Water Heater for Dummy

[SteppedInIt]

I have had the good fortune of no water heater issues, so I have no experience with them. Looking for some quick help. Lately the water isn't very warm and takes a while to get it at the faucet. This is gas btw. I went out last night to drain it. I turned the water supply to heater off. Hooked up garden hose to valve and opened it up. Nothing. Turned the water supply to heater on, get hot water out of hose. Is this normal?

I let it run out of the hose until the water was cold. It did have some discolored water come out at first but cleared up quickly. I did hear some clunks during the process. The burner seems to be working good. I am wondering if the thermostat is bad or if the whole water heater needs replaced. No leaks and doesn't look very old. We have owned this house for two years so really don't know anything about it.

Any wisdom appreciated.

 

[dun]

With no water going in you won;t get any water out. Could be the thermostat or if you have hard water, the tank may be crudded up with minerals. We cleaned ours out last year and got almost 50 lbs of calcium/minerals/crud out of the bottom.

 

[backhoeboogie]

MIne gunks up regularly. First thing I do is change the drain valve to a ball valve. Full port in the ball valve allows larger debris to clear the valve and drain out. With it turned off, I flush it out of this valve for a while.

 

[dun]

MIne gunks up regularly. First thing I do is change the drain valve to a ball valve. Full port in the ball valve allows larger debris to clear the valve and drain out. With it turned off, I flush it out of this valve for a while.

You're lucky. Ours we had the break stuff lose with a screwdriver and scrape the gunk out. It's electric so we had the hole for the heater element to access the insides.

 

[TB521]

With no water going in you won;t get any water out. Could be the thermostat or if you have hard water, the tank may be crudded up with minerals. We cleaned ours out last year and got almost 50 lbs of calcium/minerals/crud out of the bottom.

How did you get that much out I spent a hour and half scraping mine and might have got enough out to fill a ice cream bucket

 

[dun]

The electrician that replaced the heater unit had a tool that he had made for just that purpose. Took him several hours to get it good enough to satisfy him. He's a friend of ours so he didn;t charge us an arm and a leg. Next time I'll just replace it.

 

[SteppedInIt]

MIne gunks up regularly. First thing I do is change the drain valve to a ball valve. Full port in the ball valve allows larger debris to clear the valve and drain out. With it turned off, I flush it out of this valve for a while.

How do you flush it? Just continually let water run through or should I run water backward through it?

Dun I thought it actually held 30 gal or so of water so if I open the drain valve I thought it would drain the 30 gal of water with supply off. Still confused here.

 

[TB521]

The electrician that replaced the heater unit had a tool that he had made for just that purpose. Took him several hours to get it good enough to satisfy him. He's a friend of ours so he didn;t charge us an arm and a leg. Next time I'll just replace it.

I won't clean mine again it's only 6 yr old and in the last year it's popped the bottom element 3 times the next one I will buy a new one and maybe a water softnor

 

[dun]

MIne gunks up regularly. First thing I do is change the drain valve to a ball valve. Full port in the ball valve allows larger debris to clear the valve and drain out. With it turned off, I flush it out of this valve for a while.

How do you flush it? Just continually let water run through or should I run water backward through it?

Dun I thought it actually held 30 gal or so of water so if I open the drain valve I thought it would drain the 30 gal of water with supply off. Still confused here.

If you open a couple of hot water faucets and shut off the supply the water will come out the drain. Just fairly slowly. With hot water faucets closed and no water coming in you basicly have a vacuum in the heater.
If you disconnect the supply line it will also drain.

 

[SteppedInIt]

Gotcha thanks! Anyone wanna guess what I'll be doing shortly?

 

[dun]

Gotcha thanks! Anyone wanna guess what I'll be doing shortly?

Swearing a lot?

 

[JMJ Farms]

For those of you that have hard water like me, you can install a filter at your well, or where the water comes into your house if you have city water, and it will eliminate a lot of problems with calcium, dirt, etc. it will easily pay for itself by saving your water heater as well as your faucets.

 

[dun]

For those of you that have hard water like me, you can install a filter at your well, or where the water comes into your house if you have city water, and it will eliminate a lot of problems with calcium, dirt, etc. it will easily pay for itself by saving your water heater as well as your faucets.

A water softener is about all I've seen that helps. The limestone in our water is really something to behold. Shower head gets clogged within a month or so.

 

[JMJ Farms]

For those of you that have hard water like me, you can install a filter at your well, or where the water comes into your house if you have city water, and it will eliminate a lot of problems with calcium, dirt, etc. it will easily pay for itself by saving your water heater as well as your faucets.

A water softener is about all I've seen that helps. The limestone in our water is really something to behold. Shower head gets clogged within a month or so.

Try a whole house water filter. You will be glad. And maybe even a little queezy when you see what you've been drinking. They work well.

 

[SteppedInIt]

Well it turns out my dip tube was gone. Lowes didn't have one so I made one out of 1/2" pvc that fit real snug in the fitting. Got hot water but I think the pvc is a smaller ID and is hurting my pressure. Hopefully I can find the proper dip tube replacement. Hardest part was getting the old copper flex pipe fittings to stop leaking. Couldn't find a year on it, but did find a price tag that had $189 so it's gotta be old. 40 gal. I think they are $400 to $500 now.

 

[JMJ Farms]

Swap to electric. 50 gallon around $250. And cheaper to operate. Here anyway.

 

[backhoeboogie]

For those of you that have hard water like me, you can install a filter at your well, or where the water comes into your house if you have city water, and it will eliminate a lot of problems with calcium, dirt, etc. it will easily pay for itself by saving your water heater as well as your faucets.

A water softener is about all I've seen that helps. The limestone in our water is really something to behold. Shower head gets clogged within a month or so.

We have tons of limestone here and lime in the water too. I have a settling tank and booster pump. Peroxide injection really helps.

As far as flushing, you can do it about once a month. Turn off the power and let the water flow out of the hose on the bottom drain. Full throttle. My valve is changed to a ball, as I said, so I get a lot of flow out of there with full pressure water supply going in. I probably don't get it all but I run the hose into a bucket in the yard. You can tell when the settlement clears and the water turns clean.