I’m even more curious, a water heater install in NM isn’t very much, how much of your own money did you spend on his tip (not it’s retail value), and why tip the owner of a plumbing company?
I’m also curious what the total water heater replacement cost is for your area.
Local code changed and there were quite a few updates that had to be done on the hot water heater fittings. We had a 60 gallon unit due to the heating/cooling system we had (house was equipped that way when purchased) and that replacement coincided with work on the heater which quit on Christmas Eve.
Considering he spent Christmas Eve at our home trying to get us heat, brought us heaters we could use to stay warm so we didn’t end up at a hotel with our dogs in the kennel and also brought us jugs filled with water so that we could flush our toilets until he could get a hot water heater in there, he went above and beyond.
We ended up spending $1400 dollars that time and the zipline gift cards were purchased with our own money. As were the gift cards to the restaurant later.