Calling plumbing experts

Thread made me look. My direct vent 50 gallon AO Smith is 20 years old.

Will probably blow up tonight on me now that I know it's that old. :rolleyes:
The reason I looked was I had two clients in one week who had water heaters fail with over $50,000 in combined insurance claims.
 
  • Wow
Reactions: NWICY
The savings disappeared quickly. The plumber said he could do it for $3200. But the electrician wanted $2200 to run 220 to the basement.

Quote for tankless was over $11,000.

Whoever gave you that quote I would never use. A higher end tankless water heater (talking about a quality name brand like Navien or Rheem) probably run around $1500-2000ish for the unit then with install maybe add another $500-1000 for additional parts (connections, piping etc) and install labor. They run off of 110 not 220 so should not be any additional wiring needed. For $11,000 you should be getting a helluva lot more than a water heater installed for plumbing work actually done. Just boggles my mind there are "reputable" plumbing businesses out there charging like that because you know they have been ripping people off at that. We have places in the Des Moines area I have either used once not knowing any better or had quote me that do stuff like this that I am amazed how they get business with the prices they charge.
 
Basically what mine are. Came from Plump supply and installed by a professional plumber. One for floor heat and one for house use. Both were roughly 1250-1300 each. Were about 15 years old.

I'm lucky that I am a friend with a licensed and bonded plumber that owns his own business that won't feed me a line of BS on what stuff costs and he gets his stuff from Plumb Supply as well. Thought I was going to have to replace my tankless the other year when it was making a noise so asked him for a quote and he gave me the make/model of the one he likes to install and broke it down with the cost of the unit and his charge for install. I looked up the model and he was right on with the cost of what I was finding and his install charge was only going to be about $300-500 on top of that depending on if he had to install any additional fittings or adapters.

He worked for Golden Rule at one point and said he couldn't take ripping off people for things that were way over-priced in their "flat pricing guide" they had to go by so went into business for himself instead. I've run into this myself as I used GR once for a broken drain in my first house that I had to have fixed ASAP as it was my only bathroom and I had guests at the time. Found out afterwards I probably paid them at least 3 times what I should have for the work they did but I was in a pinch and didn't know any better at the time. The 2nd time was to have them look at my tankless hot water heater as they were the only company in the area that serviced that brand that could come out right away. Wasn't as bad of a deal as the first time, maybe $125 or $150 charge for the tech to diagnose the issue and recommend I just buy the $50 part off the internet and install it myself because they would probably charge me at least $300 to do it. At least appreciated his honesty but have heard a lot of other bad stories over the years of companies like this that spend a lot of advertising to get name recognition then once they get inside your home hit you up with a crazy $ amount because you are probably already out about $75-100 just for the service trip if you decline work.
 
$1,900 for a Rheam 50 gallon w/power vent installed and removal of the old one. This was in Iowa and the most expensive option would have been $2,500
 
$1,900 for a Rheam 50 gallon w/power vent installed and removal of the old one. This was in Iowa and the most expensive option would have been $2,500
We had a tankless, on-demand propane water heater installed about 18 months ago for $3300 total bill. Rural Iowa. All your numbers sound unbelievably high to me.
 
We had a tankless, on-demand propane water heater installed about 18 months ago for $3300 total bill. Rural Iowa. All your numbers sound unbelievably high to me.
Everything I read about tankless in Iowa made little sense so I didn't go that route. Power Vent pretty much doubles the cost of water heaters, which sucks.
 
Think you are thinking tubetops.

TAnk
View attachment 96314

Tube

View attachment 96313
Also a tank top:
pigurxo1kzu51.jpg
 
I'm lucky that I am a friend with a licensed and bonded plumber that owns his own business that won't feed me a line of BS on what stuff costs and he gets his stuff from Plumb Supply as well. Thought I was going to have to replace my tankless the other year when it was making a noise so asked him for a quote and he gave me the make/model of the one he likes to install and broke it down with the cost of the unit and his charge for install. I looked up the model and he was right on with the cost of what I was finding and his install charge was only going to be about $300-500 on top of that depending on if he had to install any additional fittings or adapters.

He worked for Golden Rule at one point and said he couldn't take ripping off people for things that were way over-priced in their "flat pricing guide" they had to go by so went into business for himself instead. I've run into this myself as I used GR once for a broken drain in my first house that I had to have fixed ASAP as it was my only bathroom and I had guests at the time. Found out afterwards I probably paid them at least 3 times what I should have for the work they did but I was in a pinch and didn't know any better at the time. The 2nd time was to have them look at my tankless hot water heater as they were the only company in the area that serviced that brand that could come out right away. Wasn't as bad of a deal as the first time, maybe $125 or $150 charge for the tech to diagnose the issue and recommend I just buy the $50 part off the internet and install it myself because they would probably charge me at least $300 to do it. At least appreciated his honesty but have heard a lot of other bad stories over the years of companies like this that spend a lot of advertising to get name recognition then once they get inside your home hit you up with a crazy $ amount because you are probably already out about $75-100 just for the service trip if you decline work.
What's the name of his company? Would love to find a good plumber for future reference. I assume DSM area since you mentioned GR.
 

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