Ranco Enterprises

Ranco Enterprises has 145 permitted projects behind it — gas furnaces and boilers, oil-to-gas conversions, Mitsubishi ductless and ducted heat pumps, sheet-metal ductwork — filed across Beverly, Arlington, Malden, Brookline, Danvers, Topsfield and Newton. That permit trail, not its review count, is the real measure of this Medford company: a working mechanical contractor with a long paper history in other people's basements. Its Massachusetts HVAC licence, 372-SM-B, is active and registered to Ranco Enterprises Inc. The company says Ray Scarfo founded it in 1975 and puts itself at 51 years in business. BBB, which grades it A+ and lists it accredited since 2013, describes a 15-employee corporation run by Ray Scarfo as president and Nancy Scarfo as secretary, also trading as Ranco Fuel — and dates the start to 1987 rather than 1975. The company names Bryant and Mitsubishi specialist credentials, and says heating oil goes out through a sister company, Amanda's Oil. The customer-facing side is where things thin out. Two written reviews exist. In a February 2024 review, a customer called Mark professional, efficient and quick to get back to them, and said they would work with him again — while noting a Mass Save rebate that dragged. A September 2025 reviewer wrote only that they never go anywhere else. Google's average across 14 ratings, though, is 3.5, which puts the unwritten ratings well below the two on file. BBB shows nothing either way. Two things to pin down before booking. If a utility rebate or incentive is part of your job, get the paperwork timeline in writing — that is the one specific friction any customer has described. And BuildZoom's page lists active Massachusetts plumbing and sheet-metal business licences alongside an inactive home improvement contractor registration; that is the directory's own record rather than a state confirmation, and it matters mainly if you are hiring them for work beyond mechanical systems. For a heating changeover — oil to gas, a boiler swap, a ductless system, ductwork that has to be fabricated to fit — Ranco is a shop that has done the job a few hundred times, and the active licence and permit history back that up. If you want to know how the last dozen customers felt about it, ask for references directly: the written record here is only two reviews deep.