Winner of Simply the Best plumbing company
in Harrisburg Magazine's Readers' Poll
We were voted Simply the Best plumbing company each year from 2005 -2007 in the Harrisburg Magazine Readers' Poll. This honor came from online or write-in voting from customers. The success of our business has always depended on the kind words our customers say about us. Each year we strive to earn the trust you put in us. Thanks to all of you who have supported us over the years.
A closer look. The Zimmerman story. Our people. Our qualifications.
Zimmerman's in a nutshell
- We care about our customers and our community.
- Our focus is comfort, reliability and energy efficiency.
- We work to minimize the burning of fossil fuels and the amount of materials dumped in our landfills.
- Our experienced technicians and office staff work together to provide you the best service we possibly can.
A closer look
We care about our customers
We treat our customers as we would like to be treated - from the minute you call, until the last wrench is in the truck. We respond promptly to your calls for service. If our arrival time changes, we notify you.
We use drop cloths and wear booties to protect your floors. We maintain our trucks so we don't leak oil in your driveway. The equipment we recommend is based on your home, your lifestyle, and your plans for the future, not on a weekly special. We answer all questions fully so you're comfortable with all our work and equipment. We leave your home better than we found it.
We install comfort, reliability & energy efficiency
We install and maintain your home systems to use fuel efficiently, reduce emissions, and provide years of comfortable, reliable service. We attend trade shows, read journals, and research the latest fuel-reducing, environmentally-friendly technology. All heat pumps and air conditoning units we install now use Puron refrigerant, the more environmentally-friendly replacement for Freon.
We install new systems designed to fit you
All our work and equipment is custom fitted to your home and lifestyle. All heating and cooling systems are installed only after a free whole-house insulation and heat-loss evaluation. We not only inspect your doors and windows, but we also take into consideration how often they're opened by kids running through the house.
We are installation & maintenance experts
Proper installation and proper maintenance go hand-in-hand. One without the other costs money, increases fuel usage and emissions, and leads to premature replacement of your equipment. Like a car, well-built and properly maintained heating and cooling equipment will give you years of reliable, fuel-efficient service. Call us or visit our planned maintenance page to learn why scheduling regular annual maintenance is one of the best things you can do for your home, your family and our community.
We do it right the first time
Our expert technicians are prepared, work efficiently, and do the job right the first time. They are supported by our office staff and parts department who make sure they get to your site on time with the right tools and equipment.
We hire for people skills & mechanical knack
The technicians we send to your home were hired because of their people skills and technical expertise. We provide regular ongoing training throughout the year both in-house and at a regional training center that our employees helped build. We are always looking for great people to join our staff. If you, or someone you know, is mechanically inclined and enjoys interacting with people, contact us for an interview. Visit our career opportunities page to see what's happening on the hiring front.
We provide free estimates & up-front pricing
You will always know what your job will cost before any work begins. We have the ability to give a reasonable price because we estimate in-person every job we do. We look at your needs and desires, the access, and any equipment that needs to be removed so that the full scope of the work is understood in advance.
We offer coupons for services & equipment
We publish a spring and fall newsletter that includes coupons you'll find useful if you're in need of new equipment. Our one constantly running discount is a "15% off" for all other repair services for those of you who are planned maintenance customers.
We prefer American-made
We install American-made products as much as possible. There's a lot of junk made overseas with short life expectancies; we avoid these products. We do all we can to buy from reputable American manufacturers.
We recycle
We recycle the equipment and packaging we remove from your home as much as possible. These items include the metal content of old equipment, old pipe, cardboard, oil, and refrigerant. We have a long history of recycling. You can see it in action if you come by our East Allen Street office.
We give back to our community
Being involved in the community is the only way we will do business. We sponsor community events every year. We have been serving homeowners in the Harrisburg area since 1980.
We're a local Mechanicsburg company
When you call on us for annual maintenance, new equipment, repair, or emergency service, you are voting for personalized, local business, where you can still pick up the phone and talk directly to the president.
We are a team
We employ twenty-some people. Everything we accomplish is through teamwork. Our coach is lifelong Mechanicsburg-ian Earnie Zimmerman.
The Zimmerman story
In 1980 a young and energetic Earnie Zimmerman began offering plumbing services out of the basement of his parents' home here in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. He had no computer, no website, just a truck, some tools, and a knack for working with his hands. But he also had something that would lay the foundation for how he runs his business to this day: the example set by his own parents and plumbing mentors who showed him the importance of hard work, integrity and community involvement.
EZ's plumbing roots go back to when he was eight or nine, when he removed the kitchen faucet with a plastic toolset given to him by his parents. Then one day, when he was fifteen, after coming out of church, he stopped in Tom Trimble's plumbing shop across the street and asked Mr. Trimble if he needed help.
Tom immediately set Earnie to sweating brass fittings off copper tubing bound for the recycle bins, and cleaning the shop bathroom on Saturdays and after school. Being young and energetic and having a natural bent for things mechanical, Earnie soon picked up the trade from Tom and Dan McCurdy, another of Tom's employees. After graduation from Cumberland Valley High School in 1977, EZ hit the streets in a Trimble truck and began digging ditches, replacing water heaters, and fixing toilets, furnaces, and the familiar faucet.
On January 1st, 1980, three weeks before his 21st birthday, Earnie went out on his own, handling Tom's overflow calls. EZ's first job was restoring hot water on an oil furnace for a lady in Dillsburg during an ice storm.
Remember 1980? Mt. St. Helens erupts, John Lennon assasinated, Reagan elected, Post-It-Notes introduced, CNN launched, Phillies win the World Series, and a plumbing business begins in a basement in Mechanicsburg.
During those first few years, Earnie handed out business cards, mailed out invoices from home, and had a high school accounting teacher keep his books. He eventually graduated to advertising in the Harrisburg paper under the name Zimmerman Plumbing and Heating. The business began to grow as Earnie practiced the art of not saying "No." This led to adding employees and taking on what he now calls "ego jobs" that a young buck is wont to do.
Since then, Earnie has added Air Conditioning and Inc. to the Zimmerman name. In 1987 he settled the business at its present location at 110 East Allen Street, in what was at one time Lloyd Brandt's Mechanicsburg Flour Mills. [Check out a more recent photo of our shop on East Allen Street.]
EZ and company contribute a lot of time helping others through work with church youth groups, as a guest speaker at the vocational-technical school, donations of time, money and equipment to local organizations and events such as Jubilee Day, as well as funding a scholarship at Mechanicsburg High School.
Zimmerman now employs about twenty-five people, providing reliable, expert service with technicians who are highly trained and who show respect for every customer, from responding promptly to emergency calls, to wearing protective booties on the job.
Since the beginning, Earnie has traveled the path of the entrepreneur, always questioning, always trying to find better ways, and always trying to focus on the things that really matter. Today Earnie says he has learned what really matters is taking care of all his customers, be they his internal customers who work for him, or his external customers for whom he works, a lesson that began when a young boy first wielded a plastic toolset in a kitchen in Mechanicsburg.
"I think what we do best is we have good customer service. Because of that everything else we do works into place. Again, we can fix anything. But if we can't show you the respect you deserve or have good customer skills it's not going to make much of a difference." - EZ
Young and energetic, old and wise, our installation & maintenance experts combine the best of all worlds.
Our office staff and parts department are dedicated to getting our field technicians to your site on time, with the right tools and equipment.
Our qualifications
Certifications
- North American Technical Excellence certification - heating, cooling & refrigeration
- National Comfort Institute certification - heating, cooling & carbon monoxide training
- Ongoing technical training on specific equipment - both in-house and at a regional training facility, led by manufacturer representatives.
- Master plumber certificates - for virtually all our plumbers
- Liability and workman's compensation insurance
- Random monthly drug testing
Professional Memberships
- Plumbing, Heating, Cooling Contractors Association
- Air Conditioning Contractors of America
- Service Roundtable
- Mechanicsburg Chamber of Commerce
- West Shore Chamber of Commerce
We believe in continuing education.
Beyond our regular training, we also attend trade shows and research the latest plumbing, heating, and air conditioning technology. We build this knowledge into everything we do.