hot water heater questions

[LoveTrains]

So my H thinks we need a new hot water heater, for no other reason than our's is "old." Maybe 10 years old. 

We got a quote for $1,250 to install a new one. That includes all labor and the hot water heater. It seems high to me. Thoughts?

I think its 55 gallons and it is a natural gas powered hot water heater. 

[spankswife]

Mine is electric, and cost about half that, with installation. If at least get a couple more quotes.

[spanikopita]

Hmm I paid $800ish four years ago to replace mine (gas). I don't know the size of mine though.

[Deleted]

My brother is a plumber and replaced ours in our old house (gas, not sure about the size but 55 gal sounds right). Obviously he did the labor for free and got us a discount on the heater, but he did say in passing that the company he works for would have charged in the ballpark of $1200 for the work.

Never hurts to get multiple quotes though.

[MixedBerryJam]

I replaced mine a couple of years ago and it was about that, with installation and all (Greater Boston area), but I'd still get a couple of quotes before deciding. I may be misreading your comment, but given the choice of replacing a hot water heater before it "needs" to be replaced or replacing it after it lets go all over my cellar I'd take replacing it early every time. So if part of your concern is that it doesn't actually "need" to be replaced at the moment, I wouldn't necessarily let that stop me if I had the $$ at the ready. They're a g-d pita to replace once it "needs" it, which will more likely than not happen on a weekend, or worse, a weekend night of a holiday weekend in the winter when everyone else's pipes are freezing and bursting, too.

[bryantpark]

Sept 6, 2014 12:23:08 GMT -5 Catlawdy said:

I am getting an estimate to replace our 40 or so year old tank on Monday. I'm expecting it to be a thousand or more.
Our replacement may include pulling a permit, make sure to ask about that and to ask if there's anything needed to bring it to current code. Ours is not at current code but works like a beast. We're only considering replacement BC it truly is old, and is the last system in the house we need to replace.

Ours is under the house so I have less worry about it having a meltdown. I'd probably have replaced it by now if it was in the attic.

Ours is copper lined and also at least 40 years old – our home inspector told us to never replace it because they do not make them like they used to. Our hot water is scalding we always have to turn it down it's so hot.

[glitzy07]

We just replaced ours. I think it was only 40 gallons, but the hot water heater itself was ~$400. H and his dad installed it because they're handy, but everyone I asked who has gotten one installed recently paid about $800.

[grover]

We paid approx $750 a few months ago for heater and installation.

[jena]

We replaced one of ours before we moved in, it was 25yo. But the biggest reason to replace ours was that there was no pan underneath it, as it was in a garage... Except the garage had been enclosed and remodeled into a living room and all that water would have been in the laminate floor. We did have to get a permit, and everything was around $1k.

[af1212]

We had ours replaced about 3 years ago. It was around $900 (labor and parts) for a 40 gallon one. Our plumber/friend told us that be replaces his every 10 years and doesn't wait for it to break.

Unfortunately ours did break and it was such a mess to clean up all of the water. It was up to our knees and HOT!

[kaylie]

That doesn't sound terrible, but I usually like to get a couple of quotes for things like that. We replaced ours about a year ago and paid around $1,200. That price did include an expansion tank since we needed to add one to bring ours up to code. If I remember correctly, gas water heaters usually cost a bit more (~$100) than electric.

FWIW, I wouldn't replace it just because it's 10 years old. The one we just got rid of was 20 years old so it could have a good bit of life left in it.

[arch01]

(sorry-pet peeve-it's a water heater, not hot water heater)

ours is 15yrs old and still going strong. i wouldn't replace just yet.

we have shopped around since we have a 50gal gas and we had a 40gal electric in our old house. it's going to run us about $1200, but we also have to have an expansion tank put in.

i'd shop around a bit more. our quotes cover permitting and labor. gas is more expensive to install than electric, which sucks, but it is what it is.

[lys]

Sounds fine price wise.
The new one should be more energy efficient.