Inspired by the “cold showers for now on?” thread I got to thinking about mine and I think I’ve got the same heater and beginnings of the same problem.
Any how it seems like I heard at some point that if your water heater hasn’t been maintained i.e. never drained (lack of mait. not my doing) not to do it. Any specific reasoning for this aside from snapping a corroded drain plug or something?
Makes sense “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” Just like taking my truck in for service and within months something worse starts to appear, repeatedly. I know get a new mechanic, I have and it doesn’t matter.
I figure just let things fall apart naturally and don’t tamper with. Same with dentist, hadn’t gone in years and teeth never hurt, went in after my front tooth met a set of Klien’s linesmen. That didn’t even hurt it was just cosmetic, after 6mo of next visit we’ll get this cavity and those last two and a cleaning, etc… I need to call for a root canal on a molar that’s never bothered me until after all this work.
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I used to replace hot water heaters alot. Most have plastic drain taps that you attatch your garden hose to. It can take an hour to drain with all the taps open. If you have alot of weird stuff in the water, ie. well water sometimes, there can be a build up of material that precipitates out of the water. This is why you are never supposed to drink your hot water. This build up can corrode your lower heating element. If you've had 10 or 15 years out of it, it's probably earned it's keep.
every hwt will leak eventually, it's just a matter of time .. flushing only keeps the solids from plugging up the filters in your tap .. the tank will rust whether you flush it or not ..
>>Makes sense "If it ain't broke don't fix it."
Yep.
The hard part s sometimes we don't know if something is "broke."
E.g., sediment/scale build up in the tank and it's effect on efficiency.
"Ask not what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive... then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
Howard Thurman
In my case I'm not looking to diagnose efficiency I already know that, both units are approaching 15yrs. or more.
So according to Wane unless draining to repair, and rjw to diagnose there is no benefit to draining if your faucets aren't plugging and the unit is say older than 10yrs. right?
Now if you have a brand new unit that seems to be working fine is there also no real benefit in a yearly draining either or is there?
>>Now if you have a brand new unit that seems to be working fine is there also no real benefit in a yearly draining either or is there?]Yes there is benefitScale builds up over time (Per plumbers i my area, NW Ohio) about 1/10th inch per yearPer industry sources, 5/10" buildup increases gas usage 70%!
"Ask not what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive... then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
Howard Thurman
Edited 2/20/2009 4:55 pm ET by rjw
Is that scale on the tank wall and bottom, or element?
I imagine both probably huh.
If it was just the wall and bottom that sounds like insulation to me!
By now my 40gal. should be about 20gal.
But really 70% for just that 1/10" on the element? I guess I should more seriously consider a new unit rather than just waiting for one of em' to die and it'd be paid for before the time the old one would have died.
Ahhhh.The figures I gave were for nat gas, not electric
"Ask not what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive... then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
Howard Thurman
Ya I realized the blondness just as I posted it that gas won't have an element but considered the exchanger or something still may be referred to as and the "insulation" build up would ya, still exist but between the heating wall and water not the exterior wall keeping the heat in. Poor attempt at being funny.
Draining a water heater on a regualr basis will help prevent build-up of hard water scale that precipitates to the bottom of the tank quickest by high-wattage electric (3500 watts or higher) heating elements. (You don't mention whether or not your heater is electric or gas.) This is not a big problem if the water is soft rather than hard.
To prolong the life of any tank-type water heater, electric or gas, the most important thing is to replace the anode rod every 5 years or so. (About $35 at a plumbing supply house.)The anode rod is made of either aluminum or magnesium, depending on the water chemistry that predominates in your region. The anode rod is sacrificed, or dissolved, little by little as it migrates to coat the bare steel surfaces of the tank when they are exposed by cracking or flaking of the glass lining that protects the inside of the tank from rusting/corroding. This is simply a galvanic electro-chemical action at work in your favor.
You examine the anode rod by unscrewing it from the top of the tank. (Check the owner's manual, but you usually see just the hex nut in the top of the tank jacket; the rod itself hangs down in the tank, without touching the sides or bottom; the hex nut is the top part of the anode rod.) Breaking the hex nut (about 1-1/4") loose is the hard part. You will need a six-sided socket with at least 1/2" drive, and an 18" breaker bar to match.
If the the anode rod appears to be consumed by more than 1/2 its original mass, replace it. The water heater may not have enough ceiling headroom to install the new rod, which will be about 3-1/2 feet long. If needed, use a hack saw to cut off enough of the bottom to make it fit. Or, if you're lucky, the supply house will have "sausage-link" anode rods that fit down in easily. Such rods are made of about 6" sections of the anode material formed around a cable core. Use Teflon tape to seal the threads of the new hex nut plug to ease the job when you check it again in 5 years. I have done this twice to my 16-yr-old gas water heater, and it's still going strong.
Best info yet, thanks. I'll bet there isn't any thing left of my rod. No puns.
I don't the manuals but will look up online.
Guessing for releaseing hex drain some first with water off to depressurize.
The reasoning behind not doing it late in the life if it has not been done regularly is that the existing sediment may very well be plugging small pinholes. Flush out the sediment and you open/weaken the little holes.
That's what I always understood.