I am new to Radon testing and have been having a Radon mitigation guy comeout to do the test. He charges people $150 but only charges me $100. I will then turn and charge my client the $150. I know I am paying a ton but don’t do a ton of them and so I don’t want to buy a unit just yet. I am considering a rental but am still deciding.
My questions are: What are the reasons I should buy / rent a unit over using the charcoal canisters? How does it work when you use a company like Airchek? Obviously I send the canisters in but how long do the results take? I am in Utah… Is there someone that would be better? Lastly, what are you guys charging and are you charging the same price for the canister test as the electronic tester?
I have grown accustom to the professional results that the radon guy sendsme with the hour by hour break down of pressure and radon level. He uses the Radalink unit.
Thanks for the help!
douglas
(Douglas Wall, CIE, FL Lic. Mold Insp #2)
2
[size=]We use femto tech monitors with report issued by Air Chek, Florida requires report be issued by FL DOH certified Radon Measurement business (Air Chek and Radalink are both certified business in Florida).
Radalink report now copies Air chek - femto tech monitor report( graphs). We always run a Air chek charcoal with the monitor as a quality control test. In 2000, we had a couple radalink monitor results higher than anything ever recorded here so we switched to femto tech monitors - 23,000 tests later - we are happy
We use Air Chek charcoal tests for commercial building and schools etc - best test (about 10,000 performed)
Many homes in this area require several monitors -10,000 sq ft plus. We see inspectors use one monitor and create a problem. If you don’t have enough monitors use Air Chek charcoals in some areas.
Home inspector hurt his “business” by using just one monitor in a home than even a Radalink rep said (letter to client /agent) he should have used more; we used 4 monitors on same house.
We charge by drive time for radon test - we discount price of tests about $20 for home inspectors - we test for some that also test but don’t have many monitors.[/size] radon test prices
charcoal tests are between $32 -$50 each / depends how many and how far away job is.
I personally use CRM as I do not believe that canisters should be considered tamper resistant. I hate the idea of renting equipment when affordable monitors are available for purchase. Having said that, I’ve had a terrible experience with Sun Nuclear. I ordered their top of the line 1030 expecting to wait 5-7 weeks. 12 weeks later, I received a defective monitor that had to be returned at my cost. Yup, they made me pay to ship for a warranty repair on a brand new, top of their line, monitor. I did return it for repairs and a couple weeks later they notified me that it had shipped. UPS lost it for a couple of weeks, and needless to say I was pretty upset. The sent me a replacement while UPS located my original monitor. I asked what to do with it, expecting an email with a shipping label in the reply. They replied saying that I had been through enough and could keep the replacement, no charge. Wow! That make up for what I thought was an unusual problem. Unfortunately, the replacement didn’t work either…They apologized and said to return it and promised to ship a replacement. Well the first one was working so I figured it was worth the headache. Wrong! Two weeks after receiving an email saying they had received it, I asked about the status of repair. The response was that they were keeping it. No, I’m not kidding. I confirmed that the anonymous person emailing from support was aware of my experience and that I had it in writing that I would receive another monitor. Tough, their supervisor had reconsidered. At that point, I really regretted ordering the monitor in the first place. Had the waiting period not been advertised as 5-7 weeks, I would have ordered 2 of them originally and was going to order 2 more this winter. They have agreed to accept the return of my original 1030 for a refund but I’ll believe it when I have the money back. I was notified today that they had cancelled production of the 1030. I’ve had good luck with my Radstar 800 so may order a couple more or try the 300. Let us know what you decide Andrew. Good luck!