Originally posted by: QuitBanningMe
Originally posted by: weirdichi
Originally posted by: QuitBanningMe
easy, ~45 minutes including draining the old one.
Electric or gas?
It's gas I believe. How does that affect the time/difficulty factor?
Not really more difficult if the fittings are in the same place.
Having said that I don't think your average idiot should play with gas lines.
I think anyone with average intelligence and even minor mechanical ability should be able to change a water heater. It's pretty easy. However, I don't think there is a "standard" for the fittings. I bought an almost identical water heater 2 weekends ago.. gas line was off by 2 inches. But, even then, that only caused me about 3 extra minutes of work.
Estimated job times:
Plumber, everything lines up the same (or < 18inch flexible tubing to make it easier to fit)
less than 25 minutes
plumber, need to adjust fittings: 25 min - 1 hour
relatively inexperienced person with the proper tools and a perfect fit: 45 minutes
relatively inexperienced person who needs to run to the store to get fittings, etc. to get it to go together: 3 hours.
When I purchased mine, installation would have been about $300 for the tank... I find my time to be worth at least $100 (worst case scenario)
As it turned out, it took about 30 minutes (had to change the gas fittings), but then, another 25 minutes attempting to light it - factory installed thermocouple wasn't installed correctly. 20 seconds to fix this, and it lit right up.