Do it Yourself: RE: [DIY] Water Heater Flush

07 January 2015

RE: [DIY] Water Heater Flush

funny you should mention that. The last time I flushed our water heater, I did exactly that and have had zero problems with

leaking ever since. You’re absolutely right, the cheap plastic valves they put on the heaters are one use valves. Once they’ve

been opened, they never seal up right after that. Brass ball valves are cheap and is a 5 minute job to replace.

-aki

From: DoIt_Yourself@yahoogroups.com [mailto:DoIt_Yourself@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2015 8:49 PM
To: YahooGroup DIY
Subject: RE: [DIY] Water Heater Flush

If the valve you have is the one that came with the heater, it's a cheap plastic. When I was a plumber's assitant junior trainee (you know ... one of those gofer guys) when we put in a new water heater, we usually removed the plastic valves and installed a brass ball valve. I doesn't leak every time you use it.

To: DoIt_Yourself@yahoogroups.com
From: DoIt_Yourself@yahoogroups.com
Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2015 12:00:04 -0800
Subject: Re: [DIY] Water Heater Flush

I have tried to flush water heaters. Nearly every time I tried to do flush one, chunks of mineral got stuck in the drain valve. They leaked after that, same with the pressure valve. Once its been opened it tends to be hard to re-seat. So I just leave them alone. My first experience there was seeing my Dad try to drain his water heater. It was a leaker after that until they replaced it. I had similar experiences when I tried it.
I've been thinking about replacing my 30 gallon gas water heater at home. It had just been replaced before I bought the place in 1989. I've never touched it. It still works perfectly.
The water heater we have at work is electric. We tried to drain it and it leaked ever since, same with the pressure valve on it. It leaked after it was opened from then on. I just replaced that water heater a few weeks ago. We went without hot water there for some time because it leaked so badly when it was heating.
I have seen water heaters that were so full of water deposits they were nearly as heavy empty as they were full of water.
Don't know much more than that. Just felt worth a comment.
Steve

On 1/6/2015 10:33 AM, Ron Johnson l0c0l0b0@hotmail.com [DoIt_Yourself] wrote:

I just flushed out a water heater and got alot of mineral deposits. I know I'm supposed to do it every 6 months, but it has slipped by me.

But that brings up a question: it's electric - so other than having a tad more space for water, what is the purpose? With gas heaters, being heated from below, mineral deposits definitely shorten the life of a heater. But does it really make a difference on electric?