I got my water heater replaced on Aug 20, 2022. It started making a lot of noise and then a few hours later started leaking cold water all over. Consequently, I was in a rush to get it replaced and this is what I learned. Please do more research than I did before you need to replace it. If it’s 10 years old, start doing the research now. I’m sure I missed some details.
The Problem: The problem is your water heater starts making noise, leaking, and then no more hot water.
Everyone in the house asks you when will we have hot water?? It’s now an urgent and important problem that you’d like to get fixed right away so you don’t have time to do a lot of research. Here’s what I learned:
First: Turn off the water and gas supply to the water heater so no more water leaks out.
Building Codes: The first thing I would do is to read up on your state and city building codes regarding water heaters. Building codes change over time so what you have installed now may not meet current building codes. Please review the codes in your city and state to make sure you ask for everything in the quote that the code requires to make sure you’ll pass inspection. Here is an example for the city of Oakland, Ca.
Permits: Many cities require a permit even if you aren’t moving the water heater location. I was quoted $200-$600 for the permit and most of the plumbers didn’t even include a permit in their quote, I had to specifically ask them about it. The price seemed really high so I went online to my city’s website and got my own permit for $43! Beware of this scam. I bought it online and then scheduled an inspection. Probably best to handle the permit yourself since the markup as you can see is outrageous. No permit = no warranty so be sure you get the permit and inspection.
Inspection: The inspection was also scheduled online, didn’t cost anything, and I got an appointment the next day. The appointment times are in a 4 hour block, mornings or afternoons. The actual inspection took 5 minutes max. If you have any questions, make sure to have them ready since the inspector has a lot of jobs to get to. Thanks Jim!
Urgency: Since we usually know we need to replace a water heater when it makes noise and leaks, we then have no hot water so depending on how many people depend on this heater and their tolerance, an immediate replacement could be required. The plumbers know this and exploit it. Since you’re in a rush, they will add on all kinds of extra fees. Service and maintenance contracts, expansion tanks, other stuff you don’t really need. Do not take the first available quote! Weekends they generally charge more, up to $150 more even though the water heater is only $800!
Type: Tankless or old style tank? I think tankless is great if it’s just two of you, but I knew I wanted the old style tank water heater since it’s much cheaper and we use so much hot water throughout the day that it made more sense. Do your research on this and figure out what is best for you.
Brands: I had a Bradford White 50 Gal water heater that lasted only 9 years. I looked up this brand and it had mostly poor reviews. I ended up getting a Rheem which had good reviews. The plumber got it from Home Depot: 38,000 BTUs with a 6 year warranty is $779 or a 12 year warranty for $979. I did this on a Saturday so a lot of places were closed or wanted to charge me extra for a weekend job so my options on brands and plumbers was limited. Do research on the best reviewed brands and models and get one of those.
When to replace? Should you get it replaced even though it still works fine? If you do, you can schedule it so people in the house will know that on a specific date there will be no hot water. Doing it this way you can also be in a better position to negotiate on price and to shop around. The water heater may last several more years if you do maintenance and replace the anode rods. This is a tough decision that you’ll have to weigh the pros and cons.
Warranty: Will plumber fix anything that the code inspector finds? The quotes I got said that a permit is required for the warranty to be valid so make sure you get a permit.
Maintenance: Replace the anode rods every ?? I got quoted $200-$300 to do this, but they only cost $25-$50 at Home Depot and all you do is unscrew and remove the old one and screw in the new one. No big deal. Another maintenance items is to drain, refill half way, and drain again once a year. Research required maintenance and fact check me please…
Maintenance contract? I didn’t get one. Just do the maintenance above. Seems like another scam.
Cost: I got quoted $1800-$4000 to replace a 50 gallon water heater with nothing extra to do, just remove and reinstall into the same place. I ended up paying $1980. $858 for the water heater $1122 labor and dumping the old one. It took him about 2 hours to complete the job, so $561/hour!
How to select a plumber: Are they licensed to do this work? I used Yelp and got over 10 quotes. Make sure the quote is emailed and itemized. I quickly got quotes of $1800-$2200 and as high as $4000 but you really need an itemized quote so you can compare apples to apples. The cost of the water heater itself was only $858, so you can see how much they charge for labor to remove, install, and hauling the old one away.
Take lots pictures in good light all around the water heater so the plumbers know the location, where the gas comes in, if it’s strapped down, if it has a T&P valve, drainage pan, sediment trap, expansion tank, etc. If not, they need to charge for extra work to bring the water heater up to the current building code. Also take a picture of the label so they know how many gallons and BTUs. Then email everything to the company for an accurate quote. Make sure to itemize everything you want so it conforms to the latest building code. If they reply with a quote that doesn’t include something, email them back.
But what do you need exactly? Beyond just a 50 gallon water heater, replacement, removal and dumping, clean up, what else should be listed in the quote? All the stuff in the California building code including: sediment trap, drainage pain, strapping, T&P (temperature and pressure) valve, height of the water heater above the ground, etc. Check your city and make a list. You’ll need to review your current installation so you’ll know about any additional work that needs to be done to get a quote for.
I had 4 quotes all around the same price so I chose the one that had the most 5 star Yelp reviews and that could do the work on a Saturday.
The company that I hired, United Plumbing, actually wanted to charge me $600 for the $43 permit. They are crooks, scammers, and old school in that they were used to going to the building permit office for the city you live in to get the permit, but due to Covid that process is all online in most cities so be sure to check your city’s building permit website. Old school? Yes, the plumbing company didn’t take Venmo, PayPal, or Zelle, only checks, cash, or credit cards with a 5% fee added in.
I ended up hiring United Plumbing with their 243 five star Yelp reviews I figured I couldn’t go wrong. Good thing I didn’t ask them to pull the permit before looking into it myself.
Could you do it yourself? For sure, just buy the appropriate water heater at Home Depot, hire a handyman to help out, and someone to dump the old water heater, not sure if the city will pick it up, but you can look into that. It’s pretty much turning off the gas and water, disconnecting everything, removing, installing the new water heater, connecting everything. Look for YouTube videos for more details. However, if you look at the pictures above, the copper drainage pipe had to be modified to work with the pipe exiting the side on the new water heater instead of the top on the old one. So, a handyman with tools would have been required to perform this task since I don’t have the tools to do this.
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