on the high side 60 bux other than that you can get half a new heater for 300$ crazyness/
Plumbers and service companies usually have a minimum trip charge for a service call to cover their profit and overhead for the time to drive out there and sometimes include the first hour of labor. They usually will mark up the part they install as well, sometimes 100-300% depending on how they do business. Then you have to pay the labor over what the initial trip charge covered. My plumber charges $120/hr which includes a helper, so $300 adds up real quick and may not be all that crazy of a price to pay. Also, they charge a convenience fee on holidays and weekends. If you cant do it yourself, you are stuck with paying others. Always use someone elses recommendation for plumbers, carpenters, electricians, etc. or you may get taken advantage of.
In my area, a plumber would charge $75 just to show up. They would also charge by the hour for the time spent waiting for the tank to drain before starting the actual work. The tank capacity has NOTHING to do with the plumbing outside of the tank. The last time I called a plumber it cost $60 only because they were already around the corner and it was a 5 min job.
Well the issue here they have to drive over, drain the tank, change the valve. The way I see it you at an easy 250.00. So 300 is not out of line. And if the water heater is over 10 years old, I would strongly consider replacing it vs the repair. That heater is expensive I would inquire about if that part is under warranty. But that price I hate to say is somewhat in line.
What, just the valve? What valve? A stop valve in the supply or delivery line? Or the temperature and pressure valve? There's no way on God's green earth I'd ever fork over $300 for this job. I can do it myself in thirty minutes. The TP valve would take less than ten minutes. Granted I'm a handyman and I have a shopful of tools and 20 years experience. But back in the day, when I'd never done any maintenance work, I replaced my own water heater from start to finish and it only took a couple of hours. Unless there's something major going on that you're not disclosing to us, it sounds like a pretty serious overcharge. [edit] To answer your additional questions, I wouldn't pay that much to replace all three valves. The valves themselves aren't very expensive, and the only really difficult part of this entire operation is getting all the water under control to replace the drain valve. Something's going to get wet, and that tends to make homeowners annoyed and difficult customers. The TP valve is a simple wrench-in, wrench-out replacement. Water off, power off, drain below the level of the valve and out it comes. Control valve requires turning off the house's water, but less draining. Replacing the drain valve requires draining the entire heater but again it's a wrench-in, wrench-out job. Easy.
