Originally Posted by
Onebyone
We found that the lower cost water heater lasts as long as the very expensive ones. Our electric bill has never been a concern with the lower cost ones. They are all energy efficient. Solar won't work for us. We had solar panels before. Never again.
I asked the contractor about getting one of the lower-priced units. He said he thought the quality was better for the higher-priced units. What do I know?
I'm not so sure now about the quality being better. I would have had to do some research on that brand of hot water heater to see if the quality was the same on the cheaper models. I'm sure this one was a couple of hundred dollars more for the whistles and bells that I didn't want. There was no time to do that. I had that one day with the contractor, and we were in the store to buy it.
I did save over $300 on the typical cost of this job because the contractor charged me by the hour instead of by the job. He had trouble draining the water out of the old one or it would have been even less.