Is there any value to our old copper hot water tank

T

Tee

Registered User
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24
Hi
Money tight and we're doing up our house. Just wondering if it's worth us asking the builder to leave the copper water tank so we can get rid ourselves to a scrape dealer? Is it worth anything much?

Also is there anything else that would be worth salvaging?

Thanks
 
Copper tank

I brought my old copper tank to the local scrap metal merchant along with a couple of pieces of the old copper piping the plumber removd and I got €55 euro for the lot - better than nothing! Plumbers regularly take away the old tank as a convenience to their customer but they really are doing themselves a favour as the sell them on to the scrap man! I live in Dublin but I'd say there are plenty of scrap metal salvage yards around the country given the high price of metals.
 
Last time I checked, scrap copper is approx €4 per kg. A standard 30 gallon copper cylinder is appprox 11kg so cylinder is worth approx €44. Any other bits you have will bump up the price. Also separate the brass fittings as they will be a higher price per kg.
 
You just put a thought in my head. My mum has an old 1970's boiler that's seriously heavy. Would it be worth anything? It seems to be made of some form of steel. Any thoughts welcome
 
How do you know if the scrap metal dealer is not ripping you off - do they weigh it and look up a price? I have a fair amount of copper left after a build.
 
Pope John 11 said:
You just put a thought in my head. My mum has an old 1970's boiler that's seriously heavy. Would it be worth anything? It seems to be made of some form of steel. Any thoughts welcome
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Steel is pretty worthless for the effort involved. It's about €150 per tonne but it takes a lot of weight to get any amount for it. I pretty much give the boilers to them for free otherwise it costs me €30 per boiler to dump.


Copper is very expensive at the moment. 1" copper tube is over €50 per length to buy from merchants.

All reputable & licensed scrap merchants will weigh what you are bringing them. The one that rubs his chin and guesses the weight by eye, well you should what comes next.....!!!!
 
Birroc said:
How do you know if the scrap metal dealer is not ripping you off - do they weigh it and look up a price? I have a fair amount of copper left after a build.
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I stripped some extremely large cable i had left over from a job once, and brought it down to the scrapyard at harolds cross bridge. They have an extra large weighing scales which they use to weigh it. While i was waiting for my money, a "crew" of men had brought in a serious amount of copper out of the back of their Transit.. They put it on the scales and once the scale maxed out( cant remember the exact wieght but alot!), they all started doing a jig, and linking arms, and yelping!! They all headed into the man of achill next door with their "winnings"!
 
chrisboy said:
I stripped some extremely large cable i had left over from a job once, and brought it down to the scrapyard at harolds cross bridge. They have an extra large weighing scales which they use to weigh it. While i was waiting for my money, a "crew" of men had brought in a serious amount of copper out of the back of their Transit.. They put it on the scales and once the scale maxed out( cant remember the exact wieght but alot!), they all started doing a jig, and linking arms, and yelping!! They all headed into the man of achill next door with their "winnings"!
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I wonder if the scrap merchant owned the pub next door !
 
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