How Much Do Water Heaters Cost and Last?

On today’s show, it’s all about water heater cost in Houston. Why do you need one? Well, you know, you have to have one. I’m John Eccles. I’m Richard Saad. Thank you for tuning in today. All right, well let’s jump right in to feet. Today we’re going to be talking about two different styles, types of heaters. There’s hundreds of types that we’re not going to touch on. What you’re mainly the new popular hybrid units, but we’re going to be focusing on tank versus tankless and what it cost, right? Um, so let’s start off. First of all, talking about we are going to be discussing basic install. Whenever you’re inviting a plumbing company out to your house to give you estimates on putting in a new water heater or whatever sort, uh, there’s a plumbing code that we have to go by. It’s a law that we have to do certain things.

And if your heater’s not up to that code and these, these variables, there’s hundreds, right? Lots of variables, lots of variables that can really change just price. We’re not going to talk about that right now. We want to give you a general idea kind of what to expect, right? So let’s start off with tank style heaters, right? Um, first of all, there’s going to be a price difference in if hey, if we provide the material versus the customer, if you provide the material, normally those start somewhere in the range of $800 and up depending on some factors that we’re going to discuss and if we provide the material and labor, which a lot of customers like to do because I don’t want the headache of having to pick up their unit and bring it back home. Those kind of range starting about $1,500 and up.

Now, what can drive that price up from that? Well, warranty’s a big thing. Um, standard manufacturer warranties on these tank heaters start at six years and they can go as high as 12 years and those warranties really drove the price up. But that’s because the heaters should last longer. And that’s because of thicker insulation. Uh, the ability to handle more than one anode, rod, several different things can drive it. What else could drive in size of the unit? They make units at 10 gallons, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 80, so depending on what your house has already installed within it is going to depend on pricing. Some homes have one unit, some has had, we’ll have to, uh, but let’s just take a single, a unit in a home, most you’re going to be a 40 or 50 gallon, so that is going to impact and the efficiency is also going to impact.

Absolutely right. Location is another thing, uh, here in Texas for whatever reason, a lot of homes, their water heaters in their attic, believe it or not, that’s not really common throughout the United States. Um, but it’s very common here in Houston. So whether it’s upstairs in your garage, in a closet, outdoor in a building, all those things can change. The cost of the installation, um, that, you know, is a big determining factor because of the installation. Now, I want to say one thing to that that we have. Sometimes our clientele are new clientele call us and they’re adamant, I want a price over the phone. Yes, I want a price, I want to price. But the issue with that is we have so many variables to deal with, which is the gas, how, when the gas is burned, how does it get out properly? Um, the size of the unit, the efficiency of the unit.

What are you looking for in a water heater? Right? And if we give you a price on the phone, I can guarantee you it’s 100 percent wrong 100 percent of the time. So if anybody gives you a price over the phone for a water heater installation, it’s going to be wrong 100 percent of the time and you’re not going to be happy. You’re going to be angry. So, plumbing companies, some will, but some won’t. We are a company that will come out and give you a cost evaluation. You have the option to say yes or no. 

Oh, well it wasn’t this, it wasn’t that, it wasn’t what you told me. Oh, that’s because we don’t always receive the best information over the phone because a lot of times customers aren’t 100 percent sure what we will find almost 100 percent of the time when you force a company to give you a price over the phone. Then they come out and they’re like, oh, we can’t do it for that price. Well of course they can’t do it for that price because they haven’t seen it and now there’s all these other things that have to be done and location or, or in upgrades or whatever else it has to be done. Now you feel jaded and they weren’t honest with you. Well, they didn’t know. Right. So you should be getting in home estimates for this type of product. Yeah, absolutely. You know, you know, the other thing about the tanks that we kind of touched on earlier with the warranty is lifespan.

Right? So obviously the tanks with a little bit longer warranty are expected this last little longer, wouldn’t you think it has a 12 year manufacturer warranty? You would think it’s going to last longer than the six year manufacturer warranty. You would think lifespan of these water heaters is typically anywhere from seven to 10 years and that’s going to depend on you, right? Do you get it maintained as it serviced? I’m here in Houston, the water’s not great, so it definitely needs to be serviced annually to make sure that everything is operating properly in the way that it’s supposed to be cleaned. Drained. I’m burner simply clean everything you need to do that every year. A lot of people do not tmp valve and they last seven to 10 years. Yep. Now you can get over if you’re maintaining. Oh yeah, absolutely. We run into it all the time.

There’s water tank, water heaters out there that outlive their warranty. There’s some that are 15, 16, 18 years old, but normally those customers are taking care of their unit. That’s right. Okay. Well let’s go onto the tankless. So what does it cost in Houston to purchase a tankless water heater? Right? So in saying that typically a tankless water heater will start at 4,000 and up. Now if you go by the unit, that’ll typically start at 3000 and up. And in saying that what that’s going to give you is a water heater for about a three bathroom house at that $40,000 right now you have to size tankless water heaters accordingly to how many bathrooms that you have. It’s not sized to how many people are in the home. I can’t tell you guys how many people have told me, oh, there’s only two of us here.

Another company said we could get away with this tankless water heater. My response is, no, you can’t. You’ve got to size the tankless water heater to the bathrooms that you have a. and in saying that, that is going to dictate what model and what size that you actually need. Now warranty, let’s talk warranty because they have great warranties. There are 12 years on the heat exchanger. Most of the tankless water heater manufacturers are 12 years on the a heat exchanger, some components on the interior or have six, but all in all they have great warranties and those are going to be labor and part. Some of those tanks are just parts but no labor. Correct. So on tanks tank less. I’m sorry. Uh, they do parts and labor so it’s great. I’m size real fast, real fast. So the heat exchanger, that’s, we’ll make sure they understand.

That’s Kinda like the main component in the tank. The tank is for the tank list. That’s why there’s that big a warranty on that interior piece versus the others. Right. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to cut you off. You’re going into science. It’s the most costly part as well, right? A cover for 12 years now as long as it’s stalled properly, um, it’s gonna last installed improper. It’s going to burn out that heat exchanger much quicker and you won’t have a warranty. They’re going to go back to install. Try. Absolutely. So back to what you were saying about size, it’s weird because they are sized a little bit different. The terminology is different. They don’t go buy gallons, right, or the actually do, I’m sorry, but it’s not like the 30, 40, 50 gallon tank it operates on how much hot water can it give you on a gallon per minute basis.

So they size them anywhere from 30 gallons per minute to 11 gallons per minute. And the funny thing is those gallons per minute dictate also on how cold it can get. Right? Houston doesn’t ever really get that cold so it’s not a big driver, but up north, you know, those gallons can really sway due to the ground temperature and the water coming into the home. Um, as well as again is a big deal because we have outdoor units. Right. Is that your mind’s located outside? Is it in the attic? Is it a garage? You know, depending on where it’s at and they access to gas, water, stuff of that nature. But the sizing is done a little bit different in, like Richard said earlier, you know, it’s how many gallons can be fitted to your different fixtures to give it what it needs. And so that determines what size unit you’re going to need to push those gallons per minute to you.

Correct. And, and speaking around that, let’s talk about recovery rate, right? This is a big place and that’s a big one is recovery rate. Tankless has no recovery rate. You will get all of those gallons per minute for 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So if you want to sit in your shower 24 hours you can. And that water temp will never become different from where it is when you got in. How fantastic is that? It’s a huge plus that a lot of people like with those units now on tape type water heaters, whether it be electric or gas, you’re going to have a different recovery rate. They’ve got. Let’s say that you have a 40 gallon unit in your home and you’re going to extract the 40 gallons. Well, how fast can it recover and provide you with the hot water that you’re demanding.

You know, typically on a first hour for a 40 gallon unit, you’ll get 60 to 70 gallons out of it. You’re really going to fail in the second hour, right? So where the true failure comes in with tanks as if you have a big oversized garden or Jacuzzi Tub and that tubs holding 80 to 100 gallons of water, well you’re going to extract all of that plus the recovery out of a tank unit. So therefore, uh, you’re going to have to wait another hour to get some hot water. Someone tries to come in to shower right behind you or something isn’t going to work. I don’t know if you guys have ever experienced that, but we hear that all the time and these new homes are a, it’s kind of interesting to me because the state of Texas, we’re only required to give you hot water. We’re not required to give you a lot of hot water.

So they’re putting in these huge oversized tubs everywhere, but they’re putting 1:40 gallon water heater in defeated what? Can’t feed it. That’s right. That’s right. I should have gone with a tank list to begin with because it would fill it with no problem endlessly. And then the lifespan, the lifespan lifespan is 20 plus years. These had been in Europe since the forties. Great units. They’d been in Texas specifically Houston for a spout since. Uh, oh, two wasn’t. Yeah, something like that. Roughly. So really started hitting mainstream. Yeah. Roughly. And they’ve been working great. As long as they are installed properly, most premature failures are due to installation problems, not because of the unit. They’re fat. Fantastic units. Absolutely. So if you want to know more water heater cost in Houston, call us. We’re here, answer all your questions, uh, and in fact at no cost, right?

Yeah. We’re going to charge them to talk on the phone. Not at all. I like talking to, you know, an important thing to remember is only there regardless of what direction you go tank or tankless. You know, we talk about this everyday in the office. It’s a big topic. You know, you’re talking about a pretty major investment in your home, right? But when you look at it, you know, everybody’s like, man, that’s, it’s quite a bit of money when you start extrapolating how long these units lots, especially if they’re maintained correctly, that they’re really not really all that expensive for what you get out of them. Let’s do some basic math. What’s 4,000 divided by 2100 a year? Yeah. And write that down per month. Really? Is that a lot of money for your endless hot water? No one for me at least. Yeah. Well, when you start breaking it down when you’re right, it’s a lot of upfront costs, but you talking about lifespan and what it takes, it’s, it’s really not correct. Extrapolate that on a per month basis. It’s nothing. Pennies like I like to say, what is that? 15 bucks a month. That’s like two cents a minute. There you go. You’re going to get me two cents for thoughts, opinion, call us. I’ll do that.

And that’s. I think that’s it for today. Any questions, concerns, call us. We’re always here for you. Answer your questions. Whatever you need. Even if you don’t hire us, see you next week. See Ya