Big Al's Services

February 2026, a nor'easter with blizzard conditions, and a homeowner wakes to 55 degrees in the house. Their own installer of 45 years turned out to be in Florida; the propane supplier was closed with one technician out. Big Al's answered a voicemail in minutes and had a technician texting on his way. That's the job this Plaistow shop is built for, and the reviews are full of the same shape: the cold snap, the dead boiler, the phone that gets picked up. It shows in what people describe. In January 2026 a homeowner heading into an extreme cold front had been told by other companies that thousands of dollars of boiler replacement was needed; Big Al's came the next day, diagnosed it, overnighted the part to the owner's own house, and the technician stayed until nearly 10pm on a Saturday to finish. In March a failing boiler was replaced the next business day, in a single day, at 75% of the next-lowest multi-day quote — and when a gasket seep showed up afterward, the crew was back early the following morning. In August a five-zone forced-hot-water oil boiler swap beat three competing prices. On a Sunday morning that month, an online service request drew a technician inside 45 minutes. Its New Hampshire HVAC licence, GF2111411, is active in the state registry under Albert F Renna; the BBB carries that number plus a second Office of Professional Licensure number and grades the accredited business an A. The volume behind it is large — 881 Google ratings, 655 reviews since 2020 across seven sources, 94 of them in the last six months. The written work runs from oil furnace cleanings and AC repairs to oil tank removals from tight spots, a three-head mini-split system installed in a day, and after-hours water heater replacement — a case where the owner first tried to troubleshoot over the phone to spare the customer a service call fee. The one substantial complaint is worth reading before a big-ticket job. In June 2026 a customer says the team could not pin down an AC fault and proposed adding mini-splits instead; second and third opinions found the actual problem, and the customer puts the difference at $10,000 against $20,000, adding that a promised quote never arrived. An older Angi review from 2021 says a callback request was ignored. Solid call for no-heat emergencies, boiler and oil tank work, and mini-split installs. On anything that runs into five figures, get the diagnosis in writing and a second opinion before you commit.