There comes a time when a heater has come to an end to it’s service life. You need a replacement but am not sure how much it would cost. There are many factors that determine the cost of replacing a storage heater. here’s a general guideline of the cost

Since the majority of the population lives in HDB government housing, let’s start with installation costs of storage heater for HDB houses

REPLACEMENT OF STORAGE HEATER IN HDB FLATS

Most storage heaters in HDB houses are considered exposed installations, so they are visible to us and easy to replace. Installation costs generally cost around $100. if you are changing to a heater of a different model, the water pipes will need to be rerouted and the modifications will cost some extra money, for this the installation costs would be around $150

so in summary, installations costs for HDB exposed storage heaters

No pipe changes – $100 ++

with pipe changes – $150 ++ 

An example of a standard HDB exposed storage heater

 

REPLACEMENT OF STORAGE HEATERS LOCATED ABOVE FALSE CEILING

In many private properties such as condominiums, landed houses, apartments, commercial buildings etc, storage heaters are mainly located above the false ceiling.

if you want to check the brand and size of your heater, most of the time, all you have to do is to find the access panel in your bathroom, normally a cut out of area 300 x 300mm. open the access panel and you should be able to see  your storage heater

Storage heater replacements located above the false ceilings are a lot more complicated because they are in a difficult to access area.

For smaller heater capacities such as 15-30 litres, it may be possible to bring the heater down without any need to enlarge the existing access panel, in this instance, the cost of replacing a storage water heater likely costs around $150. if you change to a different heater brand and model, pipe modifications will be required and the installation costs will be around $200

so in summary, installations costs for storage heaters located above false ceilings, where no modification to false ceiling is required

No pipe changes – $150 ++

with pipe changes – $200 ++ 

An example of a storage heater located above a false ceiling 

 

REPLACEMENT OF BIG CAPACITY STORAGE HEATERS LOCATED ABOVE FALSE CEILING

When the capacity of a storage heater is very big, which usually is the case if you have a bathtub installed (since bathtub have capacities of around 80-150 liters or more, you need a big water capacity to fill these up with hot water) there is a need to cut open a larger area of the false ceiling in order to bring the heater down. It of course is not possible to bring down the heater via a 300 x 300mm access panel.

In these situations, the installation costs would cost around $400 or more depending on the site situation, some heaters are located in very confined spaces such as directly above a shower screen. if that is so, other modification works will be required, for example to remove the shower screen before installation works can take place

so in summary, installations costs for  storage heaters located above false ceilings where

Costs for installation storage heater above false ceiling where modification to false ceiling is required – $400++

further site analysis may be required

A site analysis will be required to determine the installation costs for such such scenarios

We hope that this article has been helpful in helping you to understand the costs of replacing a storage water heater. Please note the article is meant to serve as a general guideline to help you to understand storage heater installation costs  and by no means guarantees the prices mentioned here.

Storage water heaters sold by Bacera