mrhineh
Well, no way a water heater should be <$1000 installed. But it does depend on the size of the tank, placement, location. Sears has plenty of choices for tanks based on size and energy efficiency. Check with the local utility for any rebates. Sears has installation and they quoted my address for $270, $70 delivery, plus $10 haul away (definitely do that!). I would bet a call to Joe the Plumber would be less that $270 for a good, honest install. All depends on the timing you have. Sears for instance is running a lot of Friends/Family and Midnight sales on the weekends. One hint: plan the draining of the old one carefully. Either shut down the power ahead of time to cool the water inside, or drain it somewhere you don’t care about because the hot water can damage plants or grass when you drain it. I don’t think plumbers care too much about the install because its a pretty straight forward job, basically swapping out water lines. (Unless there’s rust, or the old one leaked and dry rotted the floor underneath, etc).