Emergency plumbers monthly: who AI names, who is real, what they charge (November 2026)

Data last verified: 4 November 2026. Figures re-checked against their primary sources under the Whito rolling re-verification programme.

This is a monthly record of emergency plumbers in the UK. Each month we ask the same questions to AI assistants, read the same price pages and check the same companies at Companies House. Then we report what moved. The page stays at this address. Each edition is dated.

This is edition 1, checked on 4 November 2026. It compares against our October checks: the price study read on 2 October and the AI questions asked on 22 October.

This month in five numbers

• 40 of 66. Of the 66 plumber names Google AI Mode and ChatGPT gave in October, 40 came up again for the same question in November. We call this the re-ask keep rate. This month it was 61%.
• 9 new names. The same questions named 9 plumbers that did not appear anywhere in October’s answers.
• 0 of 4. We asked both assistants what to check before choosing an emergency plumber, in both towns. None of the 4 answers mentioned Companies House.
• 61 of 62. Of the 62 firms that put a call-out price on their own website in October, 61 showed the same price in November.
• 3 firms. Three firms in the price study still advertise online while their company is dissolved or in liquidation. That was also true in October.

Found: who the AI assistants name

We asked Google AI Mode and ChatGPT the same four questions for London and for Carmarthen, word for word as in October. For example: “Best emergency plumber in London” and “I need an emergency plumber in Carmarthen. Who do you recommend?” That is 16 answers this month, one per question, each in a fresh chat.

Google AI Mode in Carmarthen moved most. It dropped five firms it named in October and named five it had not named before. ChatGPT in Carmarthen moved least. Every firm it named in October came up again.

One more thing showed up. Twice on the same evening, ChatGPT gave two different phone numbers for the same firm in answers to two different questions. If you call a number an AI assistant gives you, check it against the firm’s own website first.

Trusted: are the firms real?

In October we checked all 32 businesses the assistants named. 22 matched a company at Companies House. The other 10 had no company match. That is common for sole traders and trading names, and says nothing bad about them.

On 4 November we read those 22 company records again. 20 were still active. Two company pages would not load for us. Their filing history did load and showed no strike-off or insolvency notice. No status changed.

We also checked the 9 firms named this month that no answer named in October. 4 matched an active company at Companies House. 5 had no company match. One firm that Google AI Mode gave for Carmarthen is based in the West Midlands. Its own website lists about 30 West Midlands towns and none in Wales.

In the price study, 23 firms matched a company. 20 are active, two are dissolved and one is in liquidation. The websites for those three are still live and still advertising emergency call-outs. One still shows its dissolved company number. We do not name firms on this page. If a firm is shown wrongly here, tell us through our corrections page.

Priced: what firms publish

In October we read 179 emergency plumber websites in eight UK towns. 62 published a call-out price of some kind. On 4 November we read those 62 pages again.

• 61 showed the same price on the same basis.
• 1 could not be compared. Its homepage figure had gone and it now says there is no call-out fee. Its pricing page would not load.
• None raised or lowered a published price.

So the published prices are stable. The problem is still the gap. 117 of the 179 firms we read in October put no price on their website at all. The full town-by-town figures are in the emergency plumber call-out price study.

AI answers sometimes fill that gap with their own figures. On 4 November, ChatGPT told us a London emergency call-out costs £130 to £245, citing Checkatrade. We have not checked London prices ourselves, so we cannot say whether that is right. It is a reason to get the price in writing before anyone sets off.

Check a plumber before you pay

Four checks. They take about five minutes and they are free.

1. Find the firm’s own website. Use the phone number shown there, not one from an AI answer or an advert. We saw AI give two different numbers for one firm on the same evening.
2. If it is a limited company, look it up. Search the name on Companies House. Check the status says “Active”. Sole traders will not be listed, and that is fine.
3. For anything involving gas, check the Gas Safe Register. Boilers and gas appliances need a Gas Safe registered engineer by law. Search the Gas Safe Register and ask to see the engineer’s ID card when they arrive.
4. Get the price in writing first. Ask for the call-out charge, the hourly rate and whether VAT is included. A text or email is enough. “No call-out charge” is not a price. The work is still charged.

How we checked

• AI answers. Google AI Mode and ChatGPT (free plan), 4 November 2026, evening. Same wording as 22 October. One question per fresh chat, no follow-ups. Both accounts were logged in, so personal settings may affect answers. Perplexity was not re-asked because it blocked most questions in October.
• What we count. Four questions per town and assistant ask for a recommendation. A fifth asks what to check, and we use it only for the advice count. A firm counts as named if the answer gives it as an option.
• Companies House. Company records read on 4 November 2026 on the Companies House website.
• Prices. The firm’s own web page, read again on 4 November 2026. Same rules as the October study.

Limits. Two towns and two assistants is a small sample. AI answers change from one ask to the next, so one answer per question is a snapshot, not a ranking. Nothing here says one plumber is better than another. Nobody pays to appear on Whito. See how we make money.

Next edition

The December edition will be added here in early December 2026, with the same checks. Earlier figures stay on this page so you can see the change over time. The October baselines are the call-out price study and the AI recommendation check.

Run a plumbing business?

You can see what AI assistants can read about your business with our free Visibility Check. If you want this check run on your own firm every month, with the names AI gives instead of you, that is the Visibility Monitor at £280 a month.

Questions

Do AI assistants recommend the same emergency plumber each month? Mostly, but not fully. Of 66 plumber names Google AI Mode and ChatGPT gave in October, 40 came up again for the same question on 4 November 2026. Nine names were new.

How do I check an emergency plumber is real? Use the phone number on the firm’s own website. If it is a limited company, check it shows as active at Companies House. For gas work, check the Gas Safe Register. Get the price in writing before they set off.

Do emergency plumbers change their call-out prices often? Not in our data. Of 62 firms that published a price on 2 October 2026, 61 showed the same price on 4 November 2026.

Cite this page: Whito, Emergency plumbers monthly, edition 1, 4 November 2026, whito.co.uk. Free to quote with a link.

Jacob Whitmore

Whito is an independent UK research publisher. We publish research on how UK businesses are found, trusted and priced: what they cost to market, how their sectors work, and who actually gets recommended. Studies are free to read, every figure carries the date it was checked, and nobody pays to appear.

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