In June 2026, Optiplumb was named New Zealand Master Plumber of the Year. Five years earlier it was one plumber with a ute and a toolbox in a Hamilton garage. Today it has 475 Google reviews averaging 5.0, more than any other plumber in our Hamilton data, and a reply from the business under 472 of them. Its website doesn’t mention the award anywhere. It doesn’t say much about the thing customers in our data praise it for most often after speed, either: turning up when the pipe bursts on a Sunday night. We read every review, the website and the brand search to start a series of plumber reviews that follows our guide to plumbers in Hamilton.
Quick take
- Optiplumb is a Hamilton plumbing, gasfitting, drainlaying and backflow business founded by Duncan in January 2021, based in Te Rapa and working across the Waikato.
- Google: 5.0 from 475 reviews, 459 of them five stars; 151 in the last 12 months. Customers praise speed (186 written reviews), communication (107) and friendly staff (103).
- Three reviews give three stars or fewer. Two are about an after-hours bill and a late, quiet visit; the third is a one-star rating with no text.
- Published prices: drain unblocking from $230 plus GST and backflow testing from $250 plus GST. One customer’s after-hours weekend bill came to $485.88.
- SEO4 Audit Score: 21 out of 30. Reviews 6, search 7, marketing 8. The reviews are the best in Hamilton plumbing; the website undersells them.
Who it suits
Anyone in Hamilton or the Waikato who needs a plumber, gasfitter or drainlayer quickly, including at night and on holidays. Before an after-hours visit, ask for the call-out minimum, the hourly rate and the vehicle charge, so the bill holds no surprises.
Contents
At a glance
| Google profile | “Optiplumb Ltd | Hamilton Plumbers”, Plumber, Te Rapa |
| Rating | 5.0 from 475 Google reviews |
| Phone | 0800 678 475, answered 24/7 according to the website |
| Area | Hamilton and the Waikato |
| Services | Plumbing, gasfitting, drainlaying, backflow testing, hot water, heating, renovations and new builds |
| Published prices | Drain unblocking from $230 + GST; backflow test $250 + GST, then $200 + GST per extra device |
| Booking | Phone, or the form behind “Book now” |
What 475 reviews say
Optiplumb’s first Google review is from June 2021. It collected 24 that year, 106 in 2024, 134 in 2025 and 127 so far in 2026. Of the 434 reviews with text, 186 praise speed or punctuality, often in minutes: a plumber at the door ten minutes after the call, or twenty minutes on a Saturday afternoon. Communication comes next (107), then friendly (103) and professional (83) staff. Price comes up in 65, usually as fair or reasonable.
The jobs behind the praise are mostly everyday trouble: leaks and burst pipes (36 reviews), hot water cylinders (27), blocked drains and toilets (25) and gas (24). Some reviews come from repeat customers, landlords with rentals and organisations with a commercial kitchen.
The business answers almost everything. Only three of 475 reviews have no reply: two five-star reviews from the last three days and a one-star rating without text from August 2025. Most replies greet the customer by name, and some mention the job, such as a hot water tap or a water fountain. But about two in three replies from the last year open with the same two sentences, thanking the customer for a “positive review”, including under four-star reviews. Customers read replies; a sentence about their own job is worth more than a polished template.
Duncan, the founder, is named in 80 reviews, but only 14 of them come from the last 12 months. The newer names belong to the team: Connor (17 reviews), Luke (13), Adam (12) and Cameron, named in 8 reviews in the last year alone.
Two days stand out in the timeline: nine reviews on 14 July 2025, many from regular and commercial customers, and five on 15 January 2026, after the Christmas break. Batches like these are common when a business asks its regulars all at once. Google can hold back reviews that arrive together, though, and an ask after every job spreads them out.
The three low reviews
Three reviews give three stars or fewer, 0.6% of the total. One customer listed a weekend bill line by line and called it expensive; the business replied that after-hours rates cover the cost of an on-call service. Another found the plumbers 30 minutes late with no apology and little explanation of the problem, though fast and tidy; the reply apologised for the communication. The third is a one-star rating with no text and no reply.
The lessons are simple. Say the after-hours price on the phone before the van leaves, text the customer when running late, and tell them what was wrong before leaving. For customers: ask for the call-out minimum, the hourly rate and any vehicle charge when you ring.
After hours: the plumber’s real speciality
Every plumber says “24/7”. Optiplumb’s customers describe it: a sewer line blocked on a public holiday, water gushing under a house in the middle of a Sunday night, a burst pipe the day before Christmas, a marae with a tangihanga under way and the water pump failing. Eighteen written reviews mention an emergency, a night, a weekend or a holiday. The website’s top bar has a red “Help! I have an emergency” button that rings the 0800 number, and the drainlaying page says the team answers 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
What does it cost? Optiplumb doesn’t publish an hourly or call-out rate. One customer did it for them in a June 2026 review: a $220 minimum for the first hour after hours, a $60 vehicle charge and $142.50 for an hour of labour, $485.88 in total with GST. The same first hour on a weekday costs about $150 to $167 with GST at the rates Waikato plumbers publish, according to our Hamilton plumbers guide. If the water can be turned off at the toby, waiting until 7.30am can save a couple of hundred dollars.
Bad timing
Why do pipes always burst on public holidays? Because they’ve read the rate card.
Two prices are on the website. Drain unblocking starts from $230 plus GST, with a jetting unit and a camera inspection included, and Optiplumb says it shows you the footage and quotes in writing before any repair. A backflow test is $250 plus GST for the first device and $200 plus GST for each extra one.
Optiplumb price check
Optiplumb price check
Optiplumb publishes two prices: backflow testing and drain unblocking. For after-hours work, one customer listed every line of a 2026 bill in a review. Choose the job and see what you might pay, and where each figure comes from.
Backflow: $250 plus GST for the first device and $200 plus GST for each extra one, and drain unblocking from $230 plus GST with jetting and a camera check, both from optiplumb.co.nz, viewed 31 October 2026. After hours: one customer’s Google review from June 2026 lists a $220 minimum for the first hour, a $60 vehicle charge and $142.50 for a further hour, $485.88 in total including GST; we treat $142.50 as the rate for each extra hour. Weekday: Optiplumb doesn’t publish a rate, so we use the range from SEO4’s Hamilton plumbers guide (first hour $130 to $145, extra hours $90 to $105, plus GST). Parts are extra. A guide, not a quote.
How the price check works
Backflow and drain prices are Optiplumb’s own, from its website on 31 October 2026. The after-hours figure follows the one bill a customer listed in a review: $220 for the first hour, $60 for the vehicle and $142.50 for each further hour, plus GST; Optiplumb may charge differently for other jobs. Weekday figures are market rates from our guide to plumbers in Hamilton, because Optiplumb doesn’t publish one. Parts are extra.
How it compares in Hamilton
On 31 October 2026, a phone search for “plumbers in hamilton nz” put Optiplumb first in Google’s map list, ahead of Hamilton Plumbing and KZN Plumbing. Its category is Plumber, its address is in Te Rapa, and its review record is the largest in the city.
The nearest rival on reviews is JT Carter Plumbers, with 433 and 146 in the last 12 months, against Optiplumb’s 151. In our guide, JT Carter had collected more reviews than anyone else in 2026 by 23 October. KZN Plumbing is growing fast from a smaller base; iPlumber has a long record but few recent reviews; Hamilton Plumbing has never replied to a review. Over the last 12 months the two are almost level, so Optiplumb’s lead depends on keeping the pace.
SEO audit
This part is mostly for the business and other plumbers. If you just need a plumber, the common questions are at the end.
The brand search
Search “optiplumb reviews” and Google shows the website first, then Facebook (more than 970 followers), Instagram, a Waterford Press article about the award, a “top 5” list and our own guide. No competitor advertises on the name. Autocomplete suggests “optiplumb reviews”, “optiplumb hamilton” and “optiplumb photos”, so people check the business before they ring. For the plain name, Google’s “People also ask” box asks how much a plumber charges per hour in New Zealand, and the website doesn’t answer that question.
The Google profile
The profile is busy and well kept: hundreds of reviews with replies, photos of the van and real jobs, services listed and a phone number that matches the website. Two things need care. The business name on Google is “Optiplumb Ltd | Hamilton Plumbers”. Google’s guidelines ask for the real business name; added keywords can lead to an edit or a suspension, and a business this strong doesn’t need them. And Google says “Open 24 hours”, while the website’s top bar says “Mon - Fri 7.30am - 5pm”. Both are true in a way, since the office keeps hours and the phone is answered at night, but a customer reading one and then the other is left guessing.
The website
optiplumb.co.nz is a tidy, easy-to-use site of 13 pages, with tap-to-call on every page, a page for each trade, real photos and testimonials. The title says “Plumbing Services Hamilton - Hamilton Plumbers”, and the site has LocalBusiness schema. The newer trade pages, such as plumbing, drainlaying and backflow, have useful FAQs and mention Master Plumbers membership and SiteWise Gold. What we would change:
- The award isn’t there. “New Zealand Master Plumber of the Year 2026” is in the Instagram bio and in the local paper, but not on any of the 13 pages we checked.
- The home page heading is “YOUR EXPERIENCED WAIKATO PLUMBERS.”, without Hamilton, and the hero line “Optimum Service Guaranteed.” appears three times without saying what the guarantee covers.
- No hot water page, although hot water cylinders come up in 27 reviews and in the business’s own videos; no emergency page, although that is the search people make in a panic.
- No call-out or hourly rate, while the home page promises never to “keep you in the dark about hidden fees”.
- The About page still calls the business “fairly new in the market” and “a small team”. It lists 13 people; Waterford Press reported 17 staff, and Luke and Cameron, both named by customers this year, aren’t on the list.
- The LocalBusiness schema has the phone and email but no address, opening hours or service area.
- We couldn’t run PageSpeed Insights on the day. We will add the result.
Optimum, three times
The home page says “Optimum Service Guaranteed” three times. In plumbing that’s called redundancy, and in a pressure system it’s a good thing.
SEO4 Audit Score: 21 out of 30
The same thirty checks we use for every business we review. It scores what customers and Google can see online, not the plumbing. Optiplumb is the first plumber in our review series; among the arborists we reviewed, Marc Doyle Treework scored 21 and Apex Arborists 20. It is a different scale from the Local Score in our Hamilton plumbers guide.
| Part | Passed | Failed |
|---|---|---|
| Reviews (6/10) | 4.96 average; 475 reviews; 151 in the last 12 months; replies to 472; low reviews 0.6%; staff named in 29% of written reviews | Nine reviews on one day in July 2025; a one-star rating without a reply; most replies open with the same template; no second platform with 10 or more reviews found |
| Search (7/10) | Phone and website match; meta description; LocalBusiness schema; a page for each trade; tap-to-call; HTTPS and a real 404; own site first for the name | Keywords added to the Google name; Hamilton missing from the home page H1; mobile speed not tested (scored 0 for now) |
| Marketing (8/10) | Clear promise and booking button; “from” prices for drains and backflow; a clear offer (24/7 emergencies, backflow testing); real photos; booking in one click; testimonials; Instagram posts this week; no competitor ads on the name | The guarantee isn’t explained; the hourly-rate question isn’t answered on the site |
How we score
- Reviews: (1) rating 4.8 or higher; (2) 100 or more reviews; (3) 20 or more in the last 12 months; (4) no day with 5 or more reviews in the last two years; (5) replies to most reviews; (6) replies to every review at 3 stars or fewer; (7) replies are personal, not one template; (8) reviews at 3 stars or fewer under 5%; (9) a second platform with 10 or more reviews; (10) staff named in 10% or more of reviews.
- Search: (1) the Google name has no added keywords; (2) the Google phone and website match the site; (3) service and suburb or city in the page title and H1; (4) a meta description; (5) mobile PageSpeed score of 50 or more; (6) LocalBusiness schema; (7) a page for each main service; (8) tap-to-call on mobile; (9) HTTPS and no broken key links; (10) the business’s own site in the top 3 for its name.
- Marketing: (1) a clear promise above the fold; (2) prices or “from” prices; (3) a guarantee explained; (4) a clear speciality or offer that sets the business apart; (5) real photos or case studies; (6) a quote or booking within two clicks; (7) reviews shown on the site; (8) a social media post in the last 60 days; (9) the top “People also ask” question answered on the site; (10) no competitor ads on the brand name, or the business defends it.
- Each check scores 1 or 0. A check we couldn’t run or confirm on the day scores 0 until we can, and we say so.
Own Optiplumb?
We’ll send you the full checklist behind this review, free: all 30 checks with what passed, what didn’t and how to fix each one, starting with the quick wins on the website. No call, no obligation. Ask for your checklist.
A plan for more jobs
Optiplumb has done the hard part, the reviews and the award. The quick wins are on the website, where a customer who has just read 475 reviews lands.
| What | Why | Effort | Likely effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Master Plumber of the Year on the home page, with a link to the story | The strongest proof a plumber can show; on no page of the site | Very low | High |
| An emergency page: what counts, how fast, and the after-hours rate | 18 reviews mention emergencies, nights, weekends or holidays; the only after-hours price online is in a complaint | Low | High |
| A call-out and hourly rate, weekday and after hours | Google’s question for the brand; the site promises no hidden fees | Low | High |
| A hot water cylinder page | 27 reviews and the business’s own videos; no page | Low | Medium to high |
| “Plumbers in Hamilton” in the home page heading | The H1 says Waikato; the searches say Hamilton | Very low | Medium |
| Drop “| Hamilton Plumbers” from the Google name | Against Google’s guidelines; the brand is strong enough | Very low | Protects the listing |
| A sentence about the job in every reply, and a reply to every low rating | Two in three replies open the same way; one rating has none | Low | Medium |
| An up-to-date About page and team list | Still “fairly new” and “a small team”; names customers use are missing | Low | Medium |
| Ask for a review after every job | Days with nine and five reviews | Low | Medium |
Ideas that fit this business
- Tell the garage-to-award story. One ute in 2021, a national award in 2026, and more than 20 apprentices trained in Duncan’s career, by his account: that is the About page, a Facebook post and a reason to choose the business.
- Turn the night calls into case studies. The Christmas Eve call, the marae during a tangihanga, the Sunday-night leak under the house: with the customers’ permission, each is a short story with a photo.
- Show the team with names and faces. Customers already name Connor, Luke, Adam and Cameron; let them see who is coming before the van arrives.
- Price the routine jobs. A table of typical weekday jobs, such as a tap washer, a toilet cistern or a cylinder element, answers the cost question before the phone rings.
For plumbers
Night and weekend work pays best, and it goes to whoever answers first. What is it worth to you?
What is an after-hours call worth to you?
Emergency work pays more than any other job, and it is the call a customer makes to whoever answers first. Put in your own numbers.
Your own estimates. The default bill, $486 including GST, is the after-hours total one Optiplumb customer listed in a Google review in June 2026. In SEO4’s count, 18 of Optiplumb’s 434 written reviews mention an emergency, a night, a weekend or a holiday.
More for plumbers: our guides to plumbers in Auckland and SEO for plumbers in Dunedin.
Quote and Job Organiser: SEO4’s free app
Plumbers quote in kitchens and under houses, not at a desk. Quote and Job Organiser is a free Android app on Google Play. No account, no subscription, no ads, and the data stays on your phone.
- A quote with labour, parts and GST, sent as a PDF by email, SMS or WhatsApp.
- An accepted quote turns into a job with the customer and price carried over.
- Before and after photos with each job, for the invoice and the website.
- Notes on access, the toby location and the parts to bring back.
If you want more, we build custom apps for plumbing businesses: on-call rosters, missed-call texts, backflow test reminders and a review request with every invoice. Send us your idea, even a rough one. They cost less than most owners expect. Tell us what you need.
Common questions
Its customers rate it very highly. On 31 October 2026 it had 5.0 stars from 475 Google reviews, 459 of them five stars and three at three stars or fewer, with a reply to almost every review. In June 2026 it was named New Zealand Master Plumber of the Year.
It publishes two prices: drain unblocking from $230 plus GST and backflow testing at $250 plus GST for the first device. One customer’s weekend bill in June 2026 was $485.88 including GST for a $220 first-hour minimum, a $60 vehicle charge and an hour of labour. Ask for the rate when you book.
Yes. Its website says the team answers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and has a “Help! I have an emergency” button that rings 0800 678 475. Customers describe call-outs on Sunday nights, Christmas Eve and public holidays.
Hamilton and the wider Waikato. The business is based in Te Rapa, Hamilton.
Call 0800 678 475, email info@optiplumb.co.nz or use the booking form on optiplumb.co.nz.
Sources and how we checked
- Google reviews: SEO4 collected every public Google review of Optiplumb (475) on 31 October 2026, with date, stars and owner reply. Figures for JT Carter Plumbers, iPlumber, KZN Plumbing and Hamilton Plumbing come from SEO4’s guide to plumbers in Hamilton, collected on 23 October 2026. Themes and names are keyword matches in reviews with text; reviews are paraphrased without reviewers’ names.
- Google search: “optiplumb”, “optiplumb reviews” and “plumbers in hamilton nz” on a phone and on desktop, and autocomplete, 31 October 2026, from New Zealand. Results depend on where and when you search.
- Website: optiplumb.co.nz, all 13 pages in its sitemap and the page code, viewed 31 October 2026. Prices and claims are as stated on the website.
- Award: Waterford Press, 1 October 2026, on the 2026 New Zealand Master Plumber of the Year award.
- Social media: Facebook and Instagram as shown in Google’s results and on Instagram, 31 October 2026.
- Market prices: SEO4, Plumbers in Hamilton, October 2026, and the published rates it cites.
- PageSpeed Insights: not run on 31 October 2026.
- Screenshots of Google and optiplumb.co.nz are used for review and criticism and credited in each caption.
About this review
SEO4 is not connected with Optiplumb. They are not our client and did not pay for or see this review before publication. We review what customers and Google can see online, not the plumbing itself.
If you work at Optiplumb and something here is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will correct it: contact SEO4.
Corrections: none so far. Facts checked on 31 October 2026.
Our Hamilton plumbers series
- Plumbers in Hamilton: $104 to $518 for the first hour, depending on when the pipe bursts
- SEO in Hamilton
- Optiplumb reviews (you are here)
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