AI has already picked its favourite plumbing companies.
We asked ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Perplexity to recommend plumbing companies 90 times — six questions, five metros, every answer saved with its sources. They named 221 businesses. In most of these markets one company already comes back again and again: openness runs just 52–69 of 100, the most settled of the six trades we measure.
Most open first.
Austin is this trade's most open market at 69; Phoenix its most settled at 52. Each city link carries the full record — every business named, for which of the six questions, and the sources cited to justify it.
The names that came back most, anywhere.
Across all 90 answers, these plumbing companies were named most often in their own market. Not a quality ranking and none are our clients — this is a record of who the assistants kept reaching for on July 26, 2026.
- Pure Plumbing & Air Las Vegas · named in 12 of 18 answers
- Blue Sky Plumbing, Heating, Cooling & Electric Denver · named in 11 of 18 answers
- Parker & Sons Phoenix · named in 10 of 18 answers
- Roto-Rooter (Las Vegas) Las Vegas · named in 10 of 18 answers
- EVERYDAYPLUMBER.com Tampa · named in 8 of 18 answers
- Olin Plumbing, Inc. Tampa · named in 8 of 18 answers
- Roto-Rooter Plumbing of Tampa Tampa · named in 8 of 18 answers
- Reliant Plumbing Austin · named in 7 of 18 answers
4 brands crossed city lines. Everyone else is local.
Of the 221 named businesses, 98% appeared in exactly one metro. The exceptions — named in three or more of the five cities — are national operations:
- Repipe Specialists named in Austin, Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tampa
- Benjamin Franklin Plumbing named in Austin, Denver, Phoenix, Tampa
- Roto-Rooter named in Austin, Denver, Las Vegas, Tampa
- Mr. Rooter Plumbing named in Austin, Denver, Phoenix
A further 1 name matched across two metros; at two, similarly named but unrelated businesses are still plausible, so we count them without naming them. The takeaway cuts both ways: national brands earn AI visibility from sheer documentation volume, but 98% of this trade's AI answer is still local — a well-evidenced local company is not fighting franchises for the recommendation.
Where the assistants got their answers.
Every recommendation carries citations, and the citations are the actionable part: they are the pages deciding who gets named. Across all five metros, the sources cited most for plumbing companies:
- rotorooter.com cited 61 times
- reddit.com cited 36 times
- expertise.com cited 26 times
- goettl.com cited 22 times
- angi.com cited 19 times
- consumeraffairs.com cited 17 times
- pureplumbinglv.com cited 12 times
- bbb.org cited 11 times
- serviceagent.ai cited 11 times
- parkerandsons.com cited 11 times
- mrrooter.com cited 10 times
- everydayplumber.com cited 10 times
Directories supplied 19.3–24.4% of citations depending on the city — present, but not decisive. The rest went to businesses' own sites, local press, and forums, which is where the answer is actually won.
221 named, out of 3,394 businesses.
County Business Patterns counts 3,394 plumbing, heating, and air-conditioning contractors with paid employees across these five counties (Clark County, Hillsborough County, Denver County, Maricopa County, Travis County). The assistants named 221 — and named only 90 of those more than once. That ratio is the whole argument for caring about AI visibility: the funnel from existing to recommended is brutally narrow, and almost nobody is competing for it deliberately.
Checkable, and meant to be argued with.
The exact six questions, asked per city with the city's name in place of the bracket:
- Who is the best plumber in [city]? commercial
- A pipe burst under my sink in [city] and water is going everywhere. Which local plumber should I call right now? situational
- Who is the best company for whole-house repiping in [city]? commercial
- My water heater failed in [city] and I need it replaced this week. Which local plumbing company should I hire? situational
- Which plumbing company in [city] has the best customer reviews? commercial
- Which plumber in [city] offers 24-hour emergency service? commercial
Each went once to ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Perplexity with web search enabled — 90 recorded answers for this trade, in which ChatGPT named 108 businesses, Google Gemini named 107 businesses, Perplexity named 90 businesses. Names are resolved across spelling variants within each metro; cross-metro brand matching is deliberately conservative and only names a company seen in three or more cities. Assistants are non-deterministic, so this is a dated snapshot, not a standing ranking, and being named is not an endorsement — none of the businesses above are our clients. The full methodology covers the prompts, the openness formula, and what these numbers cannot support. Findings are CC BY 4.0 with attribution.
Working in this trade? What we build for plumbing companies covers the commercial side, and the free AI visibility report runs these questions against your own market.
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