a 40-gallon water heater that went 28 years. Newer products, especially 'high efficiency' units, somehow can't compete with that. In the 'recently' renovated home I now live in, the 17-year-old water heater's electronic gas valve that failed was apparently a unique-to-our-model part (a mass-market Whirlpool model) that not only cost $1,200+ just for the part, but is no longer made/obsolete. Really? A Honeywell gas valve? And there isn't a generic one-fits-many replacement for this relatively simple device? Nope. Need a whole new water heater, because some little chip failed. To the customer, it seems like every HVAC/plumbing problem is like this - even a relatively simple product like a water heater is lucky to last 15 years without heinously expensive repairs or complete replacement due to what I view as premature failures, (planned?) obsolescence, and a complete lack of standardized common parts. It can be explained away to me all day by industry professionals, but that changes nothing about the fact that it is a very painful and expensive thing for the consumer, and feels like a big ripoff. There is also so little tangible value in buying more expensive 'high-efficiency' products, with added complexity that virtually guarantees the need for big-$$$ repairs inside of 10-15 years. Furnace inducer motor bad? Oh, they don't make that particular plastic housing with an electric motor and control board anymore, a pretty simple thing really, but if they did it would be $2k, so let's instead spend $9k on a new furnace, to replace one that's only 14 years old. In fact, why don't we just bulldoze the entire house, rebuild it from scratch, and that should definitely solve the problem...every conversation ends up like this, and it's maddening. UPDATE: Friday 1/16/2026 service call - not 3 weeks after the new water heater was installed, our furnace quit working. I called on a Friday afternoon and luckily they had an opening that day. Technician Mark Debri diagnosed the issue correctly and was excellent. Thanks!!