Water heater installation

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C

CEPE7A

Well-known member
Aug 9, 2019
47
Charlotte
Pool Size
18000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Jandy Truclear / Ei
Good morning!
I live in Charlotte and shockingly can’t find a contractor to install a water heater for my 18k pool. Found one but he wants me to hire an electrician. I preferred to have one company do it all to avoid finger pointing in case of a warranty issue or whatever. The second contractor is openly trying to rip me off; gave me $15k estimate for Pentair 145 btu and 13.5k for jandy. There is nothing unusual about the pool.
I spoke with a company that sells heaters direct and was told any hvac contractor can install and service heaters, which is apparently not true. Kinda totally lost with this. Any ideas?
 
Do you already have electric run to your equipment pad that will support the heater? Usually 50 amps for a heat pump. Start to finish for a heat pump running the lines I can see this costing $10k but that includes the heat pump. Heat pumps are expensive. More than gas. Personally I'd do it myself but I'm more than capable of running wires and doing plumbing. I do agree one person should be able to handle the entire job.
 
A heat pump is a HVAC system. So they should be able to handle the connection. However, will you do the plumbing?

If you have a natural gas heater than a plumber is needed for the NG line.

Have you called a local pool store that provides services?
 
HermanTX said:
A heat pump is a HVAC system. So they should be able to handle the connection. However, will you do the plumbing?

If you have a natural gas heater than a plumber is needed for the NG line.

Have you called a local pool store that provides services?
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I won’t do the plumbing. As I said, the only one I was able to find wants me to hire an electrician to run the electrical line and hookup. My hvac company doesn’t deal with anything pool related.
 
PoolGate said:
Do you already have electric run to your equipment pad that will support the heater? Usually 50 amps for a heat pump. Start to finish for a heat pump running the lines I can see this costing $10k but that includes the heat pump. Heat pumps are expensive. More than gas. Personally I'd do it myself but I'm more than capable of running wires and doing plumbing. I do agree one person should be able to handle the entire job.
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I do have the breaker at the pool equipment. Cost of heat pump is about 5-6k. According to the estimate I got, he wants 8k for install.
 
This is not that unusual. On a new build the electrician would run the line and the plumber would do the plumbing. Check for electricians to run the line and get some quotes. It makes no difference to the warranty who ran the lines.
 
CEPE7A said:
I do have the breaker at the pool equipment. Cost of heat pump is about 5-6k. According to the estimate I got, he wants 8k for install.
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I would suggest you learn a new skill. There really isn't anything hard about hooking up the heat pump. They have a threaded input and a threaded output for water lines. 2 hot lines, a neutral and a ground along with a bonding connection. Only thing I would contract out is running the electrical line from the house to the pool if that's needed.
 
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FYI heat pumps are closed systems and plug and play. There really isn't anything to screw up if you are at all handy.
 
CEPE7A said:
he wants 8k for install.
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That's his "I don't want this job!" price. That would be a huge red flag to me (in addition to the huge price tag). He'll be put off the entire job, and then short you somehow in other ways to "make up for his trouble," as in shoddy work. Run!*

*Total speculation, of course, but I've dealt with similar too many times.

Have you tried expanding your search circle? Next town over dealio? Or the next town over from that one? Etc. My plaster replacement was done by a company that is three hours away. And they made several trips, over several days. Maybe someone out of your area would be willing to travel, or might have some other reason to make the trip, and wouldn't mind having a second reason, and a little profit, to make it worth the drive.
 
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pjt said:
That's outrageous unless you have some unusual installation circumstances. You need some electric and plumbing work, but that costs a small fraction of what you were quoted.
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Nothing unusual and everything wide open. The pool is 5 years old, so the plumbing and electrical is pretty straight forward.
 
PoolGate said:
FYI heat pumps are closed systems and plug and play. There really isn't anything to screw up if you are at all handy.
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I’m handy. Not every house project is worth my time. I have
Dirk said:
That's his "I don't want this job!" price. That would be a huge red flag to me (in addition to the huge price tag). He'll be put off the entire job, and then short you somehow in other ways to "make up for his trouble," as in shoddy work. Run!*

*Total speculation, of course, but I've dealt with similar too many times.

Have you tried expanding your search circle? Next town over dealio? Or the next town over from that one? Etc. My plaster replacement was done by a company that is three hours away. And they made several trips, over several days. Maybe someone out of your area would be willing to travel, or might have some other reason to make the trip, and wouldn't mind having a second reason, and a little profit, to make it worth the drive.
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I agree. I own a business and after working with people I learned how to read their BS between the lines.

Just outreached to a company further out. Will see. I do have a quote for $5.5k plus whatever electrical line would cost. Unfortunately the guy who gave me this quote is wishy washy. To be frank, I careless for the heater. Trying to satisfy my wife’s demand.
 
CEPE7A said:
To be frank, I careless for the heater. Trying to satisfy my wife’s demand.
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Is she going to be paying for it? 🤣

Seriously though, have you done any cost projections? Installation and maintenance are just a part of it, and perhaps a small part of it. I have a heater that came with the house and pool that I have never turned on. Back when, I estimated somewhere in the $400/month arena to use it in the summer. I can't even guess at the cost of running it in the winter. And gas prices have gone up since then. So I installed a rooftop solar heater instead, and that's now "free" to run, but doesn't add all that much heat in the swim season, and is unusable off season.

So you might need to do some math. It's one thing to pony up the installation cost, but it'd really be bad if you later found out you can't afford to use it (and energy costs are just going to continue to go up, up, up).

Of course, if money is no object, then, well, never mind...
 
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