Copper pipe fitting price rant
Purchased two 1 inch, sweat/FNPT copper fittings at Home Depot for $15.26 each last night.
At $4.14/pound for copper, the raw copper cost is a little less than a dollar. I'm sure the forming of these fitting is highly automated. Throw in another $0.50 for manufacturing.
I just don't see the 10x markup. I think somebody is exploiting the "well known" story that copper prices are high.
I found some on Amazon. Five for $29.50. $5 a piece is reasonable price. Of course, I don't have need for 5 of them.
Any suggestions for a source of low volume copper fittings at reasonable prices?
Comments
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supply and demand not a lot of people sweating copper anymore
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Why do you shop at HD for any plumbing parts?
https://www.supplyhouse.com/Elkhart-30160-1-Copper-x-Female-Adapter
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try a hardware store, might be better. i seem to remember home depot's pricing on commodity copper fittings was insane when i put my boiler in in 2019.
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You're welcome to cast your own fittings if the prices are too high. Pretty much any of the online suppliers would sell just 2 fittings at a much lower price than HD, but you were already there. It's not exploitation when you're willingly paying for convenience.
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Please by all means manufacture a less expensive fitting and sell it to all of us, I'm sure you will find a way to be very profitable with no profit margin, and I am sure you will be able to keep these on your shelf in each town for our needs 1 at a time, it's also really lucky that it costs no money to keep a store open for our shopping enjoyment.
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Look at the price of Pro Press Fittings!
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my local ACE Hardware sells this fitting for $9.59. The variable pricing at big boxes make some things really expensive.
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I spoke with Edward Decker tonight and he's still ROTF over that sale…………..
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I find the local GPS has better prices than Home Depot on this sort of thing.
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domestic black ells are more $$ than copper. Import black is about the same as copper. At SupplyHouse.com
Bob "hot rod" Rohr
trainer for Caleffi NA
Living the hydronic dream0 -
For what it's worth, Supplyhouse prices we're always the same or lower than local supply houses. Not anymore. Some things yes and some things not. McDonald Miller prices are insane. And not in a good way. They are still the best game in town, but they have dropped off considerably since covid. In terms of prices, in terms of delivery time and stock......
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Just for the record…
The estimated 10x markup to retail, would be considered a very plush profit margin for most businesses.
After I purchased the fittings at the HD, I hit ACE hardware on the way home for some other stuff that HD doesn't sell. Just for fun I checked to see if ACE had the fittings. They did, for a $1 less. I generally don't expect ACE to beat HD on price.
The above mentioned ACE has the best nuts and bolts assortment in town. Very pricey, but I understand its expensive to maintain the assortment. I usually find what I'm looking for and walk out somewhat lighter in the wallet, but satisfied nonetheless. A couple years ago, I did a project that required large quantities of nuts and bolts. I intentionally bought them from the ACE for the service as well as supporting their efforts to maintain the nuts and bolts section.
Didn't know about Supplyhouse. Benchmarked 1/2 versus 1 inch copper ells. Pretty common and I think high volume fittings. $0.73 versus $3.99 in single quantities. About 5.5x for the 1 inch. I would expect manufacturing costs to be similar. Material costs? Somewhere between 2-4x probably. Probably, the 1/2 inch price is somewhat depressed because of volume and market forces.
Turns out I wasn't in a hurry for the 1 inch fittings originally mentioned. Don't know about Supplyhouse shipping costs. Shipping costs can be a deal breaker.
Add Supplyhouse to the list of go to vendors such as McMaster, Digikey, etc.
I remain of the opinion that 1 inch sweat to NPT fitting is not uncommon enough to warrant a 10x markup at the HD.
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For fun I priced (with shipping) 2x 1 inch FNPT to sweat at Supplyhouse. $21.69 with shipping. Beats HD.
Next time I do a plumbing project, I'll try to get most of what I need from Supplyhouse and then ACE or maybe the HD for the stuff I forgot to order from Supplyhouse.
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My experience with Supplyhouse.com is free shipping.
Dennis Pataki. Former Service Manager and Heating Pump Product Manager for Nash Engineering Company. Phone: 1-888 853 9963
Website: www.nashjenningspumps.com
The first step in solving any problem is TO IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM.
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It's free shipping from supplyhouse if your order is $100 or more. Otherwise it's a very reasonable price, usually like $5 but I'm in NJ where I think they have several warehouses
NJ Steam Homeowner.
Free NJ and remote steam advice: https://heatinghelp.com/find-a-contractor/detail/new-jersey-steam-help/
See my sight glass boiler videos: https://bit.ly/3sZW1el0 -
local tavern gets $25 for $2.50 worth of meat.
If there making so much start your own supply house!
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I assume the local tavern is selling prepared food and not raw meat?
Single pipe 392sqft system with an EG-40 rated for 325sqft and it's silent and balanced at all times.
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Supplyhouse offers free shipping to its commercial accounts, with a small discount also. But their prices FAR exceed my local commercial supplier.
We're lucky that New York still has local suppliers who stock everything, give great prices and appreciate our business. They also extend credit. They know our family and we know theirs.
I wouldn't think of dealing with Home Depot or a mail order supplier.0 -
We all have different situations. Supplyhouse and even HD are good for my needs at 9pm. I don't know anyone's family and they don't know mine. I don't get looked at funny when I walk in and dare to ask for a product. I get credit from MasterCard. I can download and read every product's datasheet and instructions at my leisure.
NJ Steam Homeowner.
Free NJ and remote steam advice: https://heatinghelp.com/find-a-contractor/detail/new-jersey-steam-help/
See my sight glass boiler videos: https://bit.ly/3sZW1el0 -
It's free without minimums if you set up a trade account. 😉
Local suppliers do beat them on big items like boilers etc.
Trying to squeeze the best out of a Weil-McLain JB-5 running a 1912 1 pipe system.2 -
Free shipping, lower price, and other perks if you are on the Trademaster program. A licensed pro.
Bob "hot rod" Rohr
trainer for Caleffi NA
Living the hydronic dream2 -
Yep, that's why I'm known as "Mr. Retail" LOL
NJ Steam Homeowner.
Free NJ and remote steam advice: https://heatinghelp.com/find-a-contractor/detail/new-jersey-steam-help/
See my sight glass boiler videos: https://bit.ly/3sZW1el1 -
@_big_ said:
The above mentioned ACE has the best nuts and bolts assortment in town. Very pricey, but I understand its expensive to maintain the assortment. I usually find what I'm looking for and walk out somewhat lighter in the wallet, but satisfied nonetheless. A couple years ago, I did a project that required large quantities of nuts and bolts. I intentionally bought them from the ACE for the service as well as supporting their efforts to maintain the nuts and bolts section.
Our nearest ACE (next town over) just expanded a very impressive section of nuts, bolts, roll pins, Heim joints, you name it…it blows away the meager selection at Home Depot. I just found a special bolt there that I never would have found at HD.
I don't understand how Home Depot, with their vast floor space, can't devote more shelf space to "nuts and bolts" stuff like this, while a small ACE hardware store with less than 10% of their inventory can.
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home depot selects items based on profit, not if someone needs it or not.
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I'm pretty sure ACE needs to make a profit, too, and usually the bigger store carries a bigger selection of a given product category, so I still don't see the logic.
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home depot(or walmart or amazon or any other huge corporation) gets rid of the items they make less of a profit on. they don't care if that is an item that someone really needs but not a lot of people need it.
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Let's all just get away from this capitalistic system of economy. Socialism is the best for everyone.Oops wrong forum.
Edward Young Retired
After you make that expensive repair and you still have the same problem, What will you check next?
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$13.81 at Lowes. Still pricey. Pro press fittings are worth it for the time they save. and lack of an open flame. But you have to do a lot of plumbing to make the press worthwhile. HD sells viega fittings which is convenient. I see a lot of trades at Lowes and HD. Heck, they even have "pro" parking spots.
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Free shipping, lower price, and other perks if you are on the Trademaster program. A licensed pro.
Exactly correct. I have not paid for shipping in the past 10 years. I actually feel guilty if I order a single item or two for $20.
Not having to go to HD or the local "supply house" and waste over one hour: PRICELESS.
You only are give a fixed amount of time on this planet. USE IT WISELY.
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i feel that about stores in general. especially since they somehow always seem to be out of several of the items on my list.
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i feel that about stores in general. especially since they somehow always seem to be out of several of the items on my list.
…………….if you can even find the place where they might be hiding in the store. I spent 30 minutes looking for a PVC trap for a sink……………no it's not with all the PVC…………..it as a place all by itself in another aisle. Thanks HD for being totally stupid, yet again.
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I find Ace to be a good place for nuts, bolts screws at least if your buying in small quantities they have a good selection.
I was stuck on a job out of town and something broke on the pipe machine . From being constantly being banged around and abused the foot pedal came apart and the spring was gone and all the 1/4"-20 screws were stripped out.
I went to the local Ace hardware and found a spring (had to cut it down) some 5/16 bolts and a 1/4" drill bit and a 5/16 tap and drilled the bolt holes out and tapped them to the larger size.
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box store nuts and bolts are just ok, not a high quality or even listed. The 1/4” bolts snap easily. You might find a small selection of graded bolts in the expensive slide draw section 😗
I’ve found the farm type stores are more apt to have grade 5 and 8 selections.
Working on my truck, trailers, etc, I prefer grade 5 or 8 hardware
Bob "hot rod" Rohr
trainer for Caleffi NA
Living the hydronic dream1 -
Box stores? Like Uline? :)
Single pipe 392sqft system with an EG-40 rated for 325sqft and it's silent and balanced at all times.
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