No invented price list. What follows is every variable that moves a quote, so you can tell why two of them differ.
Hot water pricing pages usually carry a table of figures with an asterisk. We have not done that, because the figure is almost never the figure. Installed cost is driven as much by what your property needs as by which unit goes on the wall, and a published number that is wrong at your place is worse than no number at all.
What we can do is be specific about what moves the price on a Sunshine Coast job. If you read the list below and then look at a quote, you should be able to tell what it has assumed and what it has left out.
System type is the largest single lever. Electric storage is generally the least expensive to buy and install, solar the most, with heat pump, gas storage and continuous flow in between. Within a type, capacity and brand move the price again.
This is also the part of the quote that is easiest to compare, which is exactly why it is the part that gets compared and the rest does not.
Replacing the same type of system in the same position is the cheapest job there is, because the water, gas or electrical connections are already where they need to be.
Changing type is a different proposition. Moving from electric storage to a heat pump needs a position with airflow and somewhere for condensate to go. Moving to gas needs a supply with adequate capacity. Moving to solar needs roof work. Each of those adds labour and materials that a like-for-like swap does not.
Almost every replacement involves some. A new circuit or a change at the switchboard, an upgrade to a gas line that cannot supply a larger unit, or new water lines if the system moves position.
These are the items most often missing from a cheap quote, and the most common source of a price that changes after work has started. It is entirely reasonable to ask a quote to state what electrical and gas work it includes and what it has assumed.
A tank in an open carport is a different job from one in a tight internal cupboard, up a flight of stairs, or in a roof space. Solar collectors mean working on the roof, which brings its own access and safety requirements, and the roof's condition and pitch both matter.
This is the factor most often underestimated from photographs alone, and the main reason we sometimes want to look before quoting rather than after.
Relief valves, tempering valves and isolation valves are routinely replaced with the system rather than reused, and a quote should say whether they are included.
So should removal and disposal of the old unit. An old cylinder is heavy, awkward and not free to dispose of, and being left with one in the yard is a genuinely irritating way to discover it was excluded.
Some of what appears on a hot water quote is not a choice anyone is making. Where a system is replaced, current standards apply to the new installation even though the old one predates them, and a few items catch people out because the system that came out did not have them.
A tempering valve is the usual one. Water stored hot enough to be safe from bacteria is hot enough to scald, so a valve blends it down at the outlet before it reaches a bathroom. Plenty of older systems have none, and the customer sees a line on the quote for something their previous system managed without for twenty years.
The relief valve drain line is another. It has to discharge somewhere safe and visible, and on an older install it sometimes does not, so the replacement includes running a new one. Seismic or cyclonic restraint straps, a properly rated isolating valve, and a compliant tundish or drain point fall in the same category.
None of this is padding. What it means practically is that the cheapest possible quote is sometimes cheap because it has left something out that will be picked up later, and it is worth asking directly whether a quote includes bringing the installation up to current requirements.
Three reasons, and only one of them is margin.
The first is scope. One quote includes the tempering valve, the new drain line, the electrical work and disposal; the other assumes them away and finds them on the day. Compared side by side those look like the same job at different prices, and they are not the same job.
The second is what has been assumed about access. A quote written from a photograph has guessed at how the old unit comes out and the new one goes in. If that guess is wrong the price moves, and the person who guessed more carefully looks more expensive until the day arrives.
The third is the unit. Two systems of the same capacity can be different products with different warranties, different cylinder linings and different parts availability in five years. A cheaper unit is sometimes exactly the right call, but it should be a decision you made rather than one made for you.
The practical protection is a written quote that lists what is included, and asking about anything you cannot see on it. Any tradesman worth using will answer that without getting defensive.
Emergency and after-hours work generally costs more than scheduled work, and an emergency also narrows your choice to whatever can be obtained today.
Where an eligible heat pump or solar system creates Small-scale Technology Certificates, that benefit may already be discounted from the price you are shown, or it may be yours to claim. Those are not the same thing, and it is worth asking which a quote assumes.
If you want a real number for your property, send a photo of what you have now and we will give you one. Or call 0415 611 356.
Because a price published without its assumptions is close to meaningless for hot water. The same model unit can differ substantially in installed cost between two houses in the same street, depending on access, what has to change electrically or in the gas line, and whether the system is moving position. A number that turns out to be wrong helps nobody.
Usually inclusions rather than the unit price. Removal and disposal of the old system, replacement valves and fittings, electrical or gas work, and commissioning are the items most often left out of a low quote. Ask each quote to state them explicitly and the comparison usually resolves itself.
It can be, because it compresses choices. You take what is available today rather than what would suit best, and out-of-hours work generally costs more than scheduled work. That is one of the better arguments for replacing a system that is clearly near the end of its life before it fails rather than after.
Where an eligible system creates Small-scale Technology Certificates, the benefit is often assigned to the supplier and already discounted from the price you are quoted. Sometimes it is yours to claim separately instead. These are very different things for your cash flow, so ask which applies before comparing two quotes.
For a planned replacement, yes, and any reasonable installer will expect it. Compare inclusions rather than headline numbers, and ask each to name the exact model so you are comparing the same thing. For an emergency, a second quote often costs you a day without hot water, which is its own price.
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Licence 158711
Verify this licenceSend a photo of your system and its data plate and we will quote on what is actually there.
RCM works across Sunshine Coast and the hinterland. See the full Sunshine Coast service area for where we work regularly and where we travel on different terms.
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