Barrell Plumbing & Heating

Barrell Plumbing & Heating is a Cambridge company describing itself as family-owned and serving the Boston area for more than 50 years, and its written reviews split sharply along a timeline. The most recent complaints are about money, not workmanship: in a late-2025 review, a customer said they were charged for plumbing services they never agreed to and that were never performed, and a 2024 review described being billed $270 for a visit where the plumber only said he'd need to come back another day, before any repair was done. The earlier record tells a different story. In a 2022 review, a longtime customer on a 100-year-old home described Barrell installing a new condensing boiler, extending the heating system, and renovating a bathroom, calling the work consistently well done. A 2023 review described a frozen, burst pipe fixed in a hard-to-reach spot inside a wall, and other reviews from that year describe leaks fixed and jobs completed efficiently. The company holds an active Massachusetts plumber license, and its Better Business Bureau profile shows an A+ rating, though it is not a BBB Accredited Business. Given the recent billing complaints alongside the earlier praise for larger jobs, it's worth getting a clear, written estimate before any visit — especially given at least one account of being charged before work was performed.