$1,600 to $3,000 for a tank water heater, installed. Two things move it: the type of heater, and how long its warranty runs. That second one surprises people, because a six-year tank and a twelve-year tank look identical sitting next to each other in a warehouse. They are not the same heater.
That is our range, for our work, on our water. It is not a national average.
Why we publish a range and not a price. Nobody can price this job from a web page, and any site that gives you one number is guessing. What we can do is tell you the band our own jobs actually land in, what pushes a job to each end of it, and what we would need to see to give you a real number. That is what this page does.
Why does the warranty change the price so much?
Because the warranty is the manufacturer telling you how long it expects the tank to survive, and it is pricing its own risk when it says so.
A steel tank full of hot water is rusting from the day it is installed. What holds that off is the anode rod - a sacrificial rod that corrodes instead of the tank. A longer-warranty heater generally has a better anode, sometimes two of them, and a heavier build around it. The company is not selling you a longer piece of paper. It is selling you the parts that make the longer paper safe to offer.
A six-year tank and a twelve-year tank look identical in the warehouse. The difference is the part that stops the tank rusting through.
Which makes the warranty the most useful number on the box, and the one worth asking about before anything else.
Should I pay for the longer warranty?
Usually yes, and it is worth doing the arithmetic rather than taking our word for it.
Around here a water heater lasts ten to twelve years. If a longer-warranty tank costs a few hundred more and buys you several extra years, it is cheaper per year of service. And the saving is bigger than it looks, because a replacement is not just the heater - it is the labour, the connectors, the disposal of the old one, and a day of your time. Stretching the interval means paying for all of that less often.
Where we would not push it: if you already know you are moving, or the heater is feeding a rental you plan to sell, buying twelve years of tank for four years of ownership is money spent for somebody else.
What else moves the number?
- Where it lives. An attic install needs a pan and a drain line run properly to the outside, and the old one has to come down the same hatch the new one goes up. More work than a garage swap.
- Gas or electric. Different units, different connections, different venting.
- What is already there. If the shutoff is seized, the flex connectors are original, or the T&P line was never run properly, those get put right at the same time. We are not reconnecting new equipment to failed parts.
- Size. A forty-gallon and a seventy-five-gallon are different heaters and different money.
Is it cheaper to repair it?
Sometimes, and we will tell you which you are looking at rather than defaulting to replacement.
A thermostat, an element, a thermocouple or a circulator pump are repairs, and on a heater with years left they are the right call. What is not a repair is a tank that has rusted through. Once the steel has gone, there is nothing to fix - the tank is the appliance.
The age matters more than the symptom. A five-year-old heater that has stopped heating is usually worth repairing. An eleven-year-old heater with the same fault is a heater at the end of its life that has found a way to tell you. See water heater repair and replacement.
What about tankless instead?
Different question, different money. A tankless unit runs $1,000 to $8,000 installed, and what decides it is rarely the unit - it is whether the gas line has to be upsized and the venting changed. We go through that on what a tankless water heater costs.
The honest version: tankless earns its keep if you actually run out of hot water, want the floor space, or do not want eighty gallons of water sitting in your attic over the bedrooms. As a pure fuel-bill saving it takes a long time to pay back, whatever the brochure says.
When should I be thinking about this at all?
At about year ten. A heater at that age that is still working is a heater you get to replace on a Tuesday you chose, rather than at seven in the morning with cold water and a wet ceiling - which is when most of these decisions actually get made, and the worst possible time to be choosing an appliance.
More on that in how long a water heater lasts. If yours is in the attic, the first sign is often water coming out of a pipe on an outside wall — the pan doing its job. We had exactly that call in Crosby.
Common questions
How much does it cost to replace a water heater?
Between $1,600 and $3,000 for a tank heater, installed. What moves it is the type of heater and the length of its warranty - a six-year tank and a twelve-year tank are not the same tank, and the price difference is the build rather than the paperwork.
Why does the warranty change the price?
Because the warranty tracks how the heater is made. A longer-warranty tank generally has a better anode rod, sometimes two, and a heavier build. The manufacturer is pricing its own risk - it is telling you how long it expects the tank to survive. That makes the warranty the most useful spec on the box.
Should I buy the longer warranty?
Usually, and the arithmetic is simple. Around here a heater lasts ten to twelve years. If a longer-warranty tank costs a few hundred more and gets you several extra years, it is cheaper per year - and you avoid paying for the labour of a second replacement.
Is a tank cheaper than tankless?
Up front, yes. A tank runs $1,600 to $3,000. A tankless unit runs $1,000 to $8,000 depending mostly on whether the gas line and venting have to change. Where tankless earns its money is not usually the fuel bill - it is running out of hot water, floor space, or not wanting eighty gallons in the attic.
Does it cost more if the heater is in the attic?
Somewhat, and the extra is worth having. An attic install needs a pan and a properly run drain line, and the old heater has to come down through the same hatch the new one goes up. It is more work than a garage swap and it is not the place to cut corners.
Can I just replace it myself?
Gas, venting and a T&P line are not places to learn. A water heater that vents wrong puts combustion gas in your house, and a T&P valve that is plumbed wrong turns a tank into something dangerous. This is one where the cost of getting it wrong is not measured in money.
Last updated · written by a licensed master plumber, MPL 38224