Expert Tank Water Heater Installation in Frisco, TX
Hot water is essential—it’s a must-have for cooking, cleaning, bathing, or even just washing your hands. Being without it is both inconvenient and uncomfortable, especially during the winter months. Earl’s Plumbing understands this importance and treats every hot water heater call as an emergency, even if there is not an active leak present.
We keep a tank water heater ready to install on every truck, as well as the most common repair parts and materials to complete an installation or repair on the same visit. When your family’s comfort is at stake, don’t wait around for subpar service. Trust the team that’s always prepared and ready to get you back to normal as quickly as possible!
We Make Replacing Your Water Heater Easy
We know replacing a water heater isn’t something most homeowners want to do. That’s why we provide you with multiple options and all the pertinent details for you to consider. With us, the sky is never falling and we never use high-pressure sales techniques. If you want honest people that provide quality outcomes that far exceed our competitors, make Earl’s Plumbing your first call.
When you choose Earl’s Plumbing for your tank water heater installation, your purchase includes:
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Answers to Your Frequently Asked Questions
When it comes to ripping off the band-aid and replacing your water heater, there are a few important things to consider. We’ve answered the most common questions below, but if you don’t see yours, please feel free to call us directly.
There is not a day that goes by that we do not get multiple phone calls of leaking water heater(s)s and about half of those have some sort of home damage caused by this. In almost every case, age is the most significant contributing factors. Having a salt tablet water softener will also reduce the longevity of a tank water heater.
Our point is this, do NOT wait for your water heater to stop working or worse start leaking before it is replaced. In the end, most tank water heaters are made of regular welded steel and store water inside them. Water causes regular steel to rust and therefore has a limited lifespan. Be proactive and save yourself the effort, hassle and potential home damage.
At Earl’s Plumbing, we have no problem providing you with a price over the phone. We just ask if you are calling others to compare, that you make sure that you are comparing apples to apples and that you ask all of the right questions.
Our basic water heater installation includes us replacing virtually everything—not just the water heater. In many cases, when you get a lower price on a quote, you’re getting an inferior water heater and nothing besides the installation—that means extra fees for haul away and disposal, additional sales tax, and no new parts, which are crucial for efficiency and often required by code. In other words, unlike these commission companies, we’re not “tank yankers.”
Our price includes all of these services—including tax. On the rare occasion that we run into something out of the ordinary, we give you our commitment that we will never try to sell you something at an inflated price. None of our employees are on commission. Our plumbers and technicians do not have sales quotas and they are not incentivized to add to your final invoice.
Why is this important?… because it can be easy to get lost surfing through the internet minutia in an attempt to do their due diligence. Some of the brands (& models) are only available regionally, while others are private label or exclusively licensed. In other words, only a small fraction of the 20+ brands and 100+ models are available to purchase within our geographical area.
The other important part is this… The primary component of the tank water heater is the steel tank itself and the construction and quality control standards that are employed when that part is fabricated. So regardless of the “brand” all of the “tanks” that are manufactured by any of the 3 manufactures are virtually the same. There are steps, processes and parts in the manufacturing process that distinguish the various models, and this is important.
There is an exception to this and that is on the Rheem’s models that are sold by the largest home improvement big box retailer… Those tanks are NOT constructed in a Rheem plant! The only thing “Rheem” about those water heater models is the printed name on the box which is a paid licensing agreement. We believe that this is the reason we see less comparable life expectancy and an unusually high leak and/or failure rates on retail store water heaters.
Ultimately, Earl’s Plumbing (Frisco / McKinney) wants to provide you with options, so we have aligned ourselves with two manufactures… Bradford & White and A.O Smith’s premium brand series of tank water heaters called “State Proline Master.”
Now on tankless water heaters… that is a whole different level of engineering and in our opinion, Navien stands heads & shoulders above all other tankless manufactures, and it is not even close.
The Navien 240A tankless water heater also comes with an internal recirculation pump that allows us to greatly reduce the extended wait times for hot water should they be extreme. BUT we can also do that with tank water heaters but as an upgrade at an additional cost. Tank water heaters require minimal to no maintenance whereas ALL tankless water heaters require maintenance every 500 hours of use (usually annually).
And for those of you with salt tablet water softener systems… Salt tablet softener systems have a positive impact on tankless water heaters lifespan versus a negative impact on the traditional storage tank water heaters. Ultimately and based on our experience within the area; for the homeowner that has a home built after 2000 with two tank water heaters in the attic over 3500 sq ft… that customer decides to switch to a Navien 240A tankless system about 85% of the time because of the numerous pros. In comparison, using the same home demographics but the water heaters being located in the garage instead of the attic, they only convert to tankless about 40% of the time.
This limits the flow of the leak to a manageable rate, allowing the tank heaters to “gulp out” any remaining water inside until help arrives. It also allows the drain pan to collect the remaining water and drain it outside as designed.
A Flood Stop can save you thousands in repairs bills and insurance headaches and is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED for all attic water heater installations. Some homeowners insurance providers even apply discounts for leak detection devices.
Think about the amount of wasted water and personal time that you could get back over the course of a week, month, or year!
A recirculation crossover system will reduce hot water wait times for most fixtures in your home, and it’s very affordable. It is a service that we have perfected with our Navien tankless water heater installations, and we can get the same results with tank water heaters too. Let us give you a free estimate today.
Installing a whole house Wi-Fi-enabled leak monitoring device not only alerts you to a potential issue, but it will also shut your water off if something seems irregular.
Some homeowners insurance policies require these types of devices in order to renew your policy. They also provide significantly discounted rates if your home possesses a leak detection or damage mitigation device.
A gas water heater also has a yellow or gray flexible hose leading from a black pipe to the bottom center of the water heater. Electric water heaters have neither of these characteristics and will instead have a piece of flexible conduit leading into the top of the heater.
In the Collin and Denton County areas of North Texas, we are a natural gas market. About 99% of water heaters here are gas-powered. That includes Frisco, McKinney, Plano, Allen, Little Elm, Prosper, and the surrounding areas.
That means there are very few electric water heaters and even fewer propane water heaters here. Electric water heaters are a little more common in commercial or business environments or homes that:
- Were built in the 1980s or earlier
- Are under 2,300 sq ft
- Have just a single water heater in place
If you are one of the rare few homeowners that don’t have a natural gas water heater, please communicate this to your point of contact early in the process.
50-gallon water heaters dominate the area market so much that a 40-gallon water heater is actually 15 to 20 percent more expensive than a similarly featured 50-gallon heater, despite the additional materials.
At Earl’s Plumbing, we keep notes on all of the brands that we have replaced or repaired, making special note of brands that we replace due to leak failures and/or full-blown ruptures. To Earl’s Plumbing, quality matters, and we would never offer a product that does not meet our standards.
Brands of Water Heaters That You Might Find in North Texas:
Note: Not every brand listed is readily available in North Texas. So, if you are doing your own model research on the manufacturer’s website, save yourself some time. At Earl’s Plumbing, we only offer the best brands and models available for our area and these options allow you to choose what is the best for your home and situation.
Below are some of the major differences between retail and professional-grade water heaters.
Next is the geographical area of your home: the overall water quality, water hardness, water pressure, and atmospheric and environmental conditions.
Other factors that could affect the overall lifespan of a water heater for both tank and tankless systems are whether you have a water conditioning & filter system or a water softener system. A water conditioning system that uses template-assisted crystallization (TAC) media can help extend the life of the water heater. However, the more common salt tablet water softener systems can damage some storage tank heaters over time.
Softening the water can be great for your hair, skin, water lines, plumbing fixtures, and shower glass. It also helps tankless water heaters from producing scale buildup. But salt tablet softener systems add trace amounts of sodium chloride to the water supply, which can have long-term negative effects on the inside of steel storage tanks. Copper and stainless steel storage tanks are not affected.
But if your tank water heater makes it to 9 years—especially if it is the unit from the initial construction process—then you have done well.
Tank water heaters purchased at or installed by the big box home improvement stores tend to last far less time before a major repair or a leak materializes. Even major brand name, 6-year tank heater models sold at the big box home center retailers only tend to last between 7 to 10 years.
The expected life of a tank water heater is shorter if you have a salt tablet water softener system. These systems have many benefits but they have a long-term negative impact on the longevity of a storage tank water heater.
Just because your heater is still producing hot water and it is not yet leaking does NOT mean it is functioning properly or efficiently. The manufacturer designed and assigned a warranty expectation of 6, 8, or 12 years for a reason.
At Earl’s Plumbing, we strongly recommend being very proactive when it comes to replacing tank water heaters. This is especially true if they are in that 9- to 12-year range or if they are located above a living area. We have seen many homes with catastrophic damage due to water heaters that have leaked or ruptured.
There are two primary reasons a manufacturer can extend its standard warranty coverage on a storage-tank water heater:
Another consideration is cost. The most common repair (80%) for any brand or model of a storage-tank water heater is the gas control valve (GCV). The gas control valve (GCV) is the most expensive replacement part on a tank water heater. It is also the most difficult repair, and therefore from a labor standpoint, the most expensive.
The “snap, crackle, pop” or “popcorn sound” that you hear coming from a tank water heater is sediment build-up bouncing off the metal bottom as the water is heated. Water heater sediment is very similar to pea-sized gravel, and for the most part, it is too heavy and large to be flushed out of the small drain opening. If you hear this popping sound, it is more of an annoyance than anything, but it is also a sign that replacement is in your near future.
Expansion tank ruptures and failures generally cause more home damage than leaks due to the absence of a drain pan safety measure. This can be prevented with simple maintenance.
If it is running 24/7, it won’t last as long as one controlled by a timer, which is only operational during needed or waking hours.
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