Wahl installs Honeywell Home controls across Pittsburgh.
Thermostats, zoning, and boiler controls. Controls are where comfort actually lives, and it is the part most contractors rush.
Wahl Family Heating, Cooling & Plumbing
1 Willow Avenue, Oakdale, PA 15071
Honeywell Home, made by Resideo, is the controls line we run across both sides of our business: thermostats and zoning on the forced air side, and aquastats, zone valves, and boiler controls on the hydronic side. Controls are the least glamorous part of an HVAC system and the part that determines whether your house actually feels right. We install the Honeywell Home ElitePRO and T-series connected thermostats, full zoning systems, and the control stack that runs a boiler correctly.
Why we run this line.
You can put the best furnace in the world in a house and still have a customer who is cold upstairs and roasting downstairs. That is not an equipment problem. That is a controls and zoning problem, and it is the one most companies never even bring up.David Wahl, CEO and master plumber
The reason we stay deep on one controls line is the same reason we stay deep on Rheem. Our technicians see the same wiring conventions, the same terminal designations, and the same failure modes every day. When you have a no-heat call at 10pm in January, that familiarity is the difference between a fast diagnosis and an hour of guessing at someone else’s wiring.
The other half is hydronics. A boiler is a control system with a heat source attached. Aquastats, zone valves, circulator relays, outdoor reset, and low water cutoffs all have to work together, and a lot of the boiler complaints we get called into turn out to be control problems rather than boiler problems. Being fluent on the controls side means we can fix the actual issue instead of quoting a new boiler.
On the thermostat itself, we care about two things: that it can actually run the equipment you have, and that remote sensors are placed where the people are. A connected thermostat with room sensors in the rooms that matter fixes more comfort complaints than an equipment upgrade does.
The products in your home.
Honeywell Home and First Alert are both Resideo, which is why the thermostat, the alarms, and the doorbell all talk to each other instead of living in three different apps.
The equipment we actually install.
The Honeywell Home and Resideo equipment we install.
Honeywell Home ElitePRO smart thermostat
The professional-grade connected thermostat, backed by Resideo’s Pro-IQ service platform so we can support and configure it properly rather than handing you a consumer box.
T-series connected thermostats
Connected thermostats with an outdoor module and remote room sensors, so the system controls to the room you actually live in instead of the hallway.
Remote room sensors
The unglamorous fix for the room that is always wrong. Placing sensors where people actually sit changes how a house feels more than most equipment upgrades do.
Zoning panels and motorized dampers
Full zoning systems for houses where one thermostat cannot serve a three-story layout, a finished attic, or an addition. This is the real answer to hot upstairs and cold downstairs.
Aquastats and boiler controls
The control stack that makes a boiler run correctly, including high limit, low limit, and circulator control.
Zone valves and circulator relays
Hydronic zoning components, so different parts of the house can call for heat independently.
Outdoor reset controls
Controls that adjust boiler water temperature to outdoor conditions, which improves both comfort and fuel consumption on a hydronic system.
Gas valves and safety controls
The safety stack on gas-fired equipment, replaced with correct parts rather than universal substitutes.
Where controls expertise shows up.
Both sides of the house, forced air and hydronic
Very few companies here are equally fluent in a zoning panel and an aquastat. We run both trades, so our controls knowledge spans both.
Comfort complaints solved without new equipment
A meaningful share of the calls we get about an uneven or uncomfortable house turn out to be sensor placement, staging, or zoning, not a failing furnace. We would rather solve it that way, even though it is a smaller ticket.
Wiring you can service later
Labeled, neat, correctly terminated wiring. It is not vanity. It is what makes the next diagnostic fast and cheap, whether it is us or somebody else on the call.
Compatibility checked before we sell it
Not every smart thermostat runs every system, and this is especially true with two-stage equipment, heat pumps with backup heat, dual fuel, and hydronic zoning. We check the equipment before we recommend the control.
Why this matters in a Pittsburgh house.
Pittsburgh’s three-story homes, converted attics, and additions built onto the back of a hundred-year-old house are exactly the layouts that defeat a single thermostat. Heat rises, the third floor bakes, and the first floor never warms up. That is a zoning and controls problem. It also comes up constantly on boilers, where the original controls are decades old and the system was rezoned by three different contractors over forty years.
Questions, answered.
Which smart thermostat should I get?
It depends on your equipment. Two-stage systems, heat pumps with backup heat, dual fuel, and hydronic zoning all place different demands on a thermostat, and plenty of consumer thermostats cannot run them properly. We check your system first. The Honeywell Home ElitePRO and T-series units are what we install most, because they handle staged and dual fuel equipment correctly and support remote room sensors.
My upstairs is hot and my downstairs is cold. Do I need a new furnace?
Usually not. That is normally a distribution and controls problem, not an equipment problem. Options range from balancing the ductwork, to adding remote sensors so the thermostat reads the right room, to a full zoning system with motorized dampers. We look at the house before we quote equipment.
What is HVAC zoning and is it worth it?
Zoning divides your home into areas that call for heating and cooling independently, using motorized dampers and a zoning control panel. In a multi-level Pittsburgh home, a finished attic, or an addition, it is often the single most effective comfort improvement available, and it is far less expensive than replacing a system that is not actually the problem.
Can you fix my boiler controls instead of replacing the boiler?
Often, yes. A lot of the boiler complaints we get called on are control problems: a failing aquastat, a stuck zone valve, a bad circulator relay, or missing outdoor reset. We diagnose the controls before we quote a boiler.
Do you install Honeywell Home thermostats I buy myself?
We can install a customer-supplied thermostat, but we will check compatibility with your equipment first and we will tell you if it cannot run your system correctly. We would rather have that conversation before installation than after.
What are remote room sensors and do they help?
They are small sensors placed in the rooms you actually use, so the system controls to those rooms instead of to a hallway wall. For a very small cost they resolve a large share of everyday comfort complaints.
Talk to someone who knows the equipment.
Upfront pricing before any work starts, both standard and member pricing on every option, and no pressure. Backed by our 100% satisfaction guarantee.