Water heater emergency!

[BellaClaudia]

DOES ANYBODY KNOW WHAT IS BEST WHEN ELECTRIC WATER HEATER BREAKS?

NO HOT WATER. BROKEN.

IS IT better to fix it or buy new one... cost wise?

new one is supposed to cost 750 dollars, including instalation

how much can be to fix it? nobody will tell us.. they only want to come for estimates! and it cost money

should we go and buy new one or fix the old 7 year old one?

if new are there some super eco ones? and tax credits we don't know about

should we get new one..

we have electric one

are there any solar ones

help!! fast!

[bigteamug]

If you know of someone good that you trust, (plumber is probably what you're after, though some heating companies can do this work, too), maybe they'd come out and repair it if possible and replace if not?

Is it under warranty or recalled? There are some that were recalled years ago....


Gotta be someone you trust, though - that's a big bill.

[HeatherAtHome]

Our water heater cost $380 and we had a relative install it (he's a couple months off from getting electricians license). I have no idea how much it would cost to have it installed by a professional.

In the meantime, boil water on the stove or in an electric kettle. I did it for two months.

As for if it can be fixed, who knows. It would make sense to have someone come look at it. They can't magically give an estimate over the phone, it could be a couple different things that might be wrong.

[sunnysandiegan]

We replaced our gas hot water heater in mid-2009. I searched high and low and got us and my dad (live in same HOA, but different homes) good water heaters from a local plumbing supply company with free drop-shipping. Typically, a drop-ship is to your curb or equivalent (which would have been my curb for both), but the guy brought mine to my kitchen (we had concrete floors at the time) and my dad's to his back patio. My dad is a skilled electrician and has been in the trade for 30+ years, but never here in San Diego. He retired here to be near us. DH helped my dad install them both. We paid $368 for each.

Our old ones were from 1990, so they lasted a really long time for water heaters! Neither one was actually broken, but all of our neighbors have either had problems recently or had recently replaced them due to age alone. We had a major flood and already had concrete floors and most walls torn out, so it was a good time to replace it.

When I was calling around, the quotes I got for installation+water heater were also in the $800-900 range. Just buying the water heater was hard to find outside of Sears, Home Depot, and Lowes. Getting them home from any of those places was going to be a challenge. I kept calling plumbers in order to find one who would deliver a higher quality water heater without installing it. I finally got lucky about the 5th or 6th call when a guy told me about the company I ended up ordering from. It is a local family-operated plumbing supply company with a few locations. The closest location didn't have what we needed in stock at that time, but gave me a good price. I called the main facility and he honored the other guy's price and added the drop-ship as a courtesy since I was sticking with their company. I'm telling you all this to encourage you to CALL AROUND. There are good people out there who are willing to work with you.

[sunnysandiegan]

Oh, yes, there are solar hot water heaters. There are also tankless units, which are more energy efficient. For both of those options, there are different venting requirements than traditional units. Those new requirements were very cost-prohibitive for us due to how our home is built, but worked very well for several different friends.

And, yes, there are tax credits and/or energy rebates available. Your unit has to qualify. Ask when you call around. Someone will know the scoop for your area.

[Farmer'sWife]

If you or someone you know is a little handy you could try replacing the heating elements. On our old water heater there were two and they cost less than $20 each. On ours they were located behide those little access panels that screw off the side. Eventually we had to replace ours. We got a nice energy efficent one from the electric company for a good price and installed it ourselves. They're not hard to install, just a couple hoses and one electric wire.