Stan Gelber And Sons

A disaster

I hired Stan Gelber & Son to install a new furnace, humidification system, and HEPA filtration system on the furnace and two other units in the attic. The unit was a steam humidifier which brings water into the unit, heats it into steam which then goes through the ductwork when the humidistat calls for humidity. During the first week, my thermostat showed that the temperature in the house was reading about 80 degrees, when I was calling for low 70s. . However, my thermostats in the house showed extremely low humidity- only about 22%. The guy who came did not really give me any information on what had gone wrong, but that it was “electrical”. Well, things then went from bad to worse. The humidistat kept registering over 60% humidity coming back into the ductwork, the humidification unit did not appear to be running and my humidity in the house itself was down to low 20s. Visit number two. The guy who came said that while “some” humidity was being sent through the ductwork, it appeared most of it was making a loop and simply going back into the return. Mr. Gelber suggested at that point that they take the humidistat off the unit and place it upstairs in the house. He wanted to charge me an additional $300.00 for that work. There was no attempt to find out why the reading in the return was so high, and no one checked out the unit itself to see if it was even operating when humidity was being called for, or why all the humidity seemed to be going into the return and not the house. It should have been obvious that it was the first place to troubleshoot, and that if all the moisture was going back into the return and not going through the ductwork into the house that moving the humidistat was not the answer. I finally called a different company for an opinion. It turned out that , the humidification unit was not signaling the furnace blower when humidity was being called for. In other words, the unit was not even operating. Whatever the first guy did concerning the electric problem he said existed, the second guy made it worse and screwed it up so that the unit was not even operating on demand.I In addition, as per the manufacturer of the steam unit, who I spent lengthy amounts of time on the phone with, the humidistat was supposed to be at least five feet upstream from the humidifier, and it was not. The humidistat was picking up on all the moisture in the unit which was not being pumped through the system, which was why the reading was so high. I hired the second company to remove the unit and put in a pass through unit, which I have had no issues with. Brian Gelber really should have looked into the reason the unit was not even operating and sending humidity through the house instead of trying to soak me for extra money for a procedure which would have accomplished nothing, and possibly led to damage in my basement from leakage and/or flooding.The steam unit, BTW, was so corroded that there were pieces of broken metal lying all over it and tons of calcification from the water which just sat there. The inside had cracked and corroded so that it looked like it was decades old instead of merely about six months. When I told him he really should reimburse me for the humidification system as well as for half the yearly contract I paid him for, since I did not feel I wanted him to do any further work in the house, he was willing to return “some” money if I signed a non-disclosure promising I would not tell anyone, would not post on social media, write reviews, etc. He even sent me a copy of what he wanted me to sign along with the letter telling me what he expected in return for a refund. Something tells me he would have a lot more negative reviews but people are taking his “deal” to shut up in order to get some money back. I felt it was more important to warn people about this company. They also installed two HEPA filtration systems on my attic units which are way too small ( he insisted the area was too small to warrant larger units) and as a result I have dust everywhere because the units to not clear it all out. They now need to be replaced. A very disappointing experience, not only because there seems to be a lack of knowledge on how this unit was supposed to work and therefore the inability to troubleshoot it on the part of this company , but because they seem to want to keep charging extra if there is an issue when the initial price of thousands of dollars should have assured me of a working unit without additional charge. I am also out the money for the unit and its installation as well as the money for part of a service contract, but then I had to pay someone to remove it and install a new system as well. I would not recommend this company to anyone.