Metro hot water heater recommendation install

So we had a guy come out and look at our water heater because it is leaking at the top, his estimate was 3k, we thought the price would be more like 1-2. I made some phone calls and you cannot get any idea what this will cost without paying 70 bucks for the person to look at it. I understand that a technichan will not know what challenges they will face in your house, still they could at least tell you what the hourly labor rate will be and how much the actual heater will cost, they will tell you neither. Talked with a guy on the phone who insisted his company had ‘full transparency’ yet would not tell me the price of the heater or the labor price. Another company said they have ‘straight forward pricing’ but would also not tell me the price of the heater or the labor. I do not need the lowest price just a fair price and have no idea, we have a Rheem, gas, everything sees very accessible, ideas?

A Rheem standard vent is $650 to 700 for a 40 gallon gas. $1300-1500 if you have the power vent.

Home Depot carries Rheem. Go online and look at the prices yourself to compare with roughly the unit you have. If you’re replacing like with like that will at least give you an idea of what the unit itself cost.

IMO 3k sounds crazy unless you have a really expensive water heater.

You can get quotes for installation directly from home depot.

Turn the gas and water off, unhook gas line and water lines, take apart vent, drain water heater and move it out with a 2 wheel dolly and replace. You just saved yourself 2k lol.

Have any friends that can help? There really not that hard to replace

Coletrain27 wrote:

Turn the gas and water off, unhook gas line and water lines, take apart vent, drain water heater and move it out with a 2 wheel dolly and replace. You just saved yourself 2k lol.

Have any friends that can help? There really not that hard to replace

I agree.
Or call Mr Mike westman

Thanks Grouse!
Coletrain-We have a very good and trusted handyman who could do this and give us a solid estimate, the boss of the joint who generally trusts him will not let him do it for fear the house would blow up, so me doing it? Out of the conversation, but thanks for the vote of confidence (but, you have not met me )

I agree a water heater is pretty easy. I’ve done about 20 of them and love the feeling of saving myself or a friend/family a couple of grand. The gas part freaks some people out, but it’s easy to learn to do 1 fitting correctly.

Homedepot.com same day, middle road 40gal installed and haul away old $1500. Local plumbing company was the sub on it, worked out great.

I’d much rather pay extra and not deal with that hassle.

Mike W. here would be your guy. You can always hump the new one down the steps and the old one up the steps and dispose of it to save yourself a few bucks i’m sure.

Grouse-never thought to call the depot-You saved me at least 1K, sad that a local business could not even give me a ball-park estimate. I LOVE THIS SITE!!!

Send me some photos of the water heater and I’ll get you estimate. You can text them to me. 612 501 7089

Keep in mind with a big box store water heater you also get a big box store warranty. That warranty is clearly explained on the side of the water heater. Do not call or return water heater to the store.

You are also getting a big box store quality water heater.

My contractor I use up in the Becker area charged $500 labor for my water heater install. Guessing in the cities the labor would be $700-$1000.

I just bought the water heater at Fleet Farm, think it was $700 or so. I wouldn’t trust myself with the install, especially with the propane hookup.

Your old one may be a little hard to get rid of. You can put it in FB marketplace for free, someone might pick it up and use it for scrap.

Thanks everyone!

One of my pet peeves….

Let’s say it together guys. It’s a water heater…a water heater. NOT a “hot” water heater

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Thank you B man

B-man wrote:

One of my pet peeves….

Let’s say it together guys. It’s a water heater…a water heater. NOT a “hot” water heater

Hahaha glad I’m not the only one that thinks this way. This goes right along with when someone says they need to unthaw something…. You mean thaw?

Would really rather go with a small local business but they have to be somewhat competitive, the local company was almost TWICE the price of Home Depot, with 5 questions HD was able to asses what it would take to replace my water heater sparing me the time and expense of an estimate (you know the routine: 70 bucks and you keep a 4 hour window open in your weekend) Just be in the ballpark with HD and make it transparent and convenient, just sayin’

Purchased a water heater from HD in 2007. The subcontractor was great. I said maybe I should call you straight up next time. He said the right thing (not to get in trouble with HD). He said sure, but he said he could not get the water heater cheaper than HD and with his mark up … the total cost would have been higher.

HD uses local contractors and they are constantly vetted by their customer reviews. HD did our upstairs carpet and window blinds on separate plans … again professional, local installers and everything well done. No issues …

I will pay 10% more for local only service, but that is about my limit.

Let me add it was the complete opposite with HD on HVAC. Complete hassle and inability to provide a real quote.

The two local companies did so well in the assessment (free), quotes (high efficiency and regular units), and stand behind warranties that a decision was really difficult to make.

With gas fittings you just need to soapy water the connections when done to check for leaks. But if your not comfortable with those kind of things I get it. I agree with the above $500+- labor plus the unit is fair. If it takes him 5 hours he’s making $100 an hour. If your swapping with the same unit it should be real easy.

Mike W wrote:

You are also getting a big box store quality water heater.

When I worked at HD 10yrs ago or so the store assist manager told me the at the time GE water heaters weren’t GE, HD just buys the rights for it and slaps it on the case. That goes for many other products around their store. Buy a 15ga nailer at Thomas tool and one from HD and open em up….

If I was planning on staying in my house more than a handful of years I would’ve gone a different route, but a couple unhappy daughters were giving me stress not having hot water.

Mike W installed our last water heater so many years ago I cant remember. My major complaint is nothing and I mean nothing has happened since. What a boring plumber! Same with the water softener.

Maybe some half truths in your comments Deuces.

The HD water heater we purchased is indeed a GE (HD is partnered with Rheem at this time). The GE water heater (HD purchased) registration was with GE … so there is that. It has ran without issue or fail now for 15 years … so add that in there too.

Let me share that there was a good chance at that time (decade or more ago) that many (most or even all) GE water heaters were outsourced manufactured by another company. This is not uncommon and not just for products sold through HD. It is not just GE, but many companies use outsourced manufacturing.

If anyone remembers the Frigidaire (Electrolux) Freezer plant in St Cloud (now closed) … they were the last chest and upright freezer plant located in the US. They produced freezers for quite a few other major manufacturers … saw them put on the hardware and units go in their “competitors” labeled box – in person.

All that said, there is no doubt that HD puts enormous pressure on their suppliers for cost and cost down.

Some manufacturers certainly have models sold only through HD … that is why you often see prefixes and suffixes on model numbers or different letters. Variations in quality on tools … maybe … my Ryobi tools though perform as expected and last (albeit I am at home and not a commercial user).

Looking back the biggest equipment purchase I have made at HD is a Ariens dual stage snow plower. Bought it there because they had 6 months same as cash on the HD card. Unit has run really well … including this year. No idea if Ariens HD version was of lesser standard or not … again in my limited case – no issue.

My new water heater a few months ago was 3k installed.

Brittman wrote:

Maybe some half truths in your comments Deuces.

Looking back the biggest equipment purchase I have made at HD is a Ariens dual stage snow plower. Bought it there because they had 6 months same as cash on the HD card. Unit has run really well … including this year. No idea if Ariens HD version was of lesser standard or not … again in my limited case – no issue.

When I worked at Home Depot I asked a couple of Ariens factory reps if there was any difference in the units sold at HD or other dealers. They both said that Ariens would not manufacture a machine to lower standards unless it was badged as Exclusive to Home Depot. HD would also have to order a guaranteed number of the units before it would make financial sense to set up a line to produce them. At that time HD sold Sno Techs that were lower price point machines made by Ariens. Last I knew Lowes was selling them now.

JEREMY wrote:

My new water heater a few months ago was 3k installed.

What kind of water heater? That seems like a lot.

He could have went form electric to direct vent then the $3k is justified.

buckybadger wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JEREMY wrote:</div>
My new water heater a few months ago was 3k installed.

What kind of water heater? That seems like a lot.

suzuki wrote:

Mike W installed our last water heater so many years ago I cant remember. My major complaint is nothing and I mean nothing has happened since. What a boring plumber! Same with the water softener.

Wow. That was a long time ago. Forgotten I had even I stalled those. Still appreciate the work Mike.

A quick comparison of model numbers will show stores like Home Depot do not sell the same products that many professionals do. Many of the box store model numbers don’t even show up on the manufacturer websites. So in the end do you really even know what you are getting from them.

Can’t remember ever being on a construction job that a product was spec ed from one of the big box stores. Wonder why.

Wonder why ? Well let me answer for some …

Professional contractors and builders often purchase from supply companies that specialize in professional builders. I would assume pricing is competitive and incentives significant.

Many of these supply companies entertain regularly (Wild, Vikings tickets) and some even award all expense trips to the Caribbean if you a top buyer-customer and a company rep (or owner) is allowed to accept it.

Walk the Wild Suite circle and you can see a pretty high number of companies in the building trades.