Dead River Company

Dead River is not a local shop. It is a fuel company that started in 1907, incorporated in 1982, and runs about 1,300 employees across northern New England, trading also as Webber Energy Fuels and Heatable. Out of Somersworth it sells heating oil, propane, kerosene, gasoline and diesel, installs heating equipment, and lists 24-hour emergency service. Its New Hampshire HVAC licence is active, held in the company's own name. The written accounts that reach us are few, and they are all about money: customers writing to the BBB describe parts billed at well above what they could have bought them for, and one long-standing oil customer describes a delivery that did not go as arranged. The BBB gives the company an A+ letter grade on a file it has not accredited. On Reddit, opinion splits the way it does about most fuel dealers. A commenter in 2026 volunteered, unprompted, that Dead River had been good for them; a 2023 Maine thread carried both a report that several people had voiced real dislike of the company and a shrug that Dead River is fine and heating bills are simply what people complain about. For fuel delivery and service contracts backed by a company with round-the-clock coverage, this is a different proposition from hiring a two-truck local outfit. Before you need a repair, get the parts-and-labor pricing in writing, ask what the delivery guarantee actually promises, and price any part they quote you against retail.