Made in America – LAARS – 75 Years of Success

An interesting bit of history that many don’t know is how Laars got its name. The founder, Avy Miller, had three daughters and to honor them he derived the name, Laars using the first initial of each of their names, including himself and wife, Roberta: Lindsey, Andrea, Avy, Roberta, and Stephanie.

Avy was an entrepreneur ahead of his time. He was a risk taker and put all of his savings into the company. It was 1948 and Laars was born. 

Fast-forward to 2023 and Laars is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. It is a true success story worthy of a yearlong celebration of a rich history of American manufacturing. 

From Pools to Water Heaters

Founder, Avy Miller, was an engineer in North Hollywood, California. Miller noted that heated pools were increasing in popularity after WWII. He started looking at the functionality and how to improve the experience in heated pools. His original concept was to heat small amounts of water rapidly and efficiently through finned copper tubing. Miller applied the design to pool heaters to meet market demand. 

In just a few years, 1965 to be exact, Miller was able to expand into Oakville, ON, Canada, to support a growing Canadian business. Laars began manufacturing commercial boilers and volume water heaters, after being a leader in the pool heating industry.

A big change came for the company in 1989 when Laars opened the New Hampshire manufacturing location to better serve the northeast space heating boiler market, and built the heating equipment onsite. “By this time Laars had a large base of customers on the east coast which was a key driver for the decision to open the new facility,” said Chuck O’Donnell, Director of Marketing, Laars Heating Systems.

He continued, “Our core philosophy has been and continues to be customer oriented. Contractors and engineers are the voice of our feedback and help shape our approach to product development and training. We are a solution-based company – our focus is finding solutions for our customers, not just selling products.”

Laars headquarters in Rochester, NH

Laars NeoTherm and MagnaTherm installations

Laars commercial tankless electric water heater.

Laars images from the past and present

Future Endeavors

Heat Pump Water Heaters

A commercial heat pump water heater for use in large DHW applications that uses a natural refrigerant (CO₂) is in the Laars pipeline. This product line will have features that allow it to perform well in colder climates as well as usage in high water temperature (180ºF) applications. 

In keeping with the electrification trend, Laars plans to expand its products in the commercial electric category with heat pump technology, the first of which is the commercial heat pump water heater. This will join the company’s full line of commercial electric boilers, electric tank style water heaters and commercial electric tankless water heaters.

Laars Education & Training 

Education and training is valued at Laars from hands-on training, mobile training (reps take training on the road to various customer sites) and online. 

“As part of our commitment to industry education, we built a 70-seat Customer Center in 2011,” said O’Donnell. “Our main focus with education is hands-on training. We use units that are connected and live-fire, and troubleshooting sessions are done in real time. Classroom sessions are conducted with contractors and engineers to learn equipment features and operation.”

He continued, “The space allows live-fired equipment to be operated in the front of the room. Hands-on training courses are held year-round for contractors, engineers, and others from the heating community. We have set training curriculum as well as customized course materials. This type of training is extremely important due to the complexity of the latest high efficiency equipment.”

Like many companies in 2020, live sessions moved online during Covid, and online learning took off for Laars. Online classes taught contractors how to set combustion, controls, how to service equipment and other topics. “Conversations that come from talking to contractors is invaluable,” said O’Donnell.

Laars Academy Offerings

• Factory training – pre-structured training course or individual topics can be chosen.

• Online Laars Academy sessions – online courses offer training as needed.

• Regional Training – sales representatives teach classes around the country in partnership with distributors and dealers.

• Mobile Training – To make training available to everyone, Laars makes it possible to schedule one of their mobile demonstrations upon request.

Challenges 

“We have a good team and cross train employees across product lines, but finding people to work with certain skill sets remains a challenge,” said O’Donnell. “The supply chain has stabilized from recent years but can occasionally still be bumpy. We try to use U.S. suppliers as much as possible – we have good relations with all our vendors and that has made a difference during times of volatility with supply chain issues.”

What’s Next?

Growth is on the horizon for Laars and the future looks bright. Future plans include expanding product lines to include domestic heat pump water heaters and building their electric portfolio product offerings. Expansion is planned with development next to the current headquarters in New Hampshire. 

Contractors participate in residential product training at the Laars Customer Center in Rochester, NH.

Laars history

About Laars: 

Laars products are widely used in space heating, radiant floor heating, volume water heating and industrial process markets covering a range of 50,000 to 5,000,000 BTU/hr., utilizing either natural gas, liquid propane, or electricity. Laars meets the needs of today’s more demanding heating systems applications with more than 20 different heating products, supporting accessories and controls for home, business or commercial heating needs.

U.S. Headquarters: Rochester, NH • Canada: Halton Hills, Ontario, Canada