Your numbers
What should a water heater replacement cost?
ZIP, the quantities you can actually measure, and a few named modifiers. The range is a CostAnswer estimate, not a market quantile.Equipment is EIA’s typical 40-gallon gas storage tank (2022 retail midpoint).
Common questions
Questions before you call a contractor
How much does a water heater replacement cost?
Put your ZIP code and the size of the job into the form on this page. It prices the labor from what that trade earns in your area (BLS), adds what employers pay on top of wages, and lists every material and piece of equipment it counts.
The result is a range for planning, not a bid. If a key material has no published price yet, the range says so instead of guessing.
What is included in the water heater estimate?
Most homes replace one tank. Gas is modeled as EIA’s typical 40-gallon tank; electric as the typical 36-gallon tank.
The work is priced at plumbing wages. The options on the form change the hours or the materials; they do not pull an average price for your city.
Why is a contractor’s quote different?
A quote prices your house: how easy it is to reach, what your permit office charges, and how busy that company is. This page prices a standard version of the job from published wages and material costs.
Paste a written bid into Check a quote to see whether it sits low, in the middle or high against the same job.
Gas or electric — which tank does this model?
Gas uses EIA’s typical 40-gallon tank; electric uses the typical 36-gallon tank. Pick fuel on the form.
Tankless, heat-pump water heaters, and relocating the unit are not in this recipe.
Why does water heater cost differ in Wisconsin?
Materials use the same national sourced baselines everywhere. Crew wages come from BLS OEWS for Wisconsin, so labor-heavy jobs move more than material-heavy ones.
Trade wages here run about 27% above the national crew wage bill for this recipe.
How the estimate is worked out
- Unit. Most homes replace one tank. Gas is modeled as EIA’s typical 40-gallon tank; electric as the typical 36-gallon tank.
- Location. Labor is priced at Wisconsin wages from the BLS wage survey. A ZIP code is matched to its county, which is close but not exact for ZIPs that cross county lines.
- Why there is a page for this state. Labor for this job costs noticeably more or less in Wisconsin than nationally, enough to move the range. Material prices are the same in every state here.