Replacing a Water Heater Cost - Buyer Experiences and Price Information

I own a condo and my tenant started seeing rusty hot water. Called Michael and Son in northern Virginia, They were quick and professional, replaced the water heater that day. I also had to pay a 150 dollar fee to the city of Alex. I dont know what it was for, but everyone with a gas heater must do it in my town. THey were professional and quick, but I do believe I could of saved a three hundred bucks if I shopped around or went with Sears. Was the extra few hundred bucks worth it to stop the tenant from complaining an extra few days? Probably!

As I scroll down and see the prices of these jobs I can't believe what people are paying. I have been doing service plumbing for 20 years now, and what people need to understand is there are alot of costs the customer is unaware of. Contractor's have to charge accordingly just to "keep the lights on". Don't get me wrong some of these prices in this thread are outrageous, 90% of all heater jobs shouldn't cost you more than $800, and even that is on the high end (for a 40-50 Gal., Nat. Gas). Roto-Rooter is a rip-off, in the fact that these guys are NOT LICENSED PLUMBERS, they are sub-contracted by the Franchise to respond to calls and have a price book that tells them what to charge in order to meet their gross profit, if they can get more they will!! Be careful and shop around.

My tank was leaking, wife got nervous, I may have spent too much compared to Sears or Home Depot, but these guys are very experienced and I know I can count on them for quality work, & support. They repaired some exterior water bibs as well. If I were trying to save money I'd pick Sears and hope for the best.

One important thing we should all remember when doing work as a plumber or as a customer hiring a plumber....PLUMBERS WHO WORK CHEAP ARE CHEAP BECAUSE THEY "NEED" TO BE NOT BECAUSE THEY "WANT" TO BE. BEWARE of any person who claims to be a skilled professional that is cheap !!!!! What makes anyone think the person who provides the best skill/service/material will be the cheapest ???

I am a master plumber and have been in the business for 30 years. Dont worry about the customers who complain about prices...it is a losing battle you will never win. Only service those customers willing to pay a minimum of 100 dls/hr. The work of a plumber maintains or increases the value of the customers biggest investment ( there home )and they will never be able to tell you where they got a better return on their dollar...all they will ever say is that, "plumbers are rip offs". The plumber who puts up with the BS is the fool...not the customer who complains and gets him to work for less than he deserves. Stand up for your yourself and your profession and dont let the homeowner tell you what you are worth or you will end up broke w/blown out kness and a bad back !!!!!

Sears added $175.00 to the installation fee just to replace the gas hose, because the old one was not yellow. Online, a new yellow gas line costs around $20.00 The only additional labor, to replace the old line with the new was detaching the old hose from the gas valve and then attaching the new hose, which took only a few minutes.
I feel that this is taking advantage of clients who are already commited to getting their water heater replaced and then springing this fee on them. I think this is a prime example of unfair business practices.

Shop around! Shop around! Shop around! This installer took EXACTLY 1.5 hours to complete basic install - in and out! Do the math! My medical doctor only charges approximately the equivalent of $200/hr for routine office visit and as plumbing goes... my water heater install was ROUTINE! Don't get gouged by MR. ROOTER OF WILL COUNTY like I did. Check with the Better Business Bureau - this contractor has a long and negative history with the BBB. You have been warned!

All the time I see the same old thing, You folks are called over the shoulder customers, How would like someone to follow you to work and scrutinize and question everything your doing? I know the mechanic working on your car wouldn't like it or maybe even your Doctor performing an operation, would you suggest to him to shop around for cheaper parts? Plumbing is a skilled trade, not everyone wants to do it. Try crawling on your knee's and elbows through a crawlspace in a basement filled with spiders,snakes, nails poking through the floor, abandoned wells etc, then get to lay in mud and water to fix a busted pipe for someone who no matter what the cost, is gonna feel you charged them too much....You people kill me..The success in the DIYers is very low and they usually end up destoying crucial parts that have to be replaced and driving the cost up even more. How much is peace of mind worth? It's haveing not to worry if your son-in-law or uncle left a leaking gas pipe or loose electrical fitting that's gonna burn your house down while you sleep...

2 guys removed my old water heater, installed a drain pan, and then installed a new 40gal Bradford White. Took them just about 1.5 hrs total. They hauled my old heater away.

Water-heater is outside in cabinet, but rain caused flooding of cabinet and damage to floor and walls. I decided to upgrade to a 50 gallon tank while the repair was done.
Job included removing tank, replacing cabinet drywall, boards, door, repairing roof and rain guard, hooking up new water heater and painting. It has been 4 years now, I have no issues

Wow - I'm amazed at the crazy prices & feeling good that we've got an honest, hometown guy that handled our heater. He bought the unit from a wholesale plumbing co. for $325, $15 for 2 unions & $150 for labor/service call & hauled away old. Counting my blessings as we've had a lot of other household expenses lately (broken water pipe in basement, all new fascia/soffits, etc.)...

Yikes. We just spent almost $3k on a replacement hot water heater. We were told our GE model was terrible and was about to fall apart (it was flooding the basement). We feel like complete IDIOTS for paying so much but we had not time to price shop.

I had water on the basement floor. Mr. Sutton came in the afternoon and told me I need a new water heater and recommended the Rheem Professional 50 gallon with 8 year warranty and he can install it next morning. I accepted his reccommendation. It was installed and works fine.

My hot water tank had rust stains all around it, dripping from top till mid way, at the bottom of the pan i could see a bead of rust globs around it,
I knew the tank had less then a month left,
after 1 Month of not doing anything about it, the thermostat wire that connects from the thermostat to the element caught fire inside and melted the wire.(because the tank was leaking and water touched the element/thermostat wires)
Smelled like burnt electrical wire yet the hot water tanked still worked,(strange but deadly!)
after shutting the electricity off and discovering the mini fire inside,
we were saved from a major fire.
if you see rust stains on the outside of your tank take that as a stearn warning replace your tank,
Your wife will appreciate it.
Mine did!

The tank on the original water heater (Rheem, direct vent, gas) was leaking. Since it was 16 years old, I thought staying with Rheem would be a good idea.
The plumbers came out the same day and installed it. Since I was going with the same model and such I figured it would be a quick swap. It took about 3.5 hours for the two guys (and I also took their advise and added the expansion tank). Looking on the internet I saw the cheapest I could get the water heater for was just over $900 so I basically paid $500 for installation plus the expansion tank.
Looking at the other posts I think I did average. I can live with that.

We have home warranty insurance and they covered the water heater ($900), but this company charged just under $1,300 to install it!! Here are the parts including labor: $382 for an expansion tank, $221 for earthquake straps!! $203 for copper supply lines (he only used about 4 feet for the relief valve, reused the existing inlet / outlet lines) Safety catch pan $221 (costs about $30 at home depot.) Disposal fee old tank $100, City of Reno Permit $100... and just to make sure the screwing I got was complete a $60 deductible to top it off! Needless to say what a major rip-off. I broke down the install parts to cost about $200 at most.($80 expansion tank, $40 earthquake straps, $30 catch pan, $50 pipe) So that's $1,100 in labor, it took him about 5 hours (I even helped him for about 30min removing the old tank before his helper arrived!) so $220 an hour!! WOW I'm in the wrong business, avoid Plumberman Plumbing in Reno/Sparks!!

on may 13 2010 it was 5:30 when i get of work and open my garage and see water steaming off the floor damaged alot of my stuff . so i called my a co-worker that just replaced his water heater to a noritz tankless water heater so i asked him if he had the phone number to his plumber so i called mjr plumbing and send a guy with in the hour . he came and saw the water heater and gave me options he told me to do it tonight it will be 1,200 if i wanted to wait till the morning it would be $925 he replaced it in 2 hours and istalled a new shut off valve,gas shut off with new hose,new metal stand ,and new flex hot and cold.the plumber new what he was doing he had quick response and broke down the labor and material cost and gave me a discount i gave them coffee and waited until the water heater heated up and toke the old water heater at no cost the first time i paid was 1,600 with another uniform plumbing company and not do half what mjr plumbing did and it was durring the day not at night.
I also had fun the plumbers showed me their fully stock utility van it was cool it looks like they fit more stuff then me in my garage and im a tool man .Very nice guys .

Our 10 year old Rheem heater started leaking from the bottom so it was time to replace it, unfortunately this happened during a busy Tuesday morning and since both hubby and I work there was not much time to do much comparison shopping.
One Call Plumbing Services came to our rescue within 2 hours, no complaints about the service, they had to replace the supply line that goes from the heater to the house because the faucet was so corroded it couldn't even be turned off and they also replaced a brass line. Got Br.White Model M45036FBN which I understand is a great model after reading some reviews from experts online, it's energy star rated. I found that this model heater costs from 427 to 570 online so I think the installation charges are on the high side, I would recommend going with a place like home depot or Lowes, we know this now..if we had done that we could've saved 400 bucks or so. If you do go w/Lowes or Home Depot though..stay away from Whirlpools..too many bad reviews on that brand.

which is better A.O.smith or kenmore.

Replaced two 50 gallon water heaters with a single 50 gallon. Didn't need two heaters, so cut and capped the supply lines that ran to the second heater location. Sears had best price compared to Lowes and Home Depot for high end 12 year 50 gallon model ($60 cheaper). Self cleaning and has piezo igniter so no more matches. Will drop off old heaters at Transfer Station in Plano. State requires a permit to change out water heaters but didn't bother, this plumbing job is a no brainer. Had to sweat new pipe to reconnect overflow pressure valve which is easy if you have a simple kit and watch a few youtube videos. Pipe Dope used for threads on gas line. Thread Sealer used for threads on supply lines.

This was my first experice to replace a water heater. I have contracted a 10 years warranty for the replacement would be $1,644. This morning early, I thought I should check the warranty online. I found the warranty length with the model and the serial number was only 6 years. The heater was installed; I didn't pay the bill yet and was told the replacement with 6 years warranty would be charged about $1,000. I can do something with the cheating contract.

pilot light went out after the first flooded basement two weeks ago. got it lit and all was fine until we had another freek storm. pilot light would not re-light.

friend of a friend purchased AO Smith 50 gallon short boy, installed it higher up on the basement floor (on cement blocks) and hauled away the old one. gave him $1050 cash - seems about the going rate for Long Island jobs

I paid 825, tech showed me the inside of my unit which is older than 25 years (Montg. Ward Brand)lots of moisture and rust. It stopped working last night and now getting replaced. Did I pay to much? they wanted 950-1000.

After my basement flooded with 8 inches of water thanks to the last Nor'easter my old hot water heater was junk.

A new Rheem was installed 12 hours after I placed the phone call.

This is in reference to a Maytag Series 12 PC, model HRE21250PC. It failed within a year of installation but pressing the 'reset' button restored hot water. After a service life of 27 months, the unit failed because the high voltage wiring overheated and burned out, together with the high limit. Insulation was melted. Replaced the hi limit w/ECO and two heating elements. These repairs provided limited hot water so the programmable thermostat was replaced. That didn't help so a new temperature sensor was obtained only to find the heater jacket and insulation has to be removed to install the sensor. It was recommended to junk the heater and buy a new one. Neither Maytag nor Parrish Services were helpful.

Old water heater started leaking. Called a few places and Payless Water Heaters (mentioned above) gave the lowest quote at $798 + $59 for installing a drip pan -$50 internet coupon. The guy showed up on time, but started telling me that he needed to replace a couple of valves and connect the copper pipe to the top instead of side, and all of the sudden price got to $1150 ($350 more than on the phone). I ended up sending him away (even though he came back into the house to bargain another $100 down). Then I called the next guy on the list and he said he'd do it for $1000 all included, which he did. I know it's still too much, I don't think the heater costs them anywhere near $400, but it's done. Oh, at the end he suggested that I might want to change the water pressure regulator. I asked them how much that is, he said $280, out of which the regulator is $200. I told them I will buy one and change it myself. They said they are only sold to contractors, and you can't buy them directly. I checked online after they left, they run $40-$100, and of course you CAN buy them. Will do that next week.

Stupid Whirlpool wouldn't stay lit and after 4 years of dealing with it (and Whirlpool on the phone), even though it was still in warranty, I decided to swap it out. The quote over the phone was $798, but when the tech came out, he said $600, so I went with it. And I am on the 3rd floor. Included all permits, haul away of the old one, etc.

Purchased a new water heater from LOWES at a great price ($429.00) for a 40 gallon tank, natural gas,40,000 BTU, 12 year warranty.

An area contractor then charged an additional $400.00 to remove the old leaking unit, replace the water supply lines and a gas line.

He did return and repair a small water supply leak a day after the installation.

I am satisfied with the work. Does his fee sound reasonable ?

Our 23 year old water heater began leaking and we called Roto-Rooter and scheduled an appointment. The plumber gave us an estimate of $1500. Our old water heater had been sitting right on the basement concrete floor and we were told this was no longer up to code and the new water heater would have to be put placed on a stand. Also, some of our piping had to be redone in order to fit the new water heater. It took one plumber approximately four hours to complete the work and the tank is beautiful and the job was done very neatly and professionally.

Our Water heater was 13 years old and finally gave out. Looked around and compared cost with Home Depot and Lowes, and decided to go with a local plumber in the neighborhood. We were quoted a flat $1000 for the job. (Water heater, install and removal of old water heater.) After looking up the actual cost of the water heater, I found out it only cost $500, so we paid $500 for the install. I guess that was ok considering there were 2 people, and they did it in about an hour. I could have purchased the unit myself, but there was a $300 delivery charge to ship it out. In the end, I may have overpaid by $100-$200 but they did the job very well and came immediately. Called them at 9 am and they squeezed us in the same day. We also kept the business local which is good for our small town.