Top Notch Energy Pool & Spas

John was informative and helpful with a solution and responded quickly to texts. The gas fireplace looked and worked like new after pilot, burners and glass were cleaned. Most amazing, he stopped by to deliver a new remote I needed on Christmas Eve, so I’d have it for Christmas.

These guys are the best. They’ve been around since the 70’s and no one knows more about fireplaces and hot tubs than John Notch. We’ve had they work on not only our home fireplace but on all of our rental homes. His pricing is fair and the quality of work top notch just like the name implies. He recently installed a gas log fireplace at a rental we have. He was prompt, clean and the tenant loves the fireplace.
Oh he moved in 2014 to Dutton Avenue near East 14^th: 23 Dutton Ave, San Leandro, CA 94 577

John is a big joke who says he has 30 years experience yet spent 5 min. Max checking out my hot tub. Doesn’t know anything about 110 elec. spa’s though mine is less than 6 years old. Asked him to check out the jets as they are weak. he says, you got warm water what else do you need? I ask him a question about my chemicals that I had lined up, he says, all you need is vinegar and baking soda! Jets not too strong, he say’s put a hanger in the hole, though I showed him the tool used for jet cleaning. WTF, I guess he wants ppl to ruin their spa’s so they can call him? This dude is a joke and a rip off! Said he gave me a deal at $ 100. I feel totally ripped off and wish my man had been there to straighten out this guy. If he works on fireplaces like he does spa’s, stay very far away from this guy. Wish I’d had his business name prior to hiring him but his craigslist post did not have the name for me to Unilocal.My loss and your gain with Unilocal post — DO NOT HIRE THIS FLAKE!

John does great work and is reasonable in price. High quality merchandise and supplies. A neighborhood business for years. Also a neighbor and friend.

I recently renovated a home in Alameda and decided to put in a gas fireplace insert. I failed to look up the Unilocal reviews on this vendor and made the unfortunate decision of using Top Notch! This was back in April, 2013… I am now on the second unit, August 2013 and it still doesn’t work!!! The unit works for a few hours, but then I can’t get it started again only a few hours later. John has come out numerous times attempting to fix the unit, but he just doesn’t have the knowledge or expertise to do so! Save yourself the time and frustration… Find Someone Else!

In a world where communication is king, Top Notch Energy is down there with the serfs. I emailed this morning about a hot tub pad, got an unintelligible reply (below) 4 hours later (which is fine, not knocking a ‘same day turnaround reply’), then when I wrote back (5 minutes later) asking if he could clarify the previous message — and if my request even fit in under the scope of his company or if I should look elsewhere — I got a reply 2 hours later at 5:11pm saying he would be out of town and back in 11 days. So I can take my question and suck it. Nice.
Some days you can get very busy, and have a very hard time giving a full response to someone. This is understandable. But going the extra mile to tell a local consumer that in a week and a half you might put a little effort into their question of whether or not to even seek out your services ranks down there with the ‘Never trust this company.‘
Here is the email reply I got which needed clarification (and never received it):
«Easy enough to prep steel mesh and call doe a powu we dl electric hook up and repairs»

John zoomed over on his motorcycle, and cleaned and fixed my gas fireplace which mysteriously stopped working over the summer. He also brought out his ukelele and sang me a couple of songs! So I’m tossing in an extra star for the entertainment experience!
For full disclosure: he does seem to be a little laid back about appointment times. When we first spoke, he said he’d try to get over in the evening, and then never called. By 9pm I figured he wasn’t coming. But to his credit, when I called again today he came over within about an hour and had my fireplace working again within 20 minutes.
Quick, effective service at a reasonable cost plus a Hawaiian holiday serenade… who could ask for more?

Top Notch, too bad they allow just 5 stars, John’s the best! I’d recommend Top Notch in a Castro Valley heartbeat. Keep up the good work, John,

John Notch was great. No problems removing my old wood-​burning fireplace insert (a problem with spare the air days) and replacing it with a new gas insert.
It works great — heats the room quickly, and uses a thermostat to go on and off automatically.
They also were able to install on Saturday!

John Nesh is unprofessional, unreliable, and didn’t even finish the job!
He fixed my gas fireplace and it worked for a while, and then the pilot went out. We tried to make an appointment with him about 5 times, and he cancelled on us and has some shoddy excuse every time he cancelled.
When he finally made an appointment to come over, I called him about half an hour before to confirm, and he says, «Oh, I was going to call you yesterday. Can’t do it this morning. Can we do it next week?» What the hell? No 24 hour notice period, not even an apology. AND I HAD TO CALL HIM! WTF?!
Top Notch Energy Should be called Top Crap Energy.
Do not call them!

This place sucks!!! We piscked out a gas fireplace and were going to have them install it 2 months before our open house. They said that would be no problem. THey came to our house 4 tiems before they even brought out the fireplace and never for more than a half hour. When they did finally bring it, it was the VERY used unit from their showroom (4 years of daily showroom use, not the new one promised and he still wanted $ 2700 for it). THey did a hack job without asking on our mantal and came ouf for 3 more half hour useless attempts. Time was running short before our open house and I needed this installed so I could finnsh framing the floor and finish the mantal. He promised me that It would be done the =day before the open house. Never SHowed, and we did not hear from them for a month, my messages went un returned. Months later I finaly had him remove the unit and I am still waiting for my deposit. AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!