Fast Water Heater Company Overquotes water heater installation fee; charges for parts you don't need San Diego, Carlsbad, Encinitas, Oceanside California

The customer details the work done by the other contractor and it's clear that the other contractor did not install the water heater to California Plumbing Code. Water heaters kill 10,000 people per year due to CO poisoning and cause $10-20 million per year in property damage due to poorly installed water heaters. In this case, the customer required a pan and drain to protect their property, they required the Pressure and temperature relief valve to be piped to the exterior and their pipes are supposed to be grounded.

It is always going to be cheaper to find someone who will install your water heater without pulling a permit which legally is required in the state of CA. And, who will install it without updating the installation for current plumbing code.

You may save $100-300. But, if your water heater leaks in your home and you don't have a pan and drain, it will cost you tens of thousands of dollars. If your water heater isn't vented properly then it's a serious safety hazard. If the pressure and temperature relief valve is not piped to the exterior and your kids are in the garage, they can get scalded. These are all real and significnat problems with installing a water heater (google damage or death or injury AND water heater and see for yourself...). Most people don't care about any of this until it actually happens to them.

So, if you want to find someone to "slam it in" and not check your home for required safety precautions (that are technically REQUIRED BY LAW according to the plubming code), then go for it! But, that's not what we do.

This is in response to the complaint about the additional work quoted by Fast Water Heater. All of the work we quoted to install the water heater was required by the 2007 California Plumbing Code or was offered as a recomendation to improve the installation. When replacing a water heater, we are required to bring the installation up to todays standards.

Before we start an installation, we do spend a considerable about of time to look over the job so the the water heater will be installed in a safe manner and last a long time. We complete a checklist of about 20 items including a water pressure test and exhaust vent capacity test. A water heater can be extremely dangerous if installed incorrectly as we are dealing with water, natural gas and carbon monoxide. One of the items we quoted for was to increase the vent as it was undersized and this extremely dangerous. It appears that the contractor you went with didnt even look at this. The majority of the plumbing companies out there do not pull permits for thier work and do not bring the installations up to code.

I noticed that the quote from the comparison plumber did not mention a permit. Fast Water Heater will not perform an illegal installation. We do installations for large retail vendors such as Lowe's who also demand that the permit is pulled and the installation is done correctly. There is simply too much liability to install the water heater without meeting these standards. In addition, any water heater that is not installed to code, the manufacturer will not honor the warranty.

There are many plumbers out there that can provide you with a cheap installation up front, but if you want the job done right and you want to protect your home, family and preserve your warranty, call a company that follows the rules, pulls permits and gets the work inspected.