How hard is flushing your water heater?

[La Bibliotecaria Feroz]

We bought our house 9 months ago and I don't know if the previous owners flushed the water heater regularly. Its performance is not quite what I would like.

It's a gas water heater located in the basement. There is a drain but no window in the utility room. Is flushing the tank myself a realistic task?

I am not particularly handy. My finest accomplishment to date was replacing the pump in my dishwasher with the aid of YouTube videos.

[Dancin'Dog]

It's very simple.  You just attach a garden hose to the spigot and drain some water until it comes out clear.  I think you can leave the tank pressurized so it will flow uphill. 


Watch a YouTube to confirm. 


(Thanks for reminding me that I need to drain ours.)  ;)

[brooklynmoney]

I asked a plumber yesterday if this was necessary and he said new hot water heaters have a rod in them that picks up all the sediment so you no longer need to flush them. I don’t know how old yours is that being said. Mine is 2.

[geekette]

I asked a plumber yesterday if this was necessary and he said new hot water heaters have a rod in them that picks up all the sediment so you no longer need to flush them. I don’t know how old yours is that being said. Mine is 2.

You may be conflating two water heater maintenance items - flushing removes sediment (frequency depends on the hardness of your water), the anode rod reduces corrosion (every 5 years or so). 

Is there something new I haven't heard about?

[PMG]

I've only done electric ones, not gas. On the electric tanks it was simple.  Turn off power, attach a hose that has some downhill slope to it and hits a drain or outside and wait. Close the drain spout, remove hose. refill. turn on.

However, sediment will shift around while draining, some will exit, but some will stay in the heater and could lodge in the drain spout (I don't remember the correct word for that).  It is possible that you won't be able to fully shut off the drain spout and might have some drips after you remove the hose.  In that case you need to replace the spout which, since the tank is already empty, is pretty simple.  Unscrew the old one (I think use a channel lock pliers to help), make sure the threads are clean of sediment, screw in a new one.  (Or clean up the old one, reinstall and and see if it shuts off completely.)  The drain spout cost somewhere around $5-$10.  I only had to do that on a couple very old tanks.  On newer tanks I was always successful in shutting it off again.  So, one out of 15. 

So, my advice would be that it's likely simple enough.  Confirm gas instructions.  But do it early enough in the day so that if you have to run to the shop and buy a replacement drain spout, or if something else unpredictable happens, you still have some time to handle that while shops are open.

Good luck!

[lthenderson]

I used to regularly drain my water heater and occasionally had to replace parts on it because either I broke the valve trying to get it open or broke it trying to get it to seal shut again. Eventually I stopped doing that altogether.  Partly what helped in that decision was seeing several cut open water heaters at a plumbing company where I know the owner.  He cut open the tanks of units he had replaced that the owners said they had flushed regularly. They still accumulated crud on the bottom but had a clear narrow funnel opening going down to the drain. In essence, there just wasn't enough turbulence caused by the water to do much good except right by the nozzle.

[Dancin'Dog]

I used to regularly drain my water heater and occasionally had to replace parts on it because either I broke the valve trying to get it open or broke it trying to get it to seal shut again. Eventually I stopped doing that altogether.  Partly what helped in that decision was seeing several cut open water heaters at a plumbing company where I know the owner.  He cut open the tanks of units he had replaced that the owners said they had flushed regularly. They still accumulated crud on the bottom but had a clear narrow funnel opening going down to the drain. In essence, there just wasn't enough turbulence caused by the water to do much good except right by the nozzle.

That is a valid point.  The sediment that comes out of the filter from our well water is a very fine black sand, guess granite dust, that packs tightly in the bottom of the bucket that I rinse the filter in.  That does make sense that it wouldn't easily come of the heater tank by simply draining it.  It would require a pressurized jet of water from above to break it up. 

[ericrugiero]

I used to regularly drain my water heater and occasionally had to replace parts on it because either I broke the valve trying to get it open or broke it trying to get it to seal shut again. Eventually I stopped doing that altogether.  Partly what helped in that decision was seeing several cut open water heaters at a plumbing company where I know the owner.  He cut open the tanks of units he had replaced that the owners said they had flushed regularly. They still accumulated crud on the bottom but had a clear narrow funnel opening going down to the drain. In essence, there just wasn't enough turbulence caused by the water to do much good except right by the nozzle.

That is a valid point.  The sediment that comes out of the filter from our well water is a very fine black sand, guess granite dust, that packs tightly in the bottom of the bucket that I rinse the filter in.  That does make sense that it wouldn't easily come of the heater tank by simply draining it.  It would require a pressurized jet of water from above to break it up.

I have family that made a bent nozzle out of PVC to flush the bottom of the tank.  This is the only way you will get it really clean.  They took out the bottom heating element after it was drained (electric heater) and used the bent nozzle to wash out the sediment at the bottom.  Personally, I question if it's worth it.  Turn off the power and drain occasionally to get some of the sediment.  That's probably good enough.