~ Whens that last time you FLUSHED your Hot water heater ~

[awsomeears]

Replaced my grandpas Hot water heater 2 weeks ago ( also upgraded to a sweet circulation setup by WATTS ) and you would have shit your pants how much mineral deposits came out....

My grandpa was so shocked because he did drain it once per year but only took out a small bucket, I then explained you have to hook up a hose and run it to your drain and FLUSH it out for a good 5 mins. Reason being ( my personal opinion ) is that on every water heat I have seen the drain is roughly 2" above the lower portion of the tank, flushing it I hope will churn it up and push it out...

Ive always put the gas valve on a low setting just so it doesn't kick in while Flushing it, probably doesn't matter but it seems safer to me...

As your water heater heats up the COLD water to HOT minerals within the water separate and drop/build up on the bottom

[03CVLX]

Off the top of my head. I don't believe my parents have even ever drained it, let alone flushed it. It's at LEAST 10-15 years old now.

[Rocket Power]

I'm guilty, I've never done it bought the house in 02. Not sure if the previous owners ever did either. Do you need a high temp hose or will a regular garden house work?

[Rocket Power]

***

[JC70SS]

Replaced my grandpas Hot water heater 2 weeks ago ( also upgraded to a sweet circulation setup by WATTS ) and you would have shit your pants how much mineral deposits came out....

My grandpa was so shocked because he did drain it once per year but only took out a small bucket, I then explained you have to hook up a hose and run it to your drain and FLUSH it out for a good 5 mins. Reason being ( my personal opinion ) is that on every water heat I have seen the drain is roughly 2" above the lower portion of the tank, flushing it I hope will churn it up and push it out...

Ive always put the gas valve on a low setting just so it doesn't kick in while Flushing it, probably doesn't matter but it seems safer to me...

As your water heater heats up the COLD water to HOT minerals within the water separate and drop/build up on the bottom

Our heater was replaced thurs after 5, yes 5 years. There was so much sediment that the drain was completely plugged and had to be taken off to drain it. F-ing Brookfield water

[SSDude]

I'm guilty, I've never done it bought the house in 02. Not sure if the previous owners ever did either. Do you need a high temp hose or will a regular garden house work?

Regular hose will do.
I've never done mine either, at this point it may be better to leave it alone as the crud will be pretty well cemented to the bottom and you don't want to start a leak. lol
If your going to do it, it would be best to start with a new unit and do it with the smoke detector and thermostat battery change annually.

[jbiscuit]

I would suggest leaving it alone also if it hasn't ever been done. Could loosen up a lot of sediment which could be hard to get all out. We did this to my buddy Frank's rental property and he ended up having to put in a new water heater due to all the sediment.

[Nix]

We built our house in 2007 and I'm also guilty of never draining our water heater.

What do you guys think? Is it too late with having not done it in almost four years? I don't want to cause any damage either way. I'm torn as to i I should empty and flush it or just leave it alone. In May we will have been here for 4 years.

[WI_Dave]

I would suggest leaving it alone also if it hasn't ever been done. Could loosen up a lot of sediment which could be hard to get all out. We did this to my buddy Frank's rental property and he ended up having to put in a new water heater due to all the sediment.

Then it needed to be changed anyway. A bad water heater is essentially a boiler and could blow up and take out your entire house. The sediment can PLUG the relief valve and cause the pressure to get too high until it ruptures. Is saving $300 by not changing a water heater worth your families lives? Also the sediment on the bottom puts a layer between the flame and the water (basically a layer of insulation) making it take more time for the flame to heat the water costing you money.


YOU MUST BLOW THEM DOWN OCCASIONALLY. Do it at the bottom blow down AND the relief valve near the top. I have seen enough damage done by them to never forget to check mine. Do it when you change your furnace filter, most likely it right next to it anyhow.

[awsomeears]

IMO there is no reason the thought " Ehh might as well leave it because its been xxx years since I last did it or it might damage it "

I don't agree what so ever because that Crap that sits in the bottom will ROT out the tank faster, I believe ( not sure if there's proof ) that when this crap sits in the bottom it has a mineral/chemical fusion of some sort and WILL prematurely rust/rot it out....

I have replaced I don't know about a Hundred water heaters in the 6 years Ive been in my field and that's mostly through work and maybe 10 for Family and the cause for replacement was not that it doesn't work its that

" Holly shit its leaking from the BOTTOM "

LOL !

So yes its 100% positively worth it to flush your water heater at any age, if shit goes wrong then it was bound to happen one way or another.

These are just tips I'm throwing out there that I see, I like to spread " THE WORD " about simple crap the average JOE forgets about.....

Then again HVAC and Plumbers LOVE it when stuff isn't maintained........ New water heater you say....

Quagmire " ooh right.......... "

[jbiscuit]

Then it needed to be changed anyway. A bad water heater is essentially a boiler and could blow up and take out your entire house. The sediment can PLUG the relief valve and cause the pressure to get too high until it ruptures. Is saving $300 by not changing a water heater worth your families lives? Also the sediment on the bottom puts a layer between the flame and the water (basically a layer of insulation) making it take more time for the flame to heat the water costing you money.


YOU MUST BLOW THEM DOWN OCCASIONALLY. Do it at the bottom blow down AND the relief valve near the top. I have seen enough damage done by them to never forget to check mine. Do it when you change your furnace filter, most likely it right next to it anyhow.

Hmm so what you are saying is not flushing out the water heater causes it to explode which takes out the house and people living in it....hmm. I would think that would put water heaters at the top of the list for cause of death in Milwaukee! New at 10....water heaters attack!

BCM makes me laugh sometimes. Flush if you want. But the fact of the matter here is you modern water heater is junk. It's gonna fail at some point. It's a component with an expiration date from the time It goes in. Flushing it might buy you a few months but to say flushing it is a matter of life or death is laughable. Never seen a news story about a killer water heater lol

[awsomeears]

Depending what field Dave is in don't get to far ahead of yourself Jb you should see some of the SHIT I see !!!!!!!!

Ive seen water heaters have so much sediment in the bottom it starts to purcolate almost like those old school coffee makers that puff out steam, that it would bounce on the concrete floor !!!

Ive seen the bottoms of them Bust out like putting a firecracker inside a can of water !!!

Not to mention there are Trillions of water heaters, its just not News worthy. Remember I'm out in the Field and I see this stuff, not knocking you I just have Real wrench time in some crazy homes....

Flushing also is not ALL about the rotting of the bottom, everyone is missing one valuable point here !!!

Why on god's green earth do you want to heat up 8" of crap only to then heat up your water. My grandpa's probably had that much and Ive seen some shit at least 12" to 24" when cutting some open because we couldn't get the bitch to drain even after busting the lower drain out...

Trust me on this one.....

[WI_Dave]

double post but ^^^ I agree another underestimated problem is the efficiency with layers of sludge preventing the heat from transfering to the water. may even cost you the price of a new one over a few years

[WI_Dave]

http://www.reliefvalve.net/ Plenty of stories here

I dont care if you leave yours alone, but please don't go telling everybody else not to blow theirs down because "you dont see it on the news every night" or to save a measly $300 on maybe needing to replace a bad water heater. (mine was alot less)

as far as what field I'm in -I am a licensed boiler operator. I know what I'm talking about here.

Is a hot water heater a boiler? -A boiler by definition-A boiler is a closed vessel in which water or other fluid is heated under pressure. A safety valve is required to prevent over pressurization and possible explosion of a boiler.

If there was no danger of it exploding why is there a relief valve on it?

[jbiscuit]

I didn't say it couldn't explode but to create hysteria suggesting these blow up all the time is pretty funny! If water heaters were taking out homes across Milwaukee you would see news about that. Again, I didn't say don't flush it! Go ahead in fact. What's the harm in trying to clean it out if you choose.

All this stuff is suggested maintenance. There are people that never replace furnace filters ever also. Will the furnace burst into flame? No probably not.

The appropriate suggestion in this thread should be to flush your water heater to save you money in the long run and prevent possible I'll effects to the water heater in te future. Not: if you don't do this it will kill your family and blow up your house. That is a bit over the top I think.

[77thor]

I flushed my last water heater (Bradford-White) every 3-6 months and it still only lasted 7 years... In fact, I've never had one last longer than that. We must have really bad water here in Franklin.

[WI_Dave]

I would suggest leaving it alone also if it hasn't ever been done. Could loosen up a lot of sediment which could be hard to get all out. We did this to my buddy Frank's rental property and he ended up having to put in a new water heater due to all the sediment.

Yes you did

[WI_Dave]

I didn't say it couldn't explode but to create hysteria suggesting these blow up all the time is pretty funny! If water heaters were taking out homes across Milwaukee you would see news about that. Again, I didn't say don't flush it! Go ahead in fact. What's the harm in trying to clean it out if you choose.

All this stuff is suggested maintenance. There are people that never replace furnace filters ever also. Will the furnace burst into flame? No probably not.

The appropriate suggestion in this thread should be to flush your water heater to save you money in the long run and prevent possible I'll effects to the water heater in te future. Not: if you don't do this it will kill your family and blow up your house. That is a bit over the top I think.

Nowhere did I say it happens all the time. I said it can happen, and it does whether you want to believe it or not. Try reading what I typed not twisting it to make your arguement. I was giving one more reason to show the importance of blowing down your water heater for the O.P.

[jbiscuit]

Yes you did

That was my suggestion for his particular case. Not saying to never flush it in every case. Good try though!

[jbiscuit]

A bad water heater is essentially a boiler and could blow up and take out your entire house. The sediment can PLUG the relief valve and cause the pressure to get too high until it ruptures. Is saving $300 by not changing a water heater worth your families lives?