Industries · Plumbing and HVAC supply
AI quoting for plumbing and HVAC supply houses
Short answer: Scored blind once on a fictional plumbing and HVAC list, Staffbox made 11 wrong prices in 55 answers and failed our bar. Your list decides fit.
A supply house that sells to plumbers and HVAC contractors has a price list and a quote desk, and most requests are fittings, valves and equipment by model. The hard part is that size, material, matched-system pairing and cross-references each pick a different row, and on our blind plumbing and HVAC test, account levels, the refrigerant surcharge and quantity breaks together are where it priced wrong. Staffbox drafts from your list and asks when a fact is missing. Send up to three requests your counter already answered; drafts come back within 2 business days.
Updated 14 October 2026
Free 30-day pilot, then $595 a month at founding sites (first 100) for as long as the box is live (draft pricing). No customer install yet.
You may stop at any point. Later sites (unit 101 on) pay $695 monthly plus $1,800 to onboard. First comes a free score on 30 of your old fitting and equipment quotes, graded against a bar written beforehand.
A supply-house quote is rows times quantities; a contractor estimate is a different job
Staffbox drafts replies from a price list. A supply house has one, and so do many contractors, but the work differs. A contractor's estimate combines labour, travel, permits and equipment. A supply house's quote is mostly rows times quantities with rules on top. We have only built and tested the second kind of job, and only on fictional companies. If you are a contractor, the first question is whether your quotes are driven by a price list at all. For HVAC and plumbing contractors we have no evidence yet, and we say so.
Fitting size, equipment model and cross-reference each pick a different row
One counter email can hold three kinds of lookup. Fittings are chosen by size, material and angle, and a reducing tee needs both sizes in the right order. Equipment is chosen by model number, and a "matching" coil depends on pairing rules. A cross-reference asks for your equal to another brand's part. The drawing marks each one on a made-up request.
The request shapes as we read the segment, not measured on a supply house:
| Request shape | Example | Why it is hard for a draft |
|---|---|---|
| Fitting lists | "20 half-inch copper elbows, 10 tees, 5 ball valves" | Size, material and type all choose the row. Missing one is an ask, not a guess. |
| Equipment by model | "A 3-ton condenser and matching coil, model X" | Matched systems have rules about what pairs with what. Those rules must be in the brain. Not measured yet. |
| Cross-reference | "Do you have an equivalent to brand Y part Z?" | Needs your cross-reference table. If it is not in the list, the draft should flag it. |
| Contractor vs retail | A walk-in homeowner and a trade account asking for the same item | Price level depends on who asks. Not measured yet. |
| Delivery or will-call | "Drop it at the job Friday" | Freight and delivery are rules a person confirms. |
20 1/2 copper 90s, 10 tees, 5 ball valves 1/2 sweat. trade acct
| 20 × elbow 90 1/2 CU at $1.38 (trade) | $27.60 |
| 10 × tee 1/2 CU at $2.05 (trade) | $20.50 |
| 5 × ball valve 1/2 sweat at $14.90 (trade) | $74.50 |
| Total | $122.60 |
- price-list · rows EL90-050-CU, TE-050-CU, BV-050-SW · trade column · dated 1 Oct
- note · "tees" read as 1/2 copper to match the line above; flagged for the approver
Your list needs sizes in the descriptions, one row per unit and a cross-reference sheet
Since the draft reads only what your list and brain say, the cheapest gains come before the test. In our runs the brain moved a small 8B model on the fictional Fieldstone IT set from 1 of 40 without it (30 Sep 2026) to 40 of 40 with it on the Mac mini (2 Oct 2026). For a plumbing and HVAC list, start here:
- Descriptions that include the size and material. "Elbow 90 1/2 CU" is easier to match than "ELB 90".
- One row per sellable unit. If the same fitting appears as each, bag and case, give each a row or a clear conversion.
- A cross-reference sheet, if you quote substitutes. The quote action flags unstocked items instead of substituting. If a substitute is allowed, the brain has to say so.
- A matched-system table for equipment. Which coil and furnace go with which condenser, written as rows, so "matching coil" has an answer.
- Price level columns. Retail, trade, and any account tiers.
- The list date. It is printed on every line of the draft.
Our guide to preparing a price list goes through these one by one.
The free test on 30 of your past quotes is the only evidence that will count
On 14 Oct 2026 we scored a fictional plumbing and HVAC supply house once, blind: its 92 parts and 55 tests were written by a separate author and fixed by hash before scoring, and the pass bar, set first, was no wrong prices.
A trade-units fix, not shipped, lifted it to 31 of 40 and 5 of 15 but left the same 11 wrong prices: list price quoted where a Trade Pro or contractor level applied, a quantity break taken on pipe or refrigerant, the refrigerant surcharge left off, and an unmatched condenser and air handler priced instead of declined. The blind result, with the raw answers.
On the fictional Fieldstone IT and Peachtree Cabinet Works sets, the 16 GB Mac mini scored 15 of 15 on unseen messy requests, 40 of 40 and 39 of 40 (6 Oct 2026), with 0 wrong totals in 475 answers. On an unseen electrical distributor, run once with no tuning, it scored 30 of 40 and 2 of 15 on messy requests, with 8 wrong prices in 55, because per-foot units and contractor price levels are not handled yet; the blind plumbing and HVAC set above shows the same kind of rules failing (see the electrical result). All of this is on invented companies; your own list is the only evidence that will count. To score your counter, send:
- Your price list file and its date.
- 30 past quote requests, including at least five with a model number and five with only a description.
- Any cross-reference sheet you use when you quote a substitute, and your matched-system table if you have one.
- Which of the 30 went to trade accounts, and what level each got.
We hold 10 of them back for your counter staff to grade blind. The run happens on our Mac mini in Atlanta with nothing installed at your branch, the files are deleted within 14 days of sending your results (per our draft data policy), and the bar to pass is set in writing before the run; a declined request is scored as a miss.
Related: distributors (the general case) · electrical supply (wire, breakers and copper-linked lists) · all industries · Staffbox vs Mercura (a hosted distributor quoting platform, dated and sourced) · misses in public · the free 30-quote test.
Questions
Is Staffbox for HVAC contractors?
Not yet. We have no evidence on contractor estimating, which mixes labour and equipment. The tested job is quoting from a price list.
Can it pick a matched condenser and coil?
Not reliably yet. On our blind test it was asked for a 3.5 ton condenser with a 4 ton air handler, a pair with no matched row, and it priced four 4-ton systems instead of declining. Your matched-system table would be tested in the 30-quote score first.
Will it quote a substitute if I am out of an item?
It flags an unstocked item and does not price the nearest one on its own. A substitute policy can be written in the brain and tested.
Sources
- How we measured: fictional companies, graded by code, Qwen3 8B on a 16 GB Mac mini M4 for Fieldstone IT and Peachtree Cabinet Works (30 Sep to 6 Oct 2026) and on our Dell RTX 3090 test box for the electrical and blind plumbing and HVAC sets (14 Oct 2026). No customer has run Staffbox yet.
- Blind plumbing and HVAC results: standard set and messy set, as it ships; the write-up: the blind test.
- Scores, test sets and every graded answer: Staffbox scorecard on Hugging Face and github.com/Staffbox-ai/staffbox (evals/results). Staffbox claims on this page come from our public scorecards (huggingface.co/spaces/staffbox/scorecard) and the open repo (github.com/Staffbox-ai/staffbox).
- For a dated comparison with a hosted distributor quoting platform, see Staffbox vs Mercura.
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