how.much should a damn water heater cost. installed?

[Liberal_in_LA]

50 gallon

[PoliticAverse]

1. There can be a big range depending on the specific situation.

Are you just replacing an existing heater that is old with the same type of unit or is it completely new installation.
Gas or electric?

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. gas. the smell good plumbers quoted Almost 3000

With warranty and other stuff. Replacement

[Arugula Latte]

3. Oh, crap. We need a new one but haven't started dealing with this yet.

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. read their reviews online . they leave people feeling ripped off

I cancelled the appt and called.local plumbing company. They will give overestimate tomorrow

[PoliticAverse]

4. Not sure what the 'other stuff' is but I'm thinking it should be around to $1,500 for

a simple replacement with decent warranty.

Un-installed heater example prices (12 year warranted heaters)
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Rheem-Performance-Platinum-50-gal-Tall-12-Year-40-000-BTU-Energy-Star-Natural-Gas-Water-Heater-XG50T12DM40U0/204318411
http://www.lowes.com/pd_330874-135-PCG2J5040T3NOV+100_4294859099__

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. they refuse to breakdown the price. use a waterheater brand not sold at homedepot

[Major Nikon]

11. You can buy a decent one at Home Depot for $400 with a 6 year warranty

As long as it's a replacement the water heater should come with everything needed. 4 hours labor @ $50 should be more than enough, so anything more than around $700 and you are probably getting ripped off.

[jmowreader]

16. The unit they plan to install is made from pure gold, right?

Home Depot shows a Rheem 50-gallon Energy Star gas water heater for $629. It's got a 12-year tank warranty and a 3-year labor warranty - IOW if it needs service within three years of installation they'll pay a guy to come out and fix it. The same unit with California emissions is $697. Rheem makes a respectable water heater. A water heater is easy as hell to replace, but since yours is gas I wouldn't recommend doing it yourself. (Natural gas is the one thing I will not work on myself.)

I can only think of three reasons you'd need to pay that much for a water heater: the plumber is quoting an A.O. Smith Vertex unit - extremely efficient with a price tag to match; the asshole who built the house encapsulated the water heater (don't laugh: one of my sisters bought an ancient house and the water heater decided to die while I was home on leave. The genius who built the house built the footings and the wall for the crawlspace, put the water heater and furnace in the crawlspace then built the house over it - without leaving any way to get a new water heater in or out. It gets better: he also dug a pit to put the water heater in, and the only way to get the fucking thing out of the house would have been to remove the wall, the kitchen cabinets and the bathtub he installed directly above the water heater before cutting a big hole in the floor. We built a shed on the back of the house and re-routed the plumbing to it.), or Smell Good Plumbers pays its employees extremely well even for plumbers.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

20. Yeah. We spent $5000 a couple years ago but that was for a big AO Smith...

..... for a 6 unit building. A commercial sized unit with a 7 minute recovery time (iirc).

Around a thousand or 1100 sounds about right for a local licensed plumber. Maybe cheaper if you want to pick up the unit and find a handyman type person to make the hook ups. It's not rocket surgery.

Beware the bigger outfits with the big advertising budgets and fleet of trucks. They charge through the nose.

[Liberal_in_LA]

26. i found a smaller local company.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

7. About $600.00

unless you are buying a super high effincy model. And that's SF Bay area prices. It's about a four hour job and nothing tricky is involved.

[Liberal_in_LA]

10. thx

[Orrex]

18. I second that estimate

We had ours installed by Lowe's (only game in town). I think it's 33-gallon, but it's gas rather than electric, and the job was done in under 3 hours.

[Aerows]

27. It's not horribly complicated to do yourself

if it is a replacement job. You have to be physically fit to do it, but a garden variety plumber can.

[Sherman A1]

8. Just had one done

this past September. It was about $1100.00 installed with permits and all for a 40 gallon. I was thinking of the tankless but, the guy at the Heating & Cooling Company told me that were having a great deal of trouble with them and payoff time for my situation would probably not justify the initial costs. I did get 6 months 0% which always helps.

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. thank gawd i canceled the smell good plumbers. lol. almost got ripped off

[fizzgig]

12. ours just went kaput

one of the times i'm glad we rent. good luck.

[herding cats]

13. Has your local code changed since you installed the one you currently have?

Are you going to be getting one that meets the new 2015 NAECA regulations? If your answer to either of these questions is yes, I suggest calling around and getting some estimates before you make a decision. Both of these will make it cost more, I know because I just went through this with my mother. Her old water heater wasn't installed in a location which would fit a new one that met the new local code and federal regulations. It cost us almost 3K which included a lot of rerouting of the plumbing to make things work from its new location.

Just a couple of things you may want to think about while your talking to plumbers.

[Liberal_in_LA]

24. yes. inspection required. 118 fee

[Sweet Freedom]

14. I just went through this last year

Received multiple bids to try and find a lower price, to no avail. To remove old (from attic) replace w/ 40 gal gas, bring up to code, pull permits and inspect was almost $1600. Two-day project: Day 1, three guys to haul out old and place in new. Day 2 for inspection.

Hope you find a better bid.

[Kaleva]

15. Depends on where you live and if you can do the work yourself.

I replaced my 40 gallon natural gas water heater earlier this year and as I did the work my self and community action paid for half the cost of the water heater, my expense was about $225.00 plus tax.

[onethatcares]

17. wtf

kind of new code is in place for water heaters? Electric to me = turn off breaker, disconnect electric from tank, turn valve off, cut

copper supply line, cut hot water out line, install new heater, install threaded nipples and pipe in appropriate openings, install and sweat

new copper couplings, reconnect electric, fill heater, turn on breaker.

$1600.00 is obscene.

[Ineeda]

19. October 2013 I paid

$600. It is electric, 30 gallon, Rheem. A licensed plumber, working under the table, installed it and hauled away the old one.

[pinboy3niner]

21. When you get a "damn water heater," just remember to tell the neighbors...

[steve2470]

22. clever!

Merry Christmas Pinboy and to your family!

[pinboy3niner]

23. Merry Christmas to you, Steve

You know I can't resist throwing in a Ho, ho ho!

And a very Happy New Year!

[Liberal_in_LA]

25. lol

[d_r]

28. not a very big dam

if it only holds 50 gallons of water back

[Mr.Bill]

29. Never buy the water heater from the plumber.

They put a huge mark-up on them. Buy your own water heater at a big-box store like Home Depot then if you can't install it, hire the plumber just for the installation.

[doc03]

30. I installed my own it cost like maybe $200 for the heater

and zero for installation. They are heavy so they are pretty hard to wrestle around but if you buy the same size and type it only takes about a half hour. Lord knows what a plumber would charge.

[blackcrow]

31. I can't believe the prices I'm seeing in this thread.

I've had several hot water heaters replaced over the decades, most recently about ten years ago (oops, it's probably due for replacing again.) The cost of the heater and a couple of hundred bucks for the plumber most recently. What heaters are people having installed, ones lined with platinum?

Some plumbers are ripoff artists. You have to find a good one. Ask the neighbors and friends for names, and ask what their work cost, that will give you an extra clue.

I'm assuming you don't need extra gas lines run, which it sounds like you don't.