AO Smith Gas Water Heater Warranty Replacement
A family member is dealing with a water heater issue. There is a significant amount of calcification and rust that has developed on the cold water side of a 75 gallon AO Smith ProLine installed in 2021. The plumbing company that installed the water heater claims that the tank has corroded and needs to be replaced through the warranty. They want what feels like an extremely high price to perform the labor to replace the water heater, including a shipping and handling charge from the supplier. The question I have is, does this look like a tank corrosion problem? Or does it look like someone didn't sweat that elbow properly when the company originally installed the tank, resulting in a pinhole leak and then the corrosion, rust and calcified water? I think it's the latter, and I'm concerned that this company is trying to pass the buck on their poor install to AO Smith.
Can anyone give me advice on how I should assist my family member in fixing this issue? A new tank would be great, but it feels like this company is scamming AO Smith, and asking for almost the original cost of tank and install to swap in the new warranty tank. Or am I totally off base and the tank could have caused this? Can you initiate a warranty tank swap using a different plumbing company than the one who installed the original tank?
Thanks for any help you can provide.
Comments
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there could be more than one issue but you can look right at it and see it's leaking at that elbow. wild that nobody stocks the regular AO smith 75 gallon tank around and you have to pay shipping in addition to labor? AO smith brands also do a program through distributors that will cover a portion of a contractors labor fees, not going to post a number here as its prob market based and might have changed but at the time it covered maybe half of our more expensive contractors hourly rate. But yeah they don't cover 100% of labor rates, you can try contacting AO smith directly to see if they have a better solution, I know when I had a contractor complain about the labor rates they offered to have one of their partners come do the job and we all agreed we didn't want to have someone do the replacement that worked so cheaply. This may have changed in the past couple of years, it's usually just not a huge deal, water heater changeouts can be pretty quick
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I think the "handling charge for new heater from supplier" was just a way to increase the bill, or they are charging to go pick it up at a supply house? Without listing prices, it's a significant charge. That's an interesting thought regarding the distributor program. My next step is to reach out to the Long Island rep for AO Smith and see what they think. The installer is claiming that the warranty for their work is only 1 year, so even if they didn't sweat that 90 properly, it's not their problem. Thanks for the input.
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did you buy the original water heater directly or did you buy it through the installer? I've seen smart contractors charge handling fees when they didn't sell the equipment, because they don't want to be out money if something happens in transport, usually its around the cost of a new unit. I've never heard of an installer charging a handling fee for a warranty unit replacement of a unit they directly sold a customer though. 1 year workmanship warranty is pretty standard, I would be shocked if this wasn't leaking in the first year lol, but yeah kind of less recourse when its been so long, and clearly that leak has been unaddressed for years.
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It was purchased through the Plumbing company. I'm sure it was leaking in the first year, and then the calcium built up. The residents of this house are elderly and unfortunately don't go in their boiler room or inspect anything. It would have been a lot easier to handle this a few months after the install.
I spoke to the AO Smith rep who was very helpful. I can source a new heater myself and work outside of the original plumbing company which I may do because the original company wants too much of a fee to install the new one.
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Hi, Is the tank itself actually leaking? If not, I'd replace the cold-side plumbing down to the tank, replace the anode rod and keep going. I'd also use a different plumber. The old gate valve should have been replaced, along with having unions at the hot and cold connections. In the West, we almost always use flex connectors, which would have prevented any strain on the copper sweat joints and given unions. 🤠
Yours, Larry
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If the original installing plumber (company) was reputable and ethical, they could clearly see that they did a less than stellar job soldering that connection. Although 4 years is a long time, If I was that contractor, I would fix that for free and ask you if you wanted a service agreement that covered routine maintenance on that water heater and the heating system. If you declined the service agreement, I would still fix that for free, then use a wire brush to clean up all that calcification and rust. Spray paint the rusted portion of the water heater and tell you to keep an eye on that connection to see if more corrosion formed in the following 6 months or year. Then we can address the warranty issue at that time. It is clearly an installer workmanship failure and this guy sounds like he is in it for the money, not for the satisfaction of a job well done at a fair price.
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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Yeah i just can't wrap my head around charging a handling fee to replace a water heater under warranty when you sold the original equipment, it's just not customer friendly at all. seems so clear that 90 was leaking, just fix it and keep the customer happy, clearly an install error.
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I think the plumbing supplier charges the fee. Not the plumber. At least that's how it works around here. New York City / Nassua. Typically $300 to $400, depending on the size of the water heater. Regardless, I would doubt that's covered under warranty. That's almost 100%, a piping issue and not a water heater issue.
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I see an installer defect not a heater manufacturer defect!
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Thats wild I would immediately lose a customer if I charged them to process a warranty on equipment we are a dealer for. AO smith and their brands are also super easy to process warranty, service tech calls support, support verifies the failure, gives contractor an R number, take a photo of the full rating plate, contractor comes in and gives us the R number, we verify it, they leave with a new unit at no charge. The warranty typically processes before the new unit is pulled from the warehouse. We will occasionally call support for the R number ourselves to help the contractor out and I'm always surprised how quick the calls are for a tech support line.
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Larry, The tank is not leaking. I suppose its possible that the inner tank has been damaged by this leaking water and is rusting or corroding but I doubt it. I offered to clean it up with a wire brush and re-pipe the cold water side but they want the plumbing company to do it/pay for it.
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Ed, I agree. Without disclosing the price, the proposal for the warranty replacement with the extra for shipping and handling of the unit and the overall charge feels like they are trying to turn a negative into a positive where they can make some good money for their mistake. It's a shame this issue wasn't identified earlier, but like I said, the couple in the house is elderly and isn't in a habit of examining their equipment. As far as the repair you suggested, that's exactly what I was considering doing, scrape away all the rust and calcium, see if anything looks bad, paint over it to seal it up, and then repipe the cold while adding a proper ball valve. Thanks!
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I spoke to the AO Smith rep on Long Island, and they identified Hydronic Supply in Copiague as the original seller of the unit. So the plumbing company got it from them. AO Smith told me that they would give me an "R Number" and that I can give that R number to Hydronic Supply who would give me a new unit. They didn't say anything about a $300 fee. Perhaps I should call them back and ask. The Plumbing company put it on the repair proposal as "Handling Charge for new heater from supplier $XXX.XX (S&H)"
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That is not an AO Smith issue! The installing contractor has a bad fitting that leaked and caused the damage. Its all on them and not the manufacture.
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water heater manufacturers are fairly eager to just process warranty lol. I do think the most pressing concern is getting a plumber in there that knows how to sweat copper!
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Wild or not, that is the reality around here. There are endless plumbing suppliers, within a proverbial Stones throw, of me. And almost none of them even deal with warranties. The handful that do, charge the fee. Maybe there are some that I don't know about. Would be good to know. I don't think that Ferguson charges any fee, but the plumber needs to pay for the water heater out of pocket and gets a store credit, at some point when Ferguson actually gets reimbursed by AO Smith. Or something like that.
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Hard to tell. The leaking sweat job was an install issue no doubt. Did the leaking elbow cause the dielectric nipple to corrode or was the dielectric joint also not made up properly?.
And on another note, why would AO smith cover a WH replacement for an installer hack job.
But the damage is done if AO will provide the tank then just change it out.
I think the original plumber is trying to pad the bill
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75 gallon is on the odd size for a tank. As of 2016 50 gallon was the max size for a residential water heater.
75 gets you into the light commercial side of things.
I could see whey there would be a shipping charge.
I do think that you can salvage the tank. Replace the nipple and female adapter.
I would add a vacuum relief valve while you are at it…
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75 gallon is definitely used in residential. All over my service area, anyway.
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Sometimes I feel like we don't do enough as a distributor then I read this stuff and I feel pretty good about what we are doing. I just wish you guys out in your area were getting decent service, sounds so much harder to deal with than it should be.
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I spoke to the distributor who sold the original unit. It turns out there is a $150 fee for processing a warranty replacement and you have to pay the difference on the price of the unit now vs when it was originally sold. So if the 75 gallon AO Smith proline was $1400 then and $1600 now after tax, you pay the extra $200. So this may account for the plumbing company's shipping and handling charge. Given the labor costs, handling charge, and materials through the plumbing company, I'm leaning towards cleaning it up myself and repiping it myself.
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or make them fix it for free. that didn't happen by itself, that has existed since it was installed.
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is the packing for the valve for the tank loose too? i see a drip off the next ell too
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thats crazy because the manufacturer credits them for the most recent purchase lol, they get credit for the more expensive price. I'm sorry you guys are getting screwed out there that is such BS, the whole process takes like 10 minutes at most and they pay kickbacks on units purchased for the specific reason of having warranty units on the shelf available
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That's interesting. Maybe I'll run it past the AO Smith rep to see what they say, but that's what Hydronic Supply said. Thanks for the info.
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