Martel Plumbing & Heating, Inc.

When a furnace quits the week the cold arrives, this is the kind of shop Dover homeowners call. A February 2026 customer described exactly that — heat gone right before a cold snap, Zach and his crew out the same day, the fault found and fixed before the worst of it hit. A June 2024 caller with a failed AC said he described the problem to a dispatcher who thought it a simple fix; a team was there and it was running fifteen minutes later. Martel Plumbing & Heating works out of 59 Old Rochester Road in Dover. The company says it started in 1968, when Paul and Kay Martel ran it as a one-man operation from their kitchen table, and describes itself as family owned and operated across three generations, with Ed Robidas as president. Its Better Business Bureau page is an A+, accredited since 1991. Its New Hampshire gas fitter licence, GFE0802148, is active in the state registry under Edward P Robidas. The reviews run nineteen deep, from 2021 through 2026, every one of them five stars, beside a 4.7★ Google average across 57 ratings. Speed is the theme that repeats — same-day scheduling, crews named by first name, work finished the day it was called in. Money comes up second. An April 2023 customer who had plumbing rerouted for a stackable washer and dryer said the job came in under estimate, and a December 2021 mini-split customer said the project estimate matched the final bill with no surprise charges. That mini-split — a multi-head hyper-heat system, installed and then followed up on after commissioning — fits the company's listing of itself as a Mitsubishi Electric Preferred Diamond Contractor. Beyond emergency heat and cooling, the plumbing side is ordinary, useful work: water heaters, sump pumps, sinks and faucets, drainage, gas piping and frozen-pipe repairs. Oil-to-gas conversions come up more than once — a 2023 Reddit commenter in r/newhampshire mentioned using Martel to replace an ancient oil furnace and swap to natural gas, with no complaints since, and a November 2024 reviewer described being walked through propane options at length before committing. Two things to settle before booking. The company's own site names Dover as its service area while describing coverage across the New Hampshire and Maine Seacoast, so confirm they come to your town. And the two published averages don't line up: Porch's aggregated 4.24★ across 131 online reviews sits below Google's 4.7★. If your heat or AC has stopped and you're in or near Dover, this is a straightforward call. For a bigger install, get the estimate in writing first — the customers who mentioned it said Martel's held.