How to Flush a Water Heater

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How to Flush a Water Heater

When you own or occupy a home, you typically have several obligations to fulfill. The majority of these obligations are to maintain as well as ensure the longevity of your home and its components. While some of these responsibilities are more suitable to be performed by the respective professionals that are trained to address any issues that may be present, there are numerous actions you can execute yourself. Performing essential obligations on your home’s equipment yourself will not only save you money, but it will also assist you in becoming more familiar as well as knowledgeable with the equipment. Furthermore, this will provide you with the confidence and experience required, should you need to continually execute the process regularly.

Flushing a Hot Water Heater – How To

One such appliance that can be maintained and requires some simple operations to be routinely performed is your hot water heater. Although there may be issues that arise requiring a professional, repair or replacement, properly maintaining your hot water heater is vital to you and your home’s safety as well as ensuring its longevity. Therefore, we’ll be assisting you with the simple process of flushing your hot water heater. Completing this task yourself, while simple, can cause negative consequences if executed improperly. Please ensure you read the following information carefully and perform the necessary steps, in order, to avoid any possible damage/harm to your hot water heater or yourself. While we’ll be informing you of the proper method, in order to better assist you, your safety is our number one priority.

Whether you feel comfortable enough to perform this task on your own or rather hire a professional, it’s essential that this process occurs yearly. In doing so, you can effectively increase the lifespan of your water heater by double. This will also assist the vital appliance in performing more efficiently and.may ensure there are no other, more critical, issues taking place. Following the steps we’ll be providing, you can be certain that this method is performed properly and understand exactly why this is essential.

Step 1 – Inform yourself about sediment.

When there’s an increase of sediment in your water heater, you’ll typically begin to hear unusual noises such as rumbling or popping. These sounds are formed by steam bubbles making their way through the built-up sediment. If you own a gas operated water heater, the excess sediment will cause damage or untimely failure due to “hot spots” forming within the tank. Those who own an electric water heater will likely sustain damage to their heating elements, located in the lower portion of the tank, due to excess sediment. We mention this as it’s the reason flushing your hot water heater is essential, increases its lifespan and decreases utility bills.

Step 2 – Gather supplies and parts.

If you’ve never performed this action and have had your water heater for quite some time, you’re in for an unpleasant surprise. Due to the processes involved, you’ll want to ensure you maintain the proper supplies and equipment prior to beginning. Failing to do so, may leave you with excess sediment clogging your drain valve that will be essentially impossible to close. This will leave you with a mess, odor, and leak until you acquire the materials needed. Therefore, we recommend being prepared with the necessary equipment. Ensure you obtain pliers, a garden hose, pipe wrench, and a wet vac. These materials, if you don’t already own them, are cheaper than hiring a professional and you’ll only need to purchase them once for your yearly water heater flushing.

The wet vac is essential in order to thoroughly remove debris. Due to the drain valves small opening, you may need to assemble an adapter to penetrate the opening. You can easily perform this by simply measuring your drain valve as well as the wet vac hose or nozzle and purchase PVC as well as a hose to create the adapter. Many large chain home supply stores have experts ready to assist you, free of charge, with choosing the necessary components. However, they may already have a manufactured adapter for this process (simplifying, saving time and materials) and due to the several differences in water heaters, drain valves and wet vacs, there’s no single way to recommend the appropriate pieces for every model of wet vac or water heater. Furthermore, some recommend increasing the size of your drain valve and that’s one way to go about inserting the wet vac easier. However, it may void the warranty, which isn’t wise due to the plethora of issues that may occur, requiring you to cover the costs even when the manufacturer may be at fault as you altered the appliance. We want this to be a simple process and not a big project. Should your warranty no longer be applicable and you want to create a larger drain valve, the experts at large home supply stores will be able to assist you better than any site as long as you have your measurements and model numbers on hand.

Step 3 – Flush the water heater!

Ensure the gas or electricity that supplies the water heater is off! Proceed to turn on the hot water faucet somewhere in your home, we recommend the bath due to the amount that flows and it’s capacity, for 10-15 minutes. Performing this allows the hot water to drain while cool water pumps back in the water heater, effectively cooling the water and making it safe to handle. Now, turn the main water valve off and proceed to the drain valve at the bottom of your tank. Ensure the drain isn’t clogged, if it is, utilize your tools and materials. Attach the garden hose to the drain valve and simply allow the water to run through the hose outside or to your floor drain, utilizing a colander to collect any debris from entering your drain valve. Perform a final flush or more, if required, by turning the water back on, allowing the water to run through your hose until it’s clear and free of sediment.

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