Field notes · Heating · Vancouver, BC
Reliance Mechanical is a heating specialist — gas furnaces, boilers, hot-water tanks, radiant floors and gas piping — run by a bonded & insured gas contractor serving Greater Vancouver since 1994.
Est. 1994 · Vol. 30 · No-heat season edition
Editor's note
Thirty years in furnace rooms teaches you the difference between a part that failed and a system that was never right. This page is our trade, written down: what we work on, what it costs to start, and how to reach a human when the heat quits at 2 a.m.
The ledger — services
Seven entries. If it burns gas or moves hot water, it belongs here.
Furnaces are what we know best. We diagnose and repair all major makes, and when a unit is past its honest life we size and install a replacement that fits the house — not a sales quota.
Boilers are our specialty. We service, repair and replace residential and light-commercial hot water boilers — and we clean up the near-boiler piping while we're in there.
We supply, install and service tank and tankless water heaters. If the hot water runs out halfway through the morning rush, that's our kind of problem.
In-floor radiant heat is quiet, even and easy to love — until something goes wrong. We maintain and retrofit hydronic systems: manifolds, pumps, mixing valves and controls.
Annual cleaning and safety checks for gas fireplaces and inserts. Clear glass, steady pilot, warm room.
New gas lines, reroutes and additions for ranges, dryers, barbecues and heaters — run clean, pressure-tested and up to code.
We locate leaks, repair them and re-test the whole run. Smell gas right now? Get out first, then call us — or 911 — from outside.
Starting points
Every job is quoted on site before work starts. These are honest starting points, not gotchas.
Maintenance
Repairs & installs
Standing
Plenty of heating shops have come and gone since 1994. We're still answering the same number.
Bonded & insured
A bonded & insured gas contractor — the way we've operated since day one.
Since 1994
Serving Vancouver, Richmond and the North Shore since 1994.
Credentials
Process
Plain language is fine — strange noises, no heat, a bill that doubled. A person answers.
Combustion check, controls, venting, water side — a proper workup before money is mentioned.
Repair vs. replace, laid out plainly. You approve the number before we touch a wrench.
Full test run — pressures, temperatures, safeties — and a workspace cleaner than we found it.
Residential
Small commercial
Get everyone out, don't touch switches or appliances, and call 911 or the gas utility's emergency line from outside. Then call us — we locate the leak, repair it and pressure-test the whole run.
(604) 733-3737Marginalia — readers write in
Testimonial 01 / 03
Xxxxx xxxx xxxxxxxx xxxx xx xxxxxxxx xxxxx.— Customer Name
Field notes
A vertical file of the usual suspects — the calls that fill our weeks, heating season after heating season.
First cold snap, dead ignitor or a flame sensor gone crusty. Usually an hour, usually not a new furnace — despite what the other quote said.
Sediment baking on the burner side. A flush buys time; a tank past its years gets an honest replacement number.
Air in the lines, a tired pump, or water temperatures set for a different decade. Boilers reward people who understand water.
New range, new line — sized, routed and pressure-tested to code, with the permit paperwork in order.
The call we drop things for. Located, repaired, and the whole run re-tested before we leave.
Correspondence
Write to the shop
"Furnace blowing cold," "boiler banging," "no hot water since Tuesday" — we've heard it all.
Serving Vancouver and surrounding areas