Shop around. My first quote for a 40 gallon gas unit was around $3600 installed. Next quote was $600 install if I purchased the unit (this was from a very reputable business. I bought a high end Rheem unit for less than $800 and he installed for $600 as quoted.
Hot Water Heater Price Shock
- Thread starter Zee09
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These are really nice valves.I'm glad you know what I have in my basement.
I have pex water lines and the water heater fittings are the flex line type then clamp ring.
I didnt really "need" them. I turned the water tank 30degrees so I didnt have to extend the electrical. and the flex lines made that easier.
top electric on old tank, side electric hookup on new tank.
I also have a water leak alarm so not much "bravery" needed for self install.
Pex is like installing legos and I didnt cheap out on my crimper. Not claiming to be any sort of plumbing expert but this install didnt need one.
https://www.wagsvalve.com/the-wags-valve/
I replaced a 40 gallon electric water heater in 2016 with a Rheem 40 gallon from Home Depot. Cost of the heater as I recall was around $330. A local plumbing company had quoted $1200 for heater and install. The connections on the new heater were different than on my old one so I had to do some CPVC rerouting but doing it myself I had the job done in about 2 hours. As for 6 year water heaters vs. 12 year heaters I've been told the only difference is the the size of the anode rod. I bought a 6 year heater then went online and bought an anode rod that was a little over twice the size of the one in the heater for under $20. and installed it in the new heater so I ended up with a 12 year unit installed for under $400 including the pipe/glue to do the rerouting. I'll probably check the condition of the anode in a couple more years and replace if needed. The life of a water heater is keeping a good anode in it to prevent the water from eating at the tank. The anode I took out of mine was just the right length to fit in my mom's older and shorter square cabinet model so it didn't go to waste. I guess it's time I need to be checking the anode in her heater again even though the last one lasted about 10 years.
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That's insane.
Personally, I don't see any sense in on-demand water heaters or any special technology ("your mileage may vary"). My house uses natural gas for heating, water heater, cooking, clothes dryer. I'd consider my "baseline" gas use is in summer when there is no heating and very little gas stove/oven use. So, to heat water and dry clothes ( both are likely the same usage year-round), my bill shows 5 scf usage per month.
Personally, I don't see any sense in on-demand water heaters or any special technology ("your mileage may vary"). My house uses natural gas for heating, water heater, cooking, clothes dryer. I'd consider my "baseline" gas use is in summer when there is no heating and very little gas stove/oven use. So, to heat water and dry clothes ( both are likely the same usage year-round), my bill shows 5 scf usage per month.
For natural gas it is usually easier for water heater, but if you area doesn't have gas and are on electric resistance heating anyways then heat pump water heater would be the way to go, it is at least 2x efficient vs resistance heat electric.
I wouldn't install a heat pump water heater if I have natural gas for at least a few more years simply because upgrading the electrical panels would likely cost a huge amount, more than I'll ever save on natural gas, definitely not a heat pump dryer until they are more mature and are everywhere in the US. I'll likely stay with natural gas cooking for a long time because I like using aluminum nonstick pans.
For new building I do see the value in heatpump water heater, the ventilation would be much simpler.
In 1977 we bought a new townhouse with a Rheem 40 gallon gas water heater. I would flush it every few years and it failed anyway in 12 years. My parents liked the townhouse deal so bought one 6 months later with the same water heater which was never touched. They are dead and gone with a daughter of ours living there now. The water heater and Lennox AC/furnace are original and doing fine after 44 years=you never know!
JTK
$100 Site Donor 2025
I'm not a pro, so I don't see nearly what pros see, but I've never seen or experienced a shark bite (or similar) failure.
I have seen and experienced several sweated copper fitting leaks, corroded copper water lines with pinhole leaks and some pex fitting leaks.
To me it's mostly about proper installation.
Zee09
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Agreed. I find when HVAC systems get over 15 years old most companies try to upsell you and don't want to fix very minor issues
that amount to very little $$$ to repair. And the new stuff is programmed not to last.
Its all about $$$
Wow reading this stuff makes me feel lucky to have natural gas water heater. Lasted about 11 or 12 years, never did any maintenance, replaced for $900 - 50 gallon included installation.
No need for anything more as far as efficiency as our hot water gas bill is only no more then $25 a month, for example last months bill was $23.78
Oh and the HVAC? Don’t even get me started on that, we are at the 15 year mark, it amazes me how many people for years now in my young community get sold on a new system at any sign of trouble. Our system runs perfect thanks to me doing an extremely minor repair on one of the two 2.5 or 3 ton units. Stupid simple but everyone wanted to sell me a new system, except for one guy but was puzzled why it wasn’t working properly and even him then started the quote for a new system on one of the units…laughable … and let’s not get into energy savings by replacing a seer 13 unit when electric cost me 10 to 11 cents a KWH, month of July was 10.5 cents or so
No need for anything more as far as efficiency as our hot water gas bill is only no more then $25 a month, for example last months bill was $23.78
Oh and the HVAC? Don’t even get me started on that, we are at the 15 year mark, it amazes me how many people for years now in my young community get sold on a new system at any sign of trouble. Our system runs perfect thanks to me doing an extremely minor repair on one of the two 2.5 or 3 ton units. Stupid simple but everyone wanted to sell me a new system, except for one guy but was puzzled why it wasn’t working properly and even him then started the quote for a new system on one of the units…laughable … and let’s not get into energy savings by replacing a seer 13 unit when electric cost me 10 to 11 cents a KWH, month of July was 10.5 cents or so
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Ordered this today, replacing a GE of the same size (47 inch height - 50 gallons)
https://www.supplyhouse.com/Bradfor...-Saver-Electric-Residential-Water-Heater-240V
https://www.supplyhouse.com/Bradfor...-Saver-Electric-Residential-Water-Heater-240V
Zee09
$200 Site Donor 2023
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They are about silent.
Nice.
Prices are going up and problems with supplies will add to it. Plumbers tend to charge a lot, it's a good job into the future for people who don't mind getting a little dirty and being a contortionist. I bought tools and can do PEX fittings, I make sure I can get to the fittings when building anything.
fyi heat pump hot water uses less power than regular..
in heat pump mode
1000w?max vs 4500w or 5500w element.
They have heat pump ONLY models without backup element those dont even need 240v.. some just plug into a 120v outlet.
Natural gas is still the fastest recovery and cheapest at 3$ for 1000 cubic foot (here)
but some places there is no new gas hookup regulations, and if comparing to conventional electric these use aprox 1/3 the energy and give you free A/C and dehumidification. Propane which is still very common or oil .. these are cheaper by a factor of 10 to run.
Putting one in a garage in texas for example would be pretty much a win.
For my house putting in a gas heater would have required me to pay for install to tap the gas line before the furnace leg etc..
plumber wanted 3k+, install guy wanted 1200 just for install..
so the heat pump made since esp with my entry price of free after tax rebate.
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I know they use less energy, just whether they are cheaper in the long run is the concern (including electrical panel mod). In our area we do see people tossing out HVAC for natural gas furnace because electricity is 5x more expensive but not 5x more efficient than natural gas, in the end it is about 2x more expensive to run HVAC than natural gas from the math I did for my own use a few years ago (assuming $1.1 / therm and 26c/kwh).
Now 120V outlet with no backup element may change the game, but how fast do they recover (and how efficient is 120V 15A heat pump vs 240V 30A heat pump) would still be a bit of a concern to me (wife won't even let me lower the temperature to 140F in the summer, she loves her shower scorching hot). Happy wife happy life, so yeah, maybe in a few years I'll take a look at it again.
I run mine at 149F some models max at 140f.
The recovery can be slow if you get them totally cold.. its not like gas at all.. but not too much worse than resistance electric.
For me running a load of warm clothes+ a 10min 3gpm shower at 108f or so.. it will recover in an hour.
but at least in my case I would have to run a dehumidifier part time in my basement so I'm saving that as well. Which is not insignificant.. those use about as much electricity or more than a window A/C.
So I may have said it already but if you have Gas now, I would defnitely replace with gas.
in new constuction if you have gas available.. I'd use gas.
for me I have gas but not gas water heater so about 3k for a power vent model installed vs free after tax rebate for this heat pump model.
for another person with conventional electric you will literally pay back the full cost of the hybrid water tank in 2-5 years.. my payback if I had paid retail cost with no rebates would have been under 4 years.
I would 100% recommend them even over a tankless electric.. they are cheaper to run and more reliable imo.
I remember my youth on a small (I think about 5 gal) resistive electric water heater. I think if I have something like that today my wife will kill me. You do have to turn it on and warm up the water before you can shower, then you need to wait till it recover before another can shower.
Yep. Personally, I'd have to see a really compelling reason to abandon gas appliances. With the gov. and automakers pushing electrical vehicles, it puts more pressure on the grid and local generation/distribution. It seems like having NG makes one a little less susceptible to outages (planned or unplanned).
A number of my neighbors have gone to whole-house backup generators because our local power utility has fairly frequent service disruptions (in a metro area of about 1 million customers).
I like NG but apparently, it causes greenhouse gases and many cities won't allow it to be installed in new home construction. I also wonder about the pipeline going dead. have a backup plan.
Wuh! -- found precisely same make/model locally in plumbing supply store with a $35/delivery charge but for $200 less than supplyhouse.com
Lesson learned: Always check with locals before buying online. Another bonus is that online sales are backed up for months but locals have inventory.
