So we had a pinhole leak on the pipe to the left. A plumber came out today and removed the old flex piping and replaced it with hard copper piping. Probably took him 2 hours at most. He tried selling us on this thing called a flowtech water treatment that sends radio frequencies through the pipes. The total quote was $3400. We changed our minds about the flowtech after doing some research and was charged $1100 to do this. Did we get ripped off?
It's really not hard to replace a few feet of conduit
I agree but sone companies don't allow their guys to alter electrical past disconnect/reconnect. Here, they'd have to cut it back, put in a disconnect or junction box, then a whip to the heater.
Or at least try to make look legit.
They have no business taking the job if they can’t do the work.
Uh-oh, don’t say that to the plumbers man they get squirrelly when you point out they’re only really qualified to hook up water lines.
When you get the gas ticket it allows you a class b electrical to work on the wires into the parta out of wall as well as hwt/dishwasher connections.
Also you have to be perhaps the dumbest out there if you can't figure out white/red to white/red, black to black, green/copper is neutral. Unless the panel is a federal pioneer no excyses
Most in trades are pretty hacky. Case in point whoever did this work.
you have to be perhaps the dumbest out there
green/copper is neutral.
...
Do we tell them?
Only if you think they're grounded enough to handle it
Nah. Negative. Absolutely not. No.
Barely qualified to hook up water lines to be honest
They did the plumbing repair.
I agree it should be fixed. Most plumbers can but a lot of bigger companies have a limit to what they let their guts do.
This, especially companies that do home warranty repairs, even if it’s not home warranty they will default to the stricter policy
I'd imagine those companies have some kind of policy about the work you do off of existing wiring, not leaving them open to liabilities from wrongful death lawsuits because they hooked their equipment up to exposed wiring too. Anytime I've heard of this being the case, the plumber will tell the customer that they have to get that fixed before proceeding with their job. To just go ahead with it is shady, to say the least.
Bottim line if plumber isnt liscensed electrician he shouldnt touch it, homeowner should have called electrician too
Those employers should lose their fucking job.
Change my mind
Where i live, we have to take an electrical class but we arent technically even allowed to touch the electrical. We are supposed to have electricians do it. But for some reason hvac is allowed to do electrical. Its non sense. Most people do electrical connections anyway.
Are you gonna pay when some plumber screws up electrical and burns a joint down?
Sure, it's a simple hookup, but I consult when that burns places down, and trust me, there's a very good reason why plumbing companies don't want their guys touching electrical.
We are seeing some combination contractors, which is a great idea.
I would absolutely argue this… companies that work with home warranty are there to fix the issue at hand and to get the hot water, heat, AC, etc… up and running, not fix everything they see wrong. Most contractors offer repairs for what they see wrong to customers but majority of customers don’t want to pay for it, you know, because they have a home warranty and think everything should be covered. So you think the companies that work with home warranties should be fixing everything they see wrong even when the customer refuses to pay for it and the home warranty is not paying for it? The company should foot that bill? If they don’t foot that bill and do the work for free, they should lose their company? I just want to make sure I understand the basis of this comment…
I could see that, so if they don’t allow their guys to do that, then I’d wouldn’t even touch the water heater if I was that tech. What the hell?
I mean, last week I took a cover off of an electric water last week to turn up the lower thermostat. I had to bend and twist to pull it out, then I saw why the water wasn’t getting very hot: the lower t stat was literally busted in half. I’d tapped it with the back of my screwdriver and it would arc. I thought to just change it out, but then clip that holds it in was rusted to hell, and wouldn’t even go back on the element, with all that rust. There was a lot of rust under the upper one as well, so I just replaced the whole thing, lines too. There were no active leaks, but I wasn’t going to take a chance.
If they're pulling a permit they're going to have to do that anyway
Yes you conduit
The didn’t shorten the water heater just replaced pipe so I’ll guarantee it was originally installed like that
its not, but if it was like that when he got there, and they are bitching on the internet for the emergency fix cost of the leak, how much more bitching would they do for me to run to hardware store to get conduit so I can do some non-licensed electrical work . . .
It looks really bad and he could have at least sprayed it down a bit, but if he's not a licensed electrician or hvac specialist, he really is not supposed to touch it.
I'm not saying that $1100 is extremely out of line for this, but it is high. That said, the mere fact that he tried to sell you a flowtech DOES mean that he was there to rip you off. And that carried over to $1100 for this fix.
Do you see the condition of 3/4" copper pipe behind the heater? If I saw that on site, I would recommend some sort of water treatment as well.
You'd suggest a scam product to bilk your customer?
That seems to be par for the course in here.
What makes it a scam product?
It's not a water softener or a filter. It does nothing. It's a straight scam.
Lol it descales your system dude hahaha.
Go buy that shit and use it then. There will be no difference in your system.
The fact that it is essentially identical to a magnet bracelet that magically makes you better at golf.
I'm not saying that water treatment is a scam, I'm saying that THIS PRODUCT is. And that plumber either knows it, or he's too dumb to know it. In either instance he should be avoided.
Some of those bracelets give off rather high levels of radiation depending on type.
So not only is it a scam, it will actively harm you.
How is it a scam if he gave them an option for servicing his water? And why would I suggest a scam product? You ok my dude? I think That may be the only treatment he knows of and might have had good intentions. If the customer is lazy and doesn't wanna get multiple bids how is that the plumbers fault?
Your customers trust you and your advice.
Learn about the products you are recommending.... unless you are just there to take as much money as possible.
His customer obviously doesn't trust him and should have gotten more bids instead of roaming the internet after he paid for the job and again homie why you pointing finger over here like I was at his house fixing the heater lol. Had too much for holidays?
Point to where I said OP should not have gotten multiple quotes.
Always have multiple bids. Always.
If customer would have gotten multiple bids he would have a better understanding of the plumbing market, would have gotten more information on water treatments, and might have found a knowledgeable and honest plumber or at least one he is comfortable with calling him back with any issues instead of turning to strangers.
They had a water leak, I could see wanting to go ahead and get it fixed rather than having 3 companies come look at it pissing water all over the place. Company 1 showed up and they went ahead and had them fix the leak. Now they’re just curious if it was a ripoff or not. Either way, it’s paid for, so just curious
So plumbers make $550 per hour, gtfo
Yep, plumbers can somehow make more than brain surgeons. What’s so odd, is I can YouTube most jobs a plumber can do & read the same plumbing codes. I can also burn 3x as many hours on the project and purchase (or rent) the basic equipment for the project and still come out way ahead on cost with almost the exact same quality of finished work.
I can’t youtube a surgeons job at all.
Edit: added sentence to reflect the point.
Don't know why the downvotes. I agree with you 100%. I removed and installed my own water heater for $600. That includes making all new copper supply lines and redoing the wiring. Took me the better part of a day, but I'd never done sweat joints before.
So the plumber lives at OP's house? The only time spent was at OP's house? There was no material cost? Everything all said and done, it was probably closer to $350/hr.
My water heater went out 2 days before Christmas. Was 4 years old, it had been replaced by the previous owners of my house. Should have been under warranty, but they said warranty wouldn’t transfer to the new owner of the house (me). Quoted me 1700 for parts and labor to fix a 600 dollar water heater, or 4100 for a new one. I placed a new, higher end heater myself for $900. Learn to fix your own house.
Can they crimp those fittings directly onto PVC? I see the copper goes directly to PVC with no other fittings/adapters
Electrician intensifies
Electrifies*
With the state that heater is in I sure fucking hope not.
Just needs some electrical tape and flex seal.
“Hon’ we woulda spent $4,000 on this and alls I had to do was watch a YouTube video… pshhh.”
House implodes
This guy just used one wire nut to bundle all of the wires together wtfffff
Theres two if you zoom in
Oh shit.. yeah i see it now.
For that price he should have fixed that abortion of incoming power too.
You already know.
I miss read the post 1100$ is kinda steep for this in Massachusetts it would have been 800$ with my company roughly maybe alittle less
With my price book I can do this repair from 600 to 1100 depending how much I hate the person. We charge an additional $640 for the Halo watwr heater pre treatment.
Friend, they had to replace a riser. It likely an hour tops. Cut back, thread new riser and female 3/4. pro-press 90. 1 hrs job in and out. I say 350 to 400 tops and that's charging high.
Yes cuz if you did it yourself it be like $50
Holy shit that still sounds like a rip off to me. I’ve never had to call a plumber in my life, and had no idea what this would cost. I could braze that in an hour most likely.
I think it depends where they are coming from to visit your house, if they have a 1hr drive each way then that is a 3hr job in actual time so to me 350-400 sounds ok by the time you factor in materials etc. You are not just paying your buddy to come in and have a go, you are paying for a professional that carries insurance, is licensed, has the right tools and has done this +100x before.
Sure you can do it yourself and be ok if it leaks again in a few months as you can just do it again. If I pay any trade to come and do work they come in, they fix and they are gone and whatever it was is generally never an issue again. I rent properties and I like having no concern at the back of my mind that I have done a repair myself and there is a risk of someone electrocuting themselves, suffering co2 poisoning, etc.
Same here, especially with how the job site was left. It doesn’t look professional at all. All of the copper and ProPress fittings is the only possible reason I think they could charge that much.
And mass isn't cheap either.
lol what the fuck is this? You already know you did..
He's gotta find a way to pay off his milwaukee shark logic tools. Shots expensive
You spent about half the cost of a new water heater. Not worth it at that point with all that corrosion.
Man half the cost of a new water heater. Prices are never coming down, my goodness.
Did he progress directly to cpvc? Or is that copper painted white? 1100 is a rip off where I live, unless you're in a very high cost of living area, in which case is probably still high. Either way, don't call him back
It is copper just painted white
Get several quotes to fix that electrical. It needs to be grounded in the electrical tray at a minimum. Covers for the electrical would be good. Hot and cold pipes bonded as well assuming the rest of your pipes are metal, not pex. I don’t think your water heater will live a full life. Make it a bucket list and start on it yesterday. I’ll fix the electrical for $1100 and a round trip ticket.
Yeah, you got ripped off by a “tech” working on commission.
Yeah, you did. But not as bad as it could have been with the flo tec vibration nonsense. Live and learn.
Fuckin a ya you got ripped off! 200 for the hot line repair, 350 for the cold line repair woth ball valve 650 total with service call MAX on something like that dude should go get fucked by a rhino and suck off his grandma. My aunts dick was bigger than his. Super simple minimal fittings super easy, easier than his mom, it's propress he didn't even have to.solder a thing. You're already over halfway to.owning a propress yourself and being a "professional plumber". That's all it takes. And 3400 for the flow thing whatever no. They are a huge rip off. Sends frequencies through the water? Sends frequencies through my asshole hearing that. I am a plumber in south florida, our prices are high but that is pure extortion. And that is some voodoo bullshit about the frequencies to filter your water? Suck my anus. There is something called a magnetic ion filter mumbo jumbo halo ion suck dick horsehit is what we call it. They say that it prevents scale buildup is that what your referring to? Changes the molecular frequencies to prevent magnesium and calcium from binding together so they flow freely out? Fuck you cock suckers. Sure. You know what works for scale? Polyphosphates. For filtering your water you used compressed carbon. The two of these combined will solve 99% of your water problems. You can get an entire whole house filter with both of these installed for $3500. Do some research. Fuck me sideways and call me Sally.
"Sends frequencies through my asshole hearing that."
I couldn't have said it any better! Lol
I am near Tampa. Maybe i will be calling you next time. Thanks for the laugh! We are really glad we didnt buy the flowtech.
Hafke Plumbing for Tampa plumbing in your future.
I mean holy shit a homeowner could shark bite this entire thing for $80. $1100 is insane.
Always discuss the price before hand. And read lots of online reviews.
I've been a plumber for 29 years, I get so pissed when I see this kind of stuff. If the leak was in your flex connector, that's what should have been replaced. He should have drained and flushed your tank. Possibly a new 3/4 valve. I don't see an expansion tank, but it might not be code where you live. Why was he messing with electrical? Couldn't he just shut the breaker off ? He used all press fittings, so if you need to replace HWT, you're going to have to cut the copper, and you'll need to get adapters or hire someone that has a press gun ( expensive tool) After charging $1100 he could of at least wiped the tank off and make it look a little more shiny. I live in WA. I make 6 figures annually. If I took this as a side job, I would at most charged you $300 bucks. He works for a company and probably has overhead, so although in my opinion, i think he did a shitty job- but it works...it should have cost at most $500...and I'm being generous on that amount. On behalf of all my tradesmen, brothers, and sisters, I apologize. Most of us are good, honest people who take pride in our workmanship and aren't out to screw people out of their hard earned money.
CONTACT THAT COMPANY AND ASK FOR THE PLUMBING LICENSE NUMBER OF THE PERSON WHO DID THE INSTALLATION. Then demand they come back and fix the electrical for free and ask for an itemized copy of the receipt. This would have cost $300 from our union shop. If they cannot produce the license number of the specific plumber who did the work, (not the master license of the shop but the actual plumber)…then contact the local plumbing inspector. This is not the work of a journeyman plumber. This is shoddy plumbing at best.
I’m a licensed journeyman giving you this advice.
You have no idea how much this pains me to say but I'm sorry if you give me a way to give it to you id like to buy you a case of beer or dinner or what ever. I will be eating my foot for the next few days.
From the look of the top of heater, along with a pinhole in water line, I’m real surprised he didn’t suggest replacing the sacrificial anode rod in the tank. From the look of the quality of the electric work, I would be real concerned about electrolysis finishing off your HWH.
Totally ripped off!
Expensive. I had new piping installed when I replaced my water softener. About the same amount of work I would say just connected to a different source. He ran new copper lines for both cold and hot. Charged me 250 . Other plumber quoted me 500. I live in California as well
Ain’t no way this took him 2 hours especially with propress. I work in finance and I can do this in 30 min max 😅 (I do own a $2500 propress from the money I saved from calling plumbers)
OP don't feel bad though. It's part of the learning. I too got ripped off, not once, but twice when I first bought the house. Ripped off monetarily, and had to redo the the subpar work. The third time I learned - instead of betting on finding a good plumber (not saying there aren’t)... I bought the tools and learned to do it myself and took the time to do it right.
Yea, propress is extremely quick and easy. Probably wouldn’t even take 2 hrs to press piping in my whole house with 1 bath, 1 kitchen, and a laundry room.
And it doesn’t even look like this plumber marked insertion depth with sharpie… should be even faster then lol
He took shortcuts and it still took him 2 hours, I'm floored.
Maybe he had to charge the battery…
Literally replaced my entire water heater and the associated plumbing all the way to the wall in 3 hours so ya 1100 dollars to replace a single section of pipe sounds like a ripoff 🤔
Stick to finance then. 2 hours isn’t crazy for labor, the price is though. The drive out to the job, assessment, and setup is an hour, minimum. People don’t know finance so they pay douches like you to do it
I probably wouldn't have charged for than 350 for this.
Confusion ensues.
Every-time some hack uses pro press you know is gonna cost a couple of grand. Anyone selling radio frequency devices to treat water should hang their wrench and quit plumbing
Seems high to me. Worst part is now it will have to get cut out when the water heater goes..
Guy just left a flying splice out in the open and said “$3400 my guy”
I absolutely hate it when plumbers leave all their trash in the area. Clean up your fucking mess. We hired a 5 star plumbing and AC in our area and he left all the slag and metal fillings in our closet. Then he asked why I tipped the AC guys but not him. Because they cleaned their shit up and vacuumed. The only thing I asked when they came to do work at my new house.
Welp, I’m glad I had a few construction jobs before college. Some contractors are even worse than this and think charging more is somehow justified.
Is anyone addressing how you might not be able to replace the water tank without taking apart these plumbing? Maybe I'm not seeing something but it looks like you can't twist them off?
I definitely would’ve put unions in there, but it’s not a code requirement where I’m from , so some don’t do it. I’d say it’s not a requirement for OP’s area either and the plumber has already displayed a few signs of laziness, so it tracks that there’d be no unions installed.
This. I can’t believe no one else has commented on this abomination. So now the pipes have to be cut off in order to replace this old water heater sooner than later. What a terrible job! As for cost, $1k sounds about right in Seattle area. But the workmanship is terrible.
Yes, you got took. Without even asking I know you called a sales based company when you mentioned flowtech. I’m not going to call them a bunch of crooks but I wouldn’t use them again for anything.
You got severely ripped off. Hate guys like this that make ya all look bad
Someone was really trying to stretch their budget or lengthen their profit. 😉
$10 in parts. $150 in labor. $900 for not going on YouTube and figuring out how to do it yourself.
I want a plumber that's a plumber, not an upsell specialist. That plumber is a lose-lose. Lose if you buy the treatment, lose if you just do the simple replace the leaky copper.
I’m starting to learn that if you feel like you have to come on the Reddit and ask did I get ripped off you probably did
As an RF engineer, I have never heard of flowtech water treatment. I, by no means, know everything about RF, but after a quick Google search found nothing on this. What are is the RF supposed to do? Sounds like a bunch of bullshit to me.
Last time I hired a plumber I had a pin hole in copper pipe. I had them fix pin hole and put a new shut off on hose bib . I was charged almost $500. After that I learned how to sweat copper pipe. I work in property management so I know many contractors and knew the company that did the repairs, figured I would get a break. The lesson was learn everything.
General contractor/ trained plumber here. He overcharged you big time to help pay for his expensive crimper to crimp those pipes instead of soldering them, IMO. I would have redone the wiring connections & cleaned up the rust a bit for $1100 bucks. Send a pic to his Boss for that!
The electrical was not why the plumber was called out.
$1,100 is robbery unless they included that zip tied tag under the shutoff valve -then I say you got a helluva deal!
Yes that's a rip off, and gonna be a pain in the ass when you have to replace the water heater and the connections on the new ones are in the exact same place, that's why you use the flex
Seems like this is a good reason why you just learn to do more jobs around the house yourself.
I would have changed your flex connectors. $12 each.
Yeah, you got ripped off. Come here and ask before you call someone.
You can get a whole new water heater installed for this price.
Electrician here. I may not know a lot about plumbing, but that electrical is so against code, I'd say you got ripped off by that alone.
Im still closer to 160/h but some of the guys advertising on the radio with the fleet of nice big 80k vans charge 400+
Sorry homey, but yeah you got bit on this one. I’m a licensed master plumber and I would’ve charged you $250-$300. Also, I wouldn’t have left the wiring like that.
The amount of plumbers in here saying that they’d charge $650 versus the much smaller numbers of plumbers saying that they’d charge 250-300 really confirms my fears about plumbers being greedy…
Ask any trade Reddit group about pricing and you're going to get a wild range. It depends on the area: average income, market saturation, price tolerance etc. it depends on availability of materials which varies across regions causing price fluctuations. It depends on the type of company a tradesperson works for: large operations often have rigid pricing schedules to maintain consistency, often higher overhead etc but they are also more readily available and often have gear to do specific work that smaller companies can't handle - this accounts for variation even within a market. I could go on.
There are so many factors that you didn't even begin to consider before jumping to the conclusion that we're all just trying to rip you off.
Don’t forget, tradesman will up charge on a quote because they don’t want the job. I’ve seen it a ton of times “I really don’t want/have time/feel like/etc this job but for this price I’ll do it.” I don’t really blame them, there’s a lot of tradesman to reach out to. Get quotes and find someone you trust and is reasonable.
My furnace guy could absolutely charge me more and I would pay him. Because I trust him in my home. Same with my electrician. I’m fortunate to have found trustworthy guys who are reasonably priced. I also always tell them whether it’s a must have done, or a get it in the radar. Small jobs, they do when it’s convenient for them. That I think helps my pricing.
Plumber below says he deserves 650 because he spends an hour a day cleaning his truck.
Sounds greedy as Fuck to me.
A restaurant also takes into consideration what it costs for the fridges to be running. The cost of labor to prep when there are no customers. The cost of labor to clean out the fridges, mop the floors. It's the same as any industry.
It takes time to properly stock a small van/truck to prepare for the vast majority of eventualities you could encounter in your day. The care and maintenance of this workplace is no less important just because it's mobile and that care and maintenance still needs to be paid for.
If this maintenance is properly and consistently carried out: tools and vehicles last longer, jobs are quicker when the van is well organized and stocked and it can actually translate into lower prices in the long term. So, with some critical analysis we can see that cleaning a van is worth paying for.
Every job like this: electrician, plumber, lawyer, caterer etc has overhead that is baked into their hourly rate. There is an inherent discrepancy between billable hours and actual working hours. Additionally in these industries you have the expenses that are obvious and the ones that aren't. Every industry has difficulty explaining the unseen costs and expenses and generally endeavors to minimize them. It's a fine line to walk - as I pointed out above if you don't pay your guys to clean and stock the van and care for tools it can actually result in these expenses increasing.
Anyway, to me it sounds like you've had a bad experience and you're not open to hearing about how price structures work in this environment, which is totally fine. I just happen to find it interesting. But I am going to step away now. I hope you have a great day!
You are paying for all the overhead not just the work when you hire someone. That’s just what buisness is
You clearly have zero clue about what it takes to get licensed and go into business.
The people charging more than 150/hr work for a large company with higher overhead costs. Not working alone with only material costs being factored. Office staff and fully funded insurance isn't free in top of an hourly wage for plumbers.
250-300 isn’t worth our time. You drive $50,000 worth of tools and material to someone’s house 45 minutes away. You spend 1-2 hours a day cleaning and stocking your mobile work office you fuck
What do you think mechanics get paid?? You sound greedy af.
If you aren’t in the industry, I don’t have time to explain. Chose a plumber that charges by the hour or use a flat rate plumber that charges way more.
You have time to post dumb ass comments on Reddit though. Hate to break it to you but everyone drives to work. Everyone has to do work at work. You get paid more than the average person with your IQ because you touch shit all day.
A CNA touches shit all day. Just because you touch shit doesnt mean you should be greedy af.
Now I see how you have 50k worth of tools! I love it when certain crafts say those things, like, how am I supposed to buy the stuff I need if I don’t overcharge you.
No bs for 1100 is what I charge for labor removal and installation of a new unit. Unit is another 7-900
Regarding this job copper pipes arent nearly as expensive as those pro press fittings. You are looking at a couple hundred in fittings alone. Still couldve all been done in Pex B for half the price…. Personally wouldve charged around 450-650 just to replace the lines
For all that money I wouldve atleast T’d in an expansion tank for you , wonder why he didn’t…
It’s kinda steep but only really because he didn’t also install a new expansion tank on it. At least he used quality materials and shouldn’t give you any issues. Most companies in our areas are a bit over 1200 to redo piping on Water heaters done in copper. Either time soldering, or parts and tools for press, there isn’t really a work around. Location is important, some places would charge much more for the same work, some would charge less. Handy men are always a dime a dozen and happy to touch your plumbing despite not having insurance.
Yeah i do feel at least that it seems like it was done right
I’m not sure if that’s correct due to there not having a vaccum breaker installed on the cold inlet but idk your code in that state and do you have well or city for water if city you should have a vacuum breaker
As someone who just learned how to solder out of necessity I’m clearly in the wrong field if ppl are raking in that much for jobs like this
2 hrs to press.......must have been a loooooong sales pitch. Ripped off
He didn’t clean the paint off the copper when he crimped the fittings on.
Did he swallow or spit! He ripped you off!
Anybody else notice that they pressed to pex?!
Painted copper. I was just looking for this cause that's what i thought too
Yes, you got fleeced. Copper in lieu of CPVC or PEX, you’re paying more for material right out. Also they should’ve at least put the power panel back onto the equipment.
Yeah kinda. A plumber should be around 150 an hour and you got maybe a 50 bucks of materials in there. So yeah a little bit ripped off I’d say….
Wow 150$ an hour that’s cheap your company is not charging enough my company is flat rate but to replace a fill valve and supply line on a toilet it’s 300$ if your close by and I quote that only 20$ material and 30 mins labor but those flo systems can be finicky also they take some programming they are not plug and play and they have a bit of work to them
Location matters.
I figured so. We were without water for two days so it was necessary. But after looking at what he did and how long it took we were starting to question the price.
At the end of the day, he did decent work first and foremost. You got to remember, just because I can do a job in 30 minutes, an hour, 2 hours or 2 days, it doesn’t mean you can. We do this for a living, and it’s ok. If anything if a plumber makes a job look super easy, he’s a professional with lots of practice in more cases than not.
He did something you couldn't/wouldn't do in a timeframe you needed it done. If you worry about getting overcharged, either shop around/get more bids, or do it yourself. There's almost always somebody who can do it for less if you are able to wait and shop around. Leaks rarely allow for that.
Why should people be punished for being efficient?
Right why should I make less for a job I’m faster and more efficient at…why would someone get paid more for being slower.
Why should people be punished for their lack of knowledge by being ripped off?
The TV you just bought is probably $30 in parts and took 20 minutes to assemble. Did you get ripped off?
My son fixed an lcd tv for 30 bucks, if you can fix something do it!
So the tech that did the job used a propress. Thst tool costs anywhere between 1800 and $4000 to press those fittings. That tool makes him efficient. Area im in the average plumber charges $550/per hr. I dont think you were ripped off. I think your issue is that you seen someone do something you though was simple and had buyers remorse.
I was familiar with the Milwaukee crimp tool he was using. I knew it wasnt cheap and that we were just paying for his tool bills.
Watch you tube videos use google and buy some tools. Save your self a lot of money if you’re mechanically inclined.
Its part of overhead costs. Most techs own their own tools, cover their own insurance, and sometimes own their own van. When you hire a company you pay the bills associated with that company including the tool bill. Cheap labor isnt skilled and skilled labor isnt cheap. Next time feel free to get three estimates and properly bid a project instead of jumping on reddit and asking if you got ripped off with no information about location.
Next time, I bet he can do it cheaper if you take your water heater to him instead of him coming to you
$550 per hour? For a plumber. Dude I'm an architect and don't even charge that much. You live inside some rich guys castle or something? Attorneys charge less than that.....
That tool makes him efficient. So you agree 2 hrs of time is BS then? Mhmmm
Was it during the holiday weekend? Perhaps that's the reason for the surcharge.
The line started leaking on Christmas. Was just able to get it fixed today.
Can't speak to all areas. This may be the standard where you live. 1100 is more like what I would charge for labor to replace the whole thing. It's possible that he had to push off other jobs to accommodate you. Who knows..
But the bright side is that you got it resolved and now your water is back on. Water heater is from 2021 so you still have several good years of hot water ahead of you. Definitely an investment worthwhile.
In CA it's $150 just to show up. That doesn't include the service
Where are you plumbing, Arkansas? Most states, you won’t get hardly ANYTHING done for less than 300, and you definitely aren’t getting 2 hours of work for 300 bucks. I honestly haven’t heard,”$150 and hour.” In at least 10 years…
The markup on soldered materials is no different.
You sure did. Sorry
Burned is more like it.
Rheemed?
Up the bum!
Those propress brass adaptors suck. I have seen them rotted away atop many waterheaters
Were you able to do the repair? Did you agree to the price before work was done? No you didnt get ripped off?? You looks like you got a new shut off valve as well! Can it be done cheaper...yes...but if you agree to a quote and the charge you the quoted rate then you got what you paid for ! If you didnt get a quote before hand then you are at fault for not doing your due diligence! However if they quoted you something different than what you were billed without a change order then in that scenario...yes you got eipped off!
Scumbag's motto
Ok lets try a litmus test here....
If the invoice was $10,000 would you say it was a rip off? Or would you still say "well did you agree to a price before hand?"
Price quoted, price agreed to, price billed! If you dont like the price then get your service done by someone else or a different company!
Clearly this is an example of being quoted and the job only taking a couple of hours and then being upset because they are hung up on the amount of time it took!
A little steep but your pipes aren’t leaking now are they?
Would’ve been free if you did it yourself
That’s pretty steep but nothing new for a big plumbing business somewhere like cali.
To me this is honestly a downgrade, he basically forced a big plumbing job upon you for basic heater maintenance, since now you don’t have basic lines you could replace with a basic wrench.
Not an ideal repair.
Looks good from my house
My guy here in Washington installed a new water heater (I bought it beforehand), replacing everything from the wall to the heater, and took away the old one for $750. You got took. The most valuable service relationship one can have is an honest, affordable plumber.
Yeah we would be roughly 650 for something like that. Where he really screwed you is that he took away the flex lines so now when that heater needs to be replaced someone will have to cut and replace the hard pipe fittings the heater.
There is literally nothing wrong with hard piping, and is a better way of doing it, despite being expensive and more labor intensive.
It really isn’t your making more work for the next guy and if it’s a harder for them to drain the heater efficiently when you do this
They should have installed unions.
In my area every professional plumbing company hardpipes, only times we see flex lines is when a handyman did the install.
For that price he could have at least cleaned up after himself. That’s about $500 more than what I would have charged and I would have installed flex lines or at least breakable unions. You might wanna invest in the flow tech tho, I wouldn’t call that plumber again but that flow tech works great.
Flex lines are for the weak. Hard pipe til the death.
There’s no reason to hard pipe it water heater flex lines exist for a reason, but still… unions.
I got an entire gas water heater replaced for that price. That seems steep.
You got scammed.
Overpaid but I wouldn’t call it a scam. Whoever did the work fixed their problem and is probably good at gauging when he can charge higher than market price for certain customers. Sleazy, but not a scam in my opinion.
On the job. I don’t think you got ripped off but the flow tech thing… I think you were nearly ripped off. Trouble avoided though
They bent you over. The fuck!? A 2 foot pipe replaced for 1100. I do t mean to be rude but are you fucking stupid? I sincerely want to know, because my dog with downsyndrome makes better decisions than you.
Quick question semi green plumber here but is that press over a cpvc line?? May be copper with some paint but havnt seen that yet
The electrical work has absolutely nothing to do with your plumbing repair. Why would the plumber have to disconnect the wires in the first place if they are not replacing the unit. Shut the water heater down at the ball valve, drain the residual and replace the line or lines…. I guess you wanted the Plumber to step in and fix your electrical work as well since you were uncomfortable paying the price of labor and material to begin with on a job that you needed fixed. Not to mention price for the said work is usually spoken of and agreed upon before work is performed.. Hot water is essential, next time take a cold shower or learn some valuable skills and do it yourself.. You have nobody to blame but yourself for the lack of knowledge and skillset.
Leaving the electrical like that is not cool. I know plumbers are not electricians, but c’mon.