128 Plumbing, Heating, Cooling & Electric

Reddit threads from Somerville to Salem keep naming 128 for plumbing and heating. Based in Wakefield with locations in North Andover, Chelmsford and Seabrook, NH, it handles residential plumbing, HVAC, drains and electrical work. The company says David Williams founded it in 1992 at his dining room table, that his son Ryan Williams now leads it, and that it became a Certified Evergreen company in 2025 to stay privately and independently owned. Its Massachusetts plumber licence is active. Its Massachusetts HVAC licence, 634-SM-B, held by 128 Plumbing And Heating Inc, is also active. The history is deep: 4.9 stars across 3,956 Google ratings, and 1,310 reviews written between 2016 and 2026. Recent accounts describe speed on big jobs. In a September 2026 review, a customer whose unit failed over a weekend had a new boiler and indirect hot water tank installed within three days, with the crew communicating every step. A June 2026 Angi reviewer got a Mitsubishi mini split installed three days after accepting the quote, by a four-person crew that finished by 3pm the same day. A May 2026 reviewer described technicians tracing a failing tankless heater to exhaust and intake piping the developer had installed wrong, and a crew staying past quitting time on a combo water heater install so the household would not go without water overnight. Price is the complaint that keeps coming up. On Reddit, several commenters in 2026 called 128 solid or professional but expensive. In a March 2026 Google review, a customer was quoted $7,900 to re-route laundry plumbing and said a local company did the same work for $2,500. An April 2026 reviewer who had first left five stars described three condensate failures and two floods after an HVAC install, with no automatic shut-off or pan under the unit. In an April 2025 review, a customer said a technician told the reviewer's 83-year-old mother she needed $25,000 in replacements, and a second company found the boiler had only been switched off. A June 2025 Angi reviewer reported a missed install window, a fence broken while moving the old water heater, and a leak shut-off valve left unfinished; the company replied that it responded to the request for further evaluation at no additional charge. A February 2026 reviewer said a technician fixed nothing on a heater call and charged $90, and a January 2025 Angi reviewer described a heat pump and sub-panel job with thermostat wiring left dangling off the HVAC plumbing and a sub-panel installed too close to open the irrigation control box. One August 2026 Reddit commenter claimed 128 is private-equity owned, which the company's own account of its independent ownership contradicts.