This is a personal rant, so bear with me. I recently lost a water heater installation over a couple hundred dollars in price. I’m not the cheapest and sometimes money is tight. I get it. My problem is people seldom compare apples to apples. There is a difference between cheap and value. Let me explain. Look at this water heater? Do you see anything wrong with it?

The installers installed a cheap CPVC ball valve. This valve is designed to shut the water off to the water heater when the water heater fails so you can keep the rest of the water in your house turned on. They suck. They don’t hardly ever work when you need them. I would never install a shut off valve like this for a customer.

There is no expansion tank. That is a code requirement now.

This is a cheap plastic water heater pan. These pans get very fragile over time and are prone to break. This one has a cut in the side. So when the water heater fails this water heater is going to flood this house again.

The pan drain that this water heater pan is hooked up to was covered up by the landscaping in front of the house. So, when the water heater fails again, it is going to flood this house just like the one the plumbers took out before.

This kind of plumbing is costly in the long run to the home owner because they don’t know all of the things that can go wrong or the products that should be used.

This picture illustrates what a quality water heater installation should look like. This water heater has a brass ball valve that will last for years. It also has an expansion tank. The copper fittings are soldered great.

As of this writing a brass ball valve is $15.30

The expansion tank is $31.62

The metal water heater pan is $18.98

Total = $65.90

The CPVC ball valve is $12.96

The plastic pan is $10.98

No expansion tank Total = $23.94

So, for an extra $41.96 you have a water heater that is safer, won’t flood your home, and when it fails you can shut off the water supply to the water heater and keep the water to the house one. I lost a deal over a couple hundred bucks but the knowhow and the extra price in products used will save the home owner potentially thousands in repairs in the future.

So, I may be a little higher, but you get a huge amount of value when you let me install your water heater instead of a handyman or some company who just doesn’t care about quality.