Realcent.org

i have 2 water heaters that I am replacing. I am inclined to make the plumber haul away the old ones. i have an SUV but scrapping it sounds like a hassle.

how much copper is in a water heater? how much money am i leaving on the table?

how hard is it to separate every thing?

i presume its the heating rods that are copper. do scrap yards buy them if they are corroded? what do i do wtih the rest of the heater - can i take it in like it is or is there a lot of work involved to break it down?

A lot of plumbers charge to remove these because of the amount of work involved, especially if they have to be hauled up one or more flights of stairs.

The best approach is to remove any attached brass fittings and copper pipes, cut out the wiring and leave the rest intact.

Separating the unit any further will cost more in time and energy than the amount of material gained. Most places near me will buy these intact as light iron, around $.05/lb or higher right now.

Most do not have much copper inside. Rarely they have a bronze/red brass tank, and those are definitely worth separating.

You wouldn't make more than $10 if you brought them into the scrap yard. You would want to take all of the brass fittings and small copper pipes off and sell those separately because those are the most valuable metals.

The amount of copper on the inside depends on whether it is a gas or electric heater. But either way, it will be not worth trying to pull anything out.
If you have a gas heater, there should be a small aluminum box gizmo somewhere on the front of the heater. Its job is to regulate the gas, and it has an assortment of metal inside it; my scrap yard will pay me a little less than contaminated brass price for those. Good Luck!

thanks realcenters. I assumed there was $20-30 in copper inside. am happy to let someone else fool with this.

Don't let him charge you to remove them, as you could take them as is and make $10-15 for it