Water heater replacement across Delaware County — gas, electric and heat pump. Straight pricing, permit where your township requires one, old tank hauled away.
Call any hour. Outside working hours we return every call by 8am.
Serving Yeadon, Lansdowne, Darby, Collingdale, Clifton Heights, Springfield, Concord, Newtown, Middletown, Upper Providence and Brookhaven.
Before you call
If you know, tell us on the call and we can usually quote you there and then. If you have no idea, that is completely normal and it is not a problem.
The label on the front tells us the size, the fuel, how it vents and roughly how old it is. That is usually enough for us to turn up with the right unit already on the truck instead of coming twice. Text it to (610) 424-8265.
Don’t worry. We will replace your water heater.
If it is leaking right now, close the cold water valve on top of the tank and call us. That is the only thing you need to do. We will handle the rest.
PECO rebates
PECO runs rebates on qualifying high-efficiency and heat pump water heaters. The forms are tedious, the eligibility rules are specific, and most contractors hand you a website address and wish you luck. We check what you qualify for before we quote, and we file it for you.
Before we quote, we look at what's currently available on the unit that actually fits your house — not the one with the biggest rebate attached.
The installed price and what you'd get back, side by side, so you can decide whether the efficient unit is worth it in your situation. Sometimes it isn't.
Model numbers, AHRI certificates, invoices, serial numbers, the application itself. You sign one thing. We handle the rest.
| What you install | Typical PECO rebate | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Heat pump water heater | $300 – $400 | ENERGY STAR certified hybrid, UEF 3.3 or above |
| Heat pump — income qualified | $500 – $800 | For eligible lower and moderate income PECO households |
| Gas tankless | $300 – $400 | ENERGY STAR high-efficiency, UEF 0.90 or above |
| Gas condensing tank | $100 – $200 | ENERGY STAR gas storage, UEF 0.81 or above |
| Gas combi boiler | up to $1,500 | Integrated space and water heating, 94%+ AFUE |
| Standard gas tank | No rebate | Baseline atmospheric tanks don’t qualify under Act 129 |
| Standard electric tank | No rebate | Standard resistance units don’t qualify |
Two of those rows say no rebate, and we’d rather tell you that up front than let you find out afterward. A like-for-like standard tank replacement earns nothing — the programs exist to move people to efficient equipment. If your tank has failed and you need hot water tonight, a standard replacement is usually still the right call, and we’ll say so.
Amounts above are typical current ranges under PECO's Act 129 Phase V programs. They depend on the exact model, your PECO account and program funding, and they change — so we confirm what actually applies to your job before you commit to anything. Note also that the federal Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit expired 31 December 2025, so any contractor still advertising a federal tax credit on a 2026 installation is quoting a program that no longer exists.
No upsell
The trade has the reputation it has because the person standing in your basement is usually paid on what he sells. Ours isn't, and that single fact changes the whole conversation.
Whatever you have now, replaced with its equivalent. That's the quote, every time, before anything else is mentioned. If you never want to hear about another option, you never will.
His pay is the same whether he installs a $2,000 tank or a $5,000 tankless. There is no commission here to chase — so the recommendation you get is the one he'd give his own mother.
If a heat pump or a tankless genuinely beats a tank for your house, we'll show you the rebate, the running cost and the payback in years. If the numbers don't work, we say so and put in a tank.
Three things we won't do, ever
One exception, and it's a real one. If we find something genuinely dangerous — a gas leak, a flue venting into your basement, a missing temperature and pressure valve — we have to tell you. When that happens we'll show it to you rather than describe it, explain what it costs, and you decide. Finding a real problem and staying quiet about it isn't restraint. It's negligence.
Pricing
Every price below includes the unit, the installation, hauling the old tank away, and the permit and inspection wherever your township requires them. Some in Delaware County don’t — we’ll tell you which yours is before you book, and the price is the same either way. If your basement needs code work to pass — venting, gas line, expansion tank — we tell you the number before we start, not after.
Like-for-like replacement, same location
40 or 50 gallon — same price either way
Like-for-like replacement, same location
40 or 50 gallon — same price either way
Hybrid electric — the efficient upgrade, if your space suits it
Wall-mounted, no tank, on-demand
Prices shown are for Yeadon, Lansdowne, Darby, Darby Township, Collingdale and Clifton Heights. The outer townships — Springfield, Concord, Newtown, Middletown, Upper Providence and Brookhaven — are priced separately for the drive. Tell us your town on the call and you’ll get that town’s number, before we come out.
Prices are for a standard replacement in the same location. Older homes sometimes need work the last installer skipped — we quote that separately and in writing before we touch anything.
Hot water care
A water heater that gets flushed and checked annually lasts materially longer than one nobody touches until it fails. On tankless and heat pump units it matters more than that — manufacturers recommend annual service and warn that skipping it can void the warranty you paid for.
One visit, about 45 minutes
One visit, about an hour
One visit, about 90 minutes
If you own a tankless unit, read that last line twice. Navien states plainly that failing to perform the maintenance in the manual may void the limited warranty, and the other manufacturers take the same position. A twelve-year warranty is only twelve years if someone can show the work was done. We keep that record for you.
It transfers with the house. If you sell, the remaining plan goes to the new owner. Buyers like seeing a serviced unit with paperwork, and it costs you nothing to hand over.
Before we leave
We don't pack up and hand you an invoice. We walk the job with you and go through this together, out loud, before we go.
Drop cloths down before we start. A drain pan under the new tank so a future leak goes somewhere other than your floor. Old tank drained, carried out and taken away. The work area left cleaner than we found it.
Temperature and pressure relief line run correctly, expansion tank fitted, shut-off valves tested. On gas, every joint bubble-tested for leaks while you watch. On electric, the dedicated breaker verified.
We show you, by hand, where your main water shut-off and your fuel shut-off are. Most people don't know until they need to know, and by then they're standing in water.
Set to the recommended anti-scald temperature, and we show you how the controls work rather than leaving you a manual. If anyone in the house needs it set differently, we'll talk through the options.
Where your township requires a permit, we file it and come back for the inspection. Where it doesn’t, we write that on your sign-off sheet so there’s a record of why there isn’t one. Serial numbers recorded, manufacturer warranty registered in your name, and any PECO rebate application submitted — not handed to you as a form to fill in.
We don't leave until you've turned on the tap and felt hot water yourself, at normal pressure, with the air run out of the line. If something's not right, we're still standing there.
It sounds small. It isn't. An air pocket in an upstairs line turns into an angry phone call two hours after we've gone — so we find it while we're still holding a wrench. And it means the last thing that happens on your job is the thing you actually hired us for.
Who we are
Robbins Water Heaters is run by Maine Robbins, a licensed journeyman plumber working out of Yeadon. We do one thing — water heaters — across twelve Delaware County towns.
Most companies that show up when you search for this are based in Audubon, Norristown, Ambler or Wilmington, fifteen to thirty miles away. When your tank goes at seven in the morning, that distance is the difference between hot water today and hot water Thursday.
We're not the biggest. We answer the phone, we show up when we say, and we price the job before we start.
Old houses
The median Delaware County home was built in 1957, and more than half went up before 1960. That means things a newer house doesn't have: atmospheric venting into a shared masonry chimney, gas lines sized for an appliance that left in 1985, no thermal expansion tank, no drain pan.
Those are code items on a replacement. A big-box install crew finds one, cancels the job and leaves you without hot water and a day off work wasted. We carry the parts to fix them and we price them before we begin.
Where we work
If you're on the list, we'll be there today or tomorrow. If you're just outside it, call anyway — we'll tell you honestly whether we can help or point you to someone who can.
Call and we’ll tell you what it costs before we come out. If it’s after hours, leave a message — we return every call by 8am.
Call (610) 424-8265