Business ProfileforBiltwel Air Duct Cleaning Equipment & Mfg

Be careful when you are dealing with this company. *** ****** ***** does not provide any kind of warranty on their equipment repair services (especially on big job that costs over 10k+). Our company did some expensive equipment repairs (15k+) at this shop in jan 2021, these parts are designed to last at least a decade. However, within few months, the main blower bearings broke due to faulty installation. We contacted ****, but he never cared or attempt to cover the faulty installation/repairs by the shop. There are very good reasons why certain big air duct companies have stopped dealing with biltwel since 2010. You are better off finding other companies with proper ethical business conducts.

We did repairs for ***** ****** on a vacuum truck from an unknown manufacturer, in January 2021. Customer returned the truck a few months later. Inspection by the local bearing manufactures rep revealed the bearings were severely over greased causing bearing failure. Customer claimed he only put 60 hours on the new bearings. We told the customer that at 60 hours the bearings should have only been greased twice (once by our shop and then by the customer at approximately 30 hours). We then replaced these bearings for the customer at a reduced rate. Second bearing replacement was done April 27, 2021. Before the customer took his truck, the truck was ran for approximately three hours at our shop and was ran again by our shop foreman with the customer. During both operations, the bearings ran smooth. Customer contacted us again on August 24, 2021 stating that the bearings have failed again. Inspection revealed bearings were again severely over greased to the point of the grease seals being dislodged from the bearing housings. The customer claims the bearings and shaft were vibrating immediately after picking the truck up. We questioned him as to why he would’ve ran the truck for approximately 118 days until the bearings failed, instead of bringing it back for us for immediate inspection. We mentioned to the customer before doing the first bearing repair that their bearings appear to be very light duty bearings. In the vacuum trucks we manufacture, our bearings are roller bearings weighing approximately 12 pounds and cost approximately $1000 each. The customer’s truck has ball bearings weighing approximately 3 pounds and costs approximately $100 each. We suggested that the customer have his failed bearings sent to the manufacturer to perform a failure analysis, however he refused stating he would have a mechanical engineer friend investigate. The mechanical engineer told him that the bearings should be a roller bearing which we agreed. We then reminded the customer that he only wanted us to replace the original bearings with the same bearing which is a ball bearing. We offered to replace the bearings with a roller bearing and advised the customer we would do this at a reduced rate, however the customer stated that we should do the work for no charge.

The business owner's response is misleading and illogical at best, and only tells the part of the story that benefits his position. After the 1st repair, there were no any verbal or written instruction given on how to maintain the new bearing parts, and no parts specification are given as well for maintenance references. Even if the 1st repair was failed prematurely due to client's/my poor maintenance, the client/me must have learned from the initial mistake and did acquire the proper maintenance after the 2nd repair was done. In fact, I received the maintenance of the bearings after the 2nd repair on apr 27 2021 from the biltwel owner. Therefore, 2nd repair was failed not due to poor client maintenance, but a poor repair installation from the shop and no warranty was provided. Hence, Biltwel's comment response is illogical from this point of view. Yes, labor rates were reduced for the 2nd repair, respects for that, but that does not justify the unprofessional installation and prematured failure of the 2nd repair. According to ************, the law says that your garage or shop must give warranties on all new or reconditioned parts and the labour needed to install them. In most cases, this warranty must be for a minimum of 90 days or 5,000 kilometres, whichever comes first, and non of the warranty was provided for this repair. Summer is a busy season, hence stopping a work vehicle for inspection after the 2nd repair is very costly for my business and who is going to pay for the unrealized lost summer work? Biltwel should have tested the 2nd repair properly, knowing the importance of this 2nd repair to the both parties. In addition, the original bearing+shaft came off the vehicle isn't exactly light duty, as it has serviced 14 years (5000 hours of operation) without any problems. So calling the original parts 'light duty' is misleading. Lastly, a reduced rate is irrelevant if it can be artificially compensated by reporting a longer labor rate and higher parts cost. Biltwel owner initially asked for $6600 for the estimated cost with a 50% initial deposit requirement. He then later stated on oct 20 2021, "I might be willing to give you a bit more of a discount but until the project is complete we don't know what it is going to cost." This basically means the final cost is undetermined and could go well beyond $6600. Keep in the mind the 1st/total repair only costed 11k and 2nd repair (which the 3rd repair is going to cover and fix) only costed 3.3k. And no, I did not ask for a work for no charge, but only a reasonable rate.