Water heater replacement cost: the median homeowner paid $1,000
That is the median across 2,541 water heater replacement jobs reported to the 2023 American Housing Survey, for work finished from 2021 to 2023. Homeowners who hired a contractor paid a median of $1,400. Owners who did the work themselves paid a median of $700.
2,541 jobs
1,786 jobs
755 jobs
Cost by who did the work
| Jobs (n) | 10th pct | 25th pct | Median | 75th pct | 90th pct | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All jobs | 2,541 | $400 | $670 | $1,000 | $1,900 | $3,000 |
| Hired contractor | 1,786 | $500 | $900 | $1,400 | $2,000 | $3,500 |
| Did it themselves | 755 | $300 | $500 | $700 | $1,000 | $1,500 |
Why this differs from cost guides
The survey category is "Added or replaced water heater", which covers new installs as well as replacements. Owners did 755 of the 2,541 jobs themselves (30 percent), and their median is half the hired median.
Common questions
How much does a water heater replacement cost?
In the 2023 American Housing Survey the median was $1,000 across 2,541 jobs finished from 2021 to 2023. Hired jobs had a median of $1,400 and do-it-yourself jobs $700.
What did the middle half of homeowners pay when they hired someone?
Half of hired jobs cost between $900 and $2,000. One in ten cost $500 or less and one in ten cost $3,500 or more.
Where do these figures come from?
From the project file of the 2023 American Housing Survey, run by the Census Bureau for HUD. Medians and percentiles are weighted to represent U.S. households.
Method
Records come from the AHS 2023 public use project file: improvement and repair jobs reported by households, with job type, whether the owner did the work, and the cost. Only jobs with a cost above zero are used. Percentiles are weighted with the survey household weight. As a check, the weighted median for all kitchen jobs reproduces the $8,000 figure Census publishes.
Caveats
- Self-reported. The American Housing Survey asks residents what they did and what it cost. Amounts are in the dollars of the year the job was done (2021 to 2023) and are not adjusted for inflation.
- Replacement rates in the American Housing Survey are a floor. Respondents list the projects they remember, and the Energy Information Administration's Residential Energy Consumption Survey implies replacement rates roughly double those the AHS shows.
- The survey data carry no stated license. OneFabHome treats them as U.S. federal government data and cites the source for every figure.
Sources
- American Housing Survey 2023 public use file, U.S. Census Bureau and HUD.