Good evening everybody, hope you have all had a good weekend thus far. Today I decided to attempt to drain our water heater. This unit is in our first house, a 1959 ranch that we purchased a little over a year ago. The water heater itself is a 30 gallon gas unit, and is around 21-23 years old if I remember correctly. It hasn't been drained in AT LEAST 9 years, as the house vacant for 8 years, and most likely it was never drained before that. I was nervous going into it knowing it hadn't been drained in possibly 23 years, worried that the sediment would block the valve, or that the pressure release valve would get stuck or break.
Well, thankfully the process ended up going smoothly. I dug down to the water meter and shut off the valve (for the first time since moving in) Once the water supply was shut off I turned the water heater thermostat off and turned the gas supply to "pilot". I had to then go purchase a new garden hose since the one we had was leaking water everywhere. Once the new hose wast attached I proceeded to opened up the drain. Not much happened so I went ahead and popped the pressure relieve valve open and had my wife turn on all the hot water faucets inside the house.
That worked like a charm and the water began flowing out. Once empty I closed it all back up and turned the water back on, filled it up, then drained once again.
After it was all said and done we ran all the faucets for a while to get the air out of the system and to flush the sediment out of the lines, plenty of little rust flakes and other debris came out. Especially in the original bathroom.
Glad to have that out of the way knowing now it can be done. Hoping the water heater will keep going strong with no leaks since some of the gunk was probably flushed out. It may just be the placebo effect, but the water did seem to heat up much quicker than before the drain.
Well, thankfully the process ended up going smoothly. I dug down to the water meter and shut off the valve (for the first time since moving in) Once the water supply was shut off I turned the water heater thermostat off and turned the gas supply to "pilot". I had to then go purchase a new garden hose since the one we had was leaking water everywhere. Once the new hose wast attached I proceeded to opened up the drain. Not much happened so I went ahead and popped the pressure relieve valve open and had my wife turn on all the hot water faucets inside the house.
That worked like a charm and the water began flowing out. Once empty I closed it all back up and turned the water back on, filled it up, then drained once again.
After it was all said and done we ran all the faucets for a while to get the air out of the system and to flush the sediment out of the lines, plenty of little rust flakes and other debris came out. Especially in the original bathroom.
Glad to have that out of the way knowing now it can be done. Hoping the water heater will keep going strong with no leaks since some of the gunk was probably flushed out. It may just be the placebo effect, but the water did seem to heat up much quicker than before the drain.
