Boston Water Heaters

Every account of Boston Water Heaters, from Google to independent directories, keeps coming back to one name: Rich Mathews. The company runs out of Melrose and says it's the water-heater-focused arm of Rich Mathews & Son Plumbing, a family operation the Mathews family traces back to 1928 and describes as now three generations of licensed plumbers. Its track record, spanning 2021 through this year across four different listings, is notably clean: Google shows a 5.0 rating from 23 ratings, and outside sites echo the same number, with Birdeye and HotWaterHelpers independently putting the review count in the high teens to low twenties, all at five stars. The pattern across those write-ups is consistent rather than a lucky run — people describe Rich personally handling furnace, boiler, and water heater replacements, walking them through the work, sticking to the price he quoted, and being straightforward about what needs fixing. That story repeats across Google and independent directory mentions alike, not just the company's own page. Two things are worth asking about before booking. The company's own website can't settle on how long it's been at this specifically — its home and about pages say "over 30 years," while its services page claims "over 50" — so it's worth getting a straight answer on the timeline. And while the five-star record is consistent, it's still built on a modest base of roughly 20 public reviews rather than hundreds, so there's less volume behind the perfect score than it might first appear. For a failed furnace, boiler, or water heater where you want a family-run shop that explains the fix rather than just doing it, Boston Water Heaters fits what reviewers describe. Get a written quote up front, and ask directly about that tenure discrepancy.