Cost of water heater replacement (San Antonio, Spring: 2015, credit, house)

[r0m8470]

Wondering if anyone has experience about replacing water heater replacement?

I have a house, built in 2002. Apparently there has been code change between then and now and replacing an older unit is going to be expensive. When I replaced mine in 2007, it cost about $950+. I vaguely remember since it was Thanksgiving Friday ... things happened during holiday time ... .

Right now I am looking at $1475. I have home warranty but I have given up. I think home warranty company is out to scam people. When repair is needed for little items, things that are sub-$200-ish, they will replace. After sending tech, they want to send another tech for 2nd opinion. My property manager told me that he has gone through several exercise like this, each one took more than a month, and the warranty company ended up not paying since they came up with 'lack of maintenance', 'no proper use', and similar type of excuses. Anyway, I am getting off on tangent ......

Anyone has any recent experience about water heater replacement? I was quoted by a different company back in Feb and it was around $1400+ as well, so seems comparable. I just want to know if anyone else have similar experience recently.

Thank you.

[Boris347]

Originally Posted by r0m8470

Wondering if anyone has experience about replacing water heater replacement?

I have a house, built in 2002. Apparently there has been code change between then and now and replacing an older unit is going to be expensive. When I replaced mine in 2007, it cost about $950+. I vaguely remember since it was Thanksgiving Friday ... things happened during holiday time ... .

Right now I am looking at $1475. I have home warranty but I have given up. I think home warranty company is out to scam people. When repair is needed for little items, things that are sub-$200-ish, they will replace. After sending tech, they want to send another tech for 2nd opinion. My property manager told me that he has gone through several exercise like this, each one took more than a month, and the warranty company ended up not paying since they came up with 'lack of maintenance', 'no proper use', and similar type of excuses. Anyway, I am getting off on tangent ......

Anyone has any recent experience about water heater replacement? I was quoted by a different company back in Feb and it was around $1400+ as well, so seems comparable. I just want to know if anyone else have similar experience recently.

Thank you.

Just had one replaced last week. Electric one. Total cost, parts and labor, 645.00 dollars...


40 gallon dual heating element, 240 volt. Just two of us so 40 gal was plenty.

[need4speed2012]

Well, if your from San Antonio read the below site and with the new laws, the price you got is inline.

Don

[High_Plains_Retired]

I just looked at a natural gas 50-gallon replacement for our home at Albuquerque and the new Whirlpool heater was around $400 and I had a fellow who was going to install it for $100 although I would probably do it myself. The old tank would then be disposed of by the City's free "large trash item pickup".

R&R'ing hot water heaters is generally one of the easiest of home repairs if they happen to be in an easily accessible area. Our heater is in the rear of the garage. Most city codes require that gas water heaters be raised some specified number of inches off the floor in case you get a gas leak. Since you are replacing a heater, the structure that your heater sits on is most likely already on place.

[haggardhouseelf]

We are getting a new energy efficient water heater for free. Well, free with a tax credit! The water heater is $985. The tax credit is $985. The place we bought it from also does free delivery. So didn't we luck out? We did have to check and make sure to purchase one of the listed specific energy efficient models (listed on tax credit website for our state). Once we had the model numbers, I just called around until I found "the one"... the free one!

We will only have to pay a guy to install it for us, since we don't know a thing about installing a water heater. The guy we are using gave us an estimate of about $130. to install it. Not bad!

Our utility company offers a $300 rebate if you upgrade to an energy efficient water heater. But in our state we are not allowed to combine the rebate with the tax credit if it means that we would get more back than what we paid for the cost of the water heater. So we aren't using the rebate.

So check you state, utility co, etc. and maybe you can get lucky, too.

[JH6]

In regards to the OP, that sounds like too much money.

Lowes has 40 gallon Gas Whirlpool water heaters with 6 year warranty for about $400.

Tall or short, both are the new style meeting the new codes.

Pay a plumber $100 or $125 to do the work, it should be a 60 minute job.

I'm not coming up with anywhere near $1400.

As for the other guy paying $985 for a water heater, then getting it back as a tax credit that is interesting.

Of course you need to wait until tax time to get that $985 back.

Also to tell you the truth, I have a 10 year old 40 gallon gas water heater, and most months in Texas I only use 4-5 units of natural gas per month.

What are you really saving?

When I lived in New York, we would have to heat 32 degree water 6 months out of the year, and the water heaters were used a ton.

Most of the year here we are heating room temperature water, or warmer.

The only way I can see a high efficiency water heater being worth the money is if you go tankless and you want to avoid the thing leaking in your house and ruining walls, etc.

Major leaks can be avoided anyways with maintenance, flushing the thing every couple years, and inspecting it with a flash light every year for rust or tank damage.

[haggardhouseelf]

We were at Sears yesterday. They have put the 2012 hybrid GE GeoSpring water heaters on clearance - down to $199. They originally sold for $1200. !! Pretty good deal. And if you use a Sears card, they do free delivery. They do not do install, though.

Neighbors on both sides of us have the hybrid water heater, but older versions, of what we are getting. (We purchased the newest 2015 model.) They have said that their electricity bills went down 20 - 30 a month after installation. So we're looking forward to the energy and money savings.

[jackalope48]

At $1400 you probably have a permit cost, inspection cost, and the plumbers time to do both of those rolled in. Waiting for the inspector to show up will probably take longer than putting the thing in and some places the permit with inspection costs is as much as the water heater itself. If it's the only gas appliance you have get electric since any fuel savings probably would get eaten up by the minimum monthly charge for having a gas line.

[haggardhouseelf]

We did not have to do an inspection or any sort of permit. We purchased the hot water heater from a local supplier for $985. The plumber came and charged us $175 to install it (that covered his labor and a few small parts such as a drain hose). We will get the $985 back from our state income taxes via the credit. So we're just out the cost of the plumber.