Most maintenance plans are sold in bullet points that don't tell you much. "Annual tune-up. Priority service. Discounts." Fine, but what does the technician actually do when they're in your basement, and is any of it worth $15 a month?
We'd rather just show you. Below is our real pricing, the complete inspection checklist for all four trades, and an honest read on who this plan is and isn't worth it for. After more than 22 years in Derry and across southern New Hampshire, we've learned that homeowners who understand what they're buying stay members. The ones who were sold a bullet point don't.
Quick Answer: What Does Paul's Promise Plan Cost?
Paul's Promise Plan runs $15 to $45 per month, depending on how many of your home's systems you cover:
| Agreements | Per month | Per year | Effective cost per agreement |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 agreement | $15 | $180 | $15.00 / mo |
| 2 agreements | $28 | $336 | $14.00 / mo |
| 3 agreements | $38 | $456 | $12.67 / mo |
| 4 agreements | $45 | $540 | $11.25 / mo |
| Oil system surcharge | +$4 | +$48 | added to any tier above |
Annual and per-agreement columns are simple arithmetic on our published monthly rates, shown so you can compare tiers at a glance.
An agreement covers one of your home's systems — one plan per system or trade. You can mix and match, and the cost is the same whichever trades you pick: a plumbing-and-electrical plan costs the same as a plumbing-and-cooling one. On plumbing and electrical the yearly visit is a full inspection; on heating and cooling it's a system tune-up. The more you bundle, the less each one costs: covering all four systems works out to $11.25 per system per month, about 25% less than covering just one.
Every membership tier includes all five member benefits below. There is no "basic vs. premium" version of the Promise Plan — the tier only sets how many systems we maintain.
What Every Member Gets
These five apply at every tier, from one agreement to four.
- A third year of parts and labor warranty. Our standard warranty is 2 years. Members get 3 years, parts and labor. On a new system installation — furnace, panel, water heater, A/C, or mini-split — that coverage always holds, even if the membership later lapses. On repairs and service items, the third year holds as long as your membership stays active.
- Priority scheduling, including after hours, weekends, and holidays. When the schedule is full, members go first.
- Up to 4 maintenance visits per year. One visit per plan, so a one-agreement member gets one visit a year and a four-agreement member gets four.
- 10% off service and repairs. Applied to the repair itself, not just the trip.
- No dispatch fee. Non-members pay $99 to get a truck to the house. Members pay nothing.
The benefit that isn't on our membership page (but should be)
This is the one we'd point to first, and it's the one most homeowners find out about only after they've already had a bad night:
- Call us and you are never dropped into a voicemail box. Our answering message lets you speak to a live person in the office or schedule an appointment with our AI representative — not an overflow service that just takes a message.
- Emergency service is available to Promise Plan members until 10pm, seven days a week.
- After 10pm, members are guaranteed next-day service on emergency calls.
Our published office hours are Monday through Friday, 7:30am to 4:30pm, and emergency service is available to members only. So the practical difference is this: a burst supply line at 8pm on a Saturday is a same-night call if you're a member. Non-members will be contacted first on the following morning.
What We Actually Inspect
This is the part no one publishes, and the reason this page exists. Here is the complete checklist, by trade, exactly as our technicians work it.
Plumbing
Kitchen
- Hot and cold water shutoff and supply
- Faucet and hose spray
- Garbage disposal hookup and functionality
- Sink drainage
Bathrooms
- Hot and cold water shutoff and supply
- Toilet fill valve, flapper, flush valve, shutoff, and supply
- Sink, shower, toilet, and tub functionality
- Shower and tub caulking
- Shower head, arm, and flange, with sink faucets and tub spouts
Laundry room
- Utility sink faucet and drainage
- Washing machine connections and drainage
Water heater
- Drain and flush
- Shutoff valve and gas shutoff
- Water temperature, and the temperature and pressure relief valve
- Electrical wiring and flue piping
- Overall condition, stability, and age
- Water connections and expansion tank
Whole-house plumbing
- Water pressure, measured with a gauge
- Main shutoff check
- Outside hose bibs and vacuum breakers
- Pressure reducing valve
- Freeze protection
- Whole-home water filtration system
Gas
- Material and condition of gas piping and yard services
Cooling
- Air filters checked and replaced
- Evaporator inspection
- Lubricate all required moving parts
- Proper blower speed check
- Test starting capabilities
- Tighten electrical connections
- Drain lines condensation check and inspection
- A/C safety components check
- Measure for proper volts and amps
- Refrigerant levels check
- Thermostat setting and calibration check
- Visual ducting inspection
Heating
Furnace
- Air filters checked and replaced
- Gas pressure check and adjust
- Humidifier pad inspection
- Measure for proper volts and amps
- Proper venting check
- Thermostat settings and calibration check
- Visual ducting inspection
- Burners and ignition assembly check
- Furnace components check
- Heat exchanger visual check
- Lubricate all required moving parts
- Proper blower speed check
- Tighten electrical connections
Boiler
- Safety inspection
- Test expansion tank
- Check safety valve
- Visual check of controls
- Replace batteries
- Burner check and clean
- Gas pressure check and adjust
- Visual check of furnace, gaskets, and circulation pumps (oiled if required)
Electrical
Main electrical panel
- Breakers are UL listed
- Wire connections are tight
- Breakers and fuses are correctly sized
- Grounding is correct
- Check for burning or corrosion on breakers and busbar
- Panel is protected by a main breaker, properly sized
- GFCI breaker functions properly
General and safety
- All outlets that require GFCI are protected and functional (kitchen, bathrooms, garage, outside)
- Outside outlets have in-use covers
- Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors tested for proper orientation, confirmed hardwired and interconnected, expiration dates checked
- Proper surge protection (phone and cable lines, panels, point-of-use strips, outlets)
- Dedicated circuits (kitchen outlets, microwave, freezer and refrigerator, garbage disposal, dishwasher, window units, charging stations)
- Security lighting and doorbell systems
- All light fixtures and fans
- A/C and furnace wiring is correct and safe
- Attic checked for open splices and junction boxes
- All cover plates on correctly
- Check for exposed surface wiring or extension cords used as permanent wiring
- Arc fault protection in all required areas
- Other alternative energy sources
- Generator transfer switch functions
That's roughly 70 individual checks across a fully covered home. It is not a glance at the furnace.
Why This Checklist Is Built for New Hampshire Houses
A maintenance plan written for Phoenix would skip half the items above. Several of these checks exist specifically because of where we work.
- The well-water items are not filler. New Hampshire's Department of Environmental Services estimates that about 46% of NH residents get their water from a private well, and that roughly a quarter to a third of private wells carry arsenic at 5 ppb or higher. A USGS study of 232 private bedrock wells in Hillsborough, Rockingham, and Strafford counties — the exact three counties we work in most — found nearly three in ten samples exceeded an EPA drinking-water standard, including 17.2% over the arsenic limit and 5.2% over the manganese health advisory. That's why the plumbing checklist inspects the whole-home filtration system and the water heater's condition and age together: on well water in granite bedrock country, sediment and mineral load age a tank faster than the label suggests.
- Freeze protection and hose bibs get their own line for a reason. Our heating season is long and our shoulder seasons are unreliable. An unprotected hose bib or an uninsulated run in an unconditioned space is the single most common way a southern NH home floods, and it's a five-minute check in October versus a burst-pipe call in January.
- The heat exchanger and venting checks are the safety core. ENERGY STAR is explicit that improperly operating gas or oil connections are a fire hazard and can contribute to health problems, and recommends a pre-season professional check-up every year — heating in the fall, cooling in the spring. In a climate where a furnace or boiler runs hard for six months straight, that is not a formality.
- Detector expiration dates are checked because homeowners never check them. NFPA is clear that smoke alarms must be replaced 10 years from the date of manufacture, not from when the battery last chirped. In an older housing stock like Derry's and Nashua's, we routinely find hardwired detectors well past that date, still "working" as far as the test button knows.
- Oil systems cost $4 more a month, and that's honest pricing. Oil-fired equipment carries a nozzle, filter, and combustion routine that gas equipment doesn't. Plenty of southern NH homes are still on oil, and we'd rather price it accurately than average it into everyone else's bill.
Is It Worth It? An Honest Read
We're not going to promise the plan pays for itself, because whether it does depends on your house and your year.
Here's the actual arithmetic. At the top tier you're paying $540 a year for four systems. Against that you get roughly 70 inspection points, four visits, no dispatch fee on any call, 10% off every repair, a third year of warranty coverage, and after-hours emergency access you cannot buy any other way from us.
The plan is a straightforward yes if:
- Your equipment is 8 years or older, in the window where things start failing
- You're on a private well, or you have a whole-home filtration system
- You're on oil, or you have a boiler
- You'd rather not find out at 9pm on a Sunday whether anyone will pick up the phone
- You have a project coming up and want the third warranty year on it
Be more skeptical if:
- Your systems are brand new and still under manufacturer warranty
- You genuinely enjoy doing your own filter changes and seasonal checks, and you'll actually do them
- You're renting, or you're selling within the year
One caution on the discount: our coupons and special offers cannot be combined with other offers, so on a job with a coupon attached, assume you'll take whichever saves you more, the coupon or the 10%, not both.
Signs You Should Book a Maintenance Visit Now, Member or Not
- Any burning or hot-plastic smell near the panel, or a breaker that's warm to the touch
- Water pressure that's dropped noticeably, or fluctuates between fixtures
- A water heater older than 10 years, especially on well water
- Rust, staining, or moisture around the base of a tank, boiler, or furnace
- A furnace or boiler that short-cycles, or a burner that won't hold a clean flame
- Smoke or CO detectors you can't date, or that aren't interconnected
- Any hose bib that wasn't shut down and drained before the first hard freeze
Sign Up for Paul's Promise Plan
Paul the Plumber has been doing plumbing, heating, air conditioning, and electrical work in Derry and across southern New Hampshire for more than 22 years. We're licensed across all four trades we maintain: Master Plumber License 3853, Electrical License 0610C, and Mechanical Business Entity License MBE1400820. We serve southern NH, the Seacoast, and the greater Concord area from our Derry and Nashua locations, and we're rated 4.8 on Google across 2.9k+ reviews. Financing on larger projects is available through Wells Fargo, subject to credit approval.
Paul's Promise Plan: extended warranty, priority service, and exclusive savings.
Call (603) 437-7039 or sign up at <u>www.paultheplumbernh.com/about-us/membership</u>
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Paul's Promise Plan cost?
Paul's Promise Plan costs $15 per month for 1 agreement, $28 for 2, $38 for 3, and $45 for 4. Homes with an oil system add $4 per month to any tier. That works out to $180 to $540 per year, and covering all four systems brings the effective cost down to $11.25 per system per month.
What is an "agreement" in the Promise Plan?
An agreement covers one of your home's systems. Four agreements correspond to full coverage of plumbing, heating, cooling, and electrical, which is also the tier that includes up to 4 maintenance visits per year.
What does the Promise Plan include?
Every tier includes a 3-year parts and labor warranty (extended from our standard 2 years), priority scheduling including after hours, weekends, and holidays, up to 4 maintenance visits per year, 10% off service and repairs, and no dispatch fee. Members also get emergency service until 10pm seven days a week, and guaranteed next-day service on emergency calls placed after 10pm.
Do you offer emergency service to non-members?
Emergency service is available to Promise Plan members only. Our answering message routes you to a live person in the office or to our AI representative, and members get emergency service until 10pm seven days a week, with guaranteed next-day service after 10pm.
Why is there an extra charge for oil systems?
Oil-fired heating equipment needs service work that gas equipment doesn't, including nozzle, filter, and combustion attention. Rather than spread that across every member's rate, we add $4 per month for homes on oil.
Can I combine the 10% member discount with a coupon?
Our coupons and special offers cannot be combined with other offers, so plan on taking whichever saves you more on a given job.
More from Paul the Plumber
- <u>Paul's Promise Plan / Membership and Maintenance Plans</u>
- <u>Emergency Response System</u>
- <u>Financing</u>
- <u>Coupons and Current Offers</u>
- <u>Furnace Maintenance and Inspections</u>
- <u>Boiler Maintenance and Inspections</u>
- <u>AC Tune-Up and Maintenance</u>
- <u>Electrical Safety Inspection</u>
- <u>Water Heater Services</u>
Sources
Pricing and plan terms
- Membership pricing, member benefits, and the full four-trade inspection checklists: <u>paultheplumbernh.com/about-us/membership/</u>
- Emergency service hours and the live-answer commitment: <u>paultheplumbernh.com/emergency-response-system/</u>
- Financing partner (Wells Fargo, subject to credit approval): <u>paultheplumbernh.com/about-us/financing/</u>
- Coupon exclusivity language ("cannot be combined with other offers"): <u>paultheplumbernh.com/coupons/</u>
- Licenses (Master Plumber 3853, Electrical 0610C, Mechanical Business Entity MBE1400820), 22+ years, service area, and Google rating: paultheplumbernh.com site footer and About page
Facts
- NH Department of Environmental Services — private-well prevalence in NH (~46% of residents) and arsenic prevalence in private wells: <u>des.nh.gov — Private Wells</u>
- U.S. Geological Survey — 232 private bedrock wells sampled in Hillsborough, Rockingham, and Strafford counties; nearly 3 in 10 samples exceeded an EPA drinking-water standard (17.2% arsenic, 5.2% manganese): <u>usgs.gov news release</u>
- ENERGY STAR — annual pre-season professional check-ups (heating in fall, cooling in spring); gas/oil connection and heat exchanger safety: <u>energystar.gov — Maintenance Checklist</u>
- NFPA — smoke alarms must be replaced 10 years from the date of manufacture: <u>nfpa.org — Smoke Alarms</u>