Yes. You can bring us an old water heater, and yes, you get paid for it. There is no drop-off fee, and you do not need an appointment. Just load it up and drive in.
Water heaters are one of the most common items people ask us about on our accepted materials list, which makes sense. Every one of them fails eventually, most people replace them under some amount of duress, and the old one ends up sitting in the garage for a year because nobody knows what to do with it.
What is it actually worth?
Let us be straight with you, because we would rather you know before you drive over than feel let down at the scale.
A water heater is graded as tin, our category for light steel and appliance metal. Tin is priced per net ton, which is 2,000 pounds. A standard 40 gallon residential unit weighs somewhere around 0.06 to 0.075 tons empty. An 80 gallon can run 0.10 tons or more.
So you are looking at a few dollars. Prices move with the market, so call if you want today’s rate, or read how our pricing works.
We tell you that up front because the money is not really the reason to bring it to us.
The real value: you are not paying to get rid of it
Look at your other options for that heater sitting in the garage.
Take it to the landfill and you pay a dump fee. Hire a junk removal service and you pay a lot more than that. Leave it where it is and it takes up space for another year, which is what most people end up doing.
Bring it to us and none of that happens. No fee, no charge, no hassle. You leave with a few bucks in your pocket instead of a lighter wallet. The swing between paying to dump it and getting paid to recycle it is the whole point.
It also stays out of the landfill
A water heater is almost entirely steel, and steel can be melted down and made into new steel over and over without losing quality. There is no reason for 130 pounds of perfectly good metal to get buried in the ground when it costs you nothing to recycle it instead.
Do I need to take it apart?
No. Bring it exactly as it came out of the house.
You do not need to remove the fittings, cut anything off, pull the elements, or strip the wiring. The insulation, the plastic drain valve, the outer shell, all of it is fine. We process the whole unit. People overthink this constantly and it costs them a Saturday for no reason.
Gas or electric does not matter either. Both are accepted, both are graded the same.
Do I need to drain it?
Yes. This is the one thing we ask.
A full 40 gallon tank holds roughly 330 pounds of water, and water is not scrap weight. Hook a garden hose to the drain valve at the bottom, run it out to the driveway, open the valve, and walk away for a while.
Bring your ID
Utah law requires scrap yards to record every transaction, so bring a valid photo ID. Every time, no exceptions, even for a single water heater.
If this is your first trip to a scrap yard, it is a lot less intimidating than you would guess.
Load it up and come see us.
