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Flushing Water Heater

bad zuki

bad zuki

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What the best thing to flush a water heater with? I’ve got a pump I’m gonna set up to flush it through the pressure release.
 
RusM said:
Vinegar
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Good choice to dissolve lime scale. 'Twould be best to fill w/ your vinegar solution (preferable warm or hot) & allow sit for ~30 minutes, then drain & flush to get rid of the schmoo & residual vinegar.

My buddy has the best tasting well water I've ever had, but he replaces water heaters every ~5 years because they're full of ~drywall :laughing:
 
Water heater is like a transmission. if you flush it regular... good job.

If it's been there 15 years with no flush, don't start now. You are going to loosen the scale (especially if you put in something like vinegar) and an unintended shit show will be in your near future, from anything like a scale clogging up every fixture in your house, to the water heater leaking, or going out.

At least that's how things work in my life anyway.
 
grumpy356 said:
Water heater is like a transmission. if you flush it regular... good job.

If it's been there 15 years with no flush, don't start now. You are going to loosen the scale (especially if you put in something like vinegar) and an unintended shit show will be in your near future, from anything like a scale clogging up every fixture in your house, to the water heater leaking, or going out.

At least that's how things work in my life anyway.
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This is in a 75+ year old cabin with 1 kitchen sink and a bathroom. There are zero screens that I'm worried about. I think the toilet is a 5 gallon flush. :laughing:

Would it be a bad idea to valve off the tank and just recirculate the vinegar through the tank?.
 
bad zuki said:
This is in a 75+ year old cabin with 1 kitchen sink and a bathroom. There are zero screens that I'm worried about. I think the toilet is a 5 gallon flush. :laughing:

Would it be a bad idea to valve off the tank and just recirculate the vinegar through the tank?.
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Do you know how old that cold water heater is? Like grumpy356 said, you could be removing "structural" lime scale. I've never descaled a water heater, only flushed 'em, but if it's 15 years old, I wouldn't descale out of fear it would fail.

I have one that's ~18 YO in the guest cabin of our "new" house & want to replace it for peace of mind, but I have to tear out part of a wall to get to it (fucking hippies built the cabin :mad3:). I've given it a test drain & it seemed OK, but I'm guessing it would shit its guts out if I tried to descale it.
 
I'd just stick a hose on the drain valve and open it up and see what kind of shit comes out first.

I drained one of mine last year because I had to move it to fix a leak behind it. Wasn't nearly as bad as I expected it to be and I doubt the PO had done it very recently before I bought the place.

I need to do the one in the rental....that was built in '09 and I doubt it's ever been flushed.
 
bad zuki said:
Would it be a bad idea to valve off the tank and just recirculate the vinegar through the tank?.
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This is what I do with my tankless water heater semi regularly, I've never done that with a tank style heater but could see it being helpful. I think with a tank style heater you'd need a lot of vinegar.
 
The water heater is a "newer" model, and I want to say its less than 10 years old, but hasn't been used/cycled near as much, so I'm not worried about structural problems for now. Supposedly It's already had an element put in it.

bgaidan said:
I'd just stick a hose on the drain valve and open it up and see what kind of shit comes out first.
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I have done this multiple times. The bucket pictured was after an hour or so flushing it out after the 3rd flush. I'm halfway thinking It's a lime well and not a water well at this point.

ScottRS said:
This is what I do with my tankless water heater semi regularly, I've never done that with a tank style heater but could see it being helpful. I think with a tank style heater you'd need a lot of vinegar.
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I'm thinking so, probably 5 gallons or so and let the pump run for a while.
 
attach a hose let the pressure blow shit out for about 10 minutes call it good if no big chucks come out.

extra work drain i all the way remove bottom element and vacuum shit out or try hosing it out.
 
I've always just flushed them to get rid of solids, garden hose on the drain valve to drain out into the yard, drain fill rinse repeat until no more solids, for me it seems to be an all day affair.
I try to do it once a year.
 
When you have it drained, turn the inlet water off and on in short burst a few times. It helps to stir up the sediment sitting on the bottom and flush it out quicker.
 
I had a place for just shy of 30 years
I'd throw a hose on the drain and run it outside about once a year
that is it

I sold the place with the same heater that was in it when I got it
 
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They make setups that use air and water.
Descaler for cleaning. Vinegar will work, just not as well.

CLR works well too.
 
GM Guy said:
to KEEP it HOT. The only time the water heater is a water heater is the first fill, after that, unless you got a bunch of womenfolk in the house, the water heater IS a hot water heater.
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No, it's a hot water maintainer :flipoff2:

Besides, "water heater" isn't exclusive; it would be retarded to have something that only heats hot water.
 
If the hot water has cooled, then the water gets heated,
if it’s hot, there’s no need to heat the water.
 
We were having water "smell" problems with our water heater, so called a plumber to find out why. He said the factory magnesium anode will create that smell with particularly hard water. He changed the anode out to an aluminum anode. In the process while the anode was out, he poured some hydrogen peroxide to the remaining water in the water heater to deal with the smell and clean / flush the tank.

Google the science behind using hydrogen peroxide to flush water heaters with...
 
GM Guy said:
to KEEP it HOT. The only time the water heater is a water heater is the first fill, after that, unless you got a bunch of womenfolk in the house, the water heater IS a hot water heater.
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Mine only heats when I need water.
GonPostal said:
We were having water "smell" problems with our water heater, so called a plumber to find out why. He said the factory magnesium anode will create that smell with particularly hard water. He changed the anode out to an aluminum anode. In the process while the anode was out, he poured some hydrogen peroxide to the remaining water in the water heater to deal with the smell and clean / flush the tank.

Google the science behind using hydrogen peroxide to flush water heaters with...
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In my old place I had a new unit put in.

It started making gas pressure not long after install. First just figured it was air still working out, but then started stinking of seweage after a couple months. And the pressure would be pretty bad if the hot water wasn't used for a while. Like rattling the pipes and would blow the water clear out the sink.
Ended up being the wrong anode that was making hydrogen sulfide gas.
 
AKnate said:
Mine only heats when I need water.

In my old place I had a new unit put in.

It started making gas pressure not long after install. First just figured it was air still working out, but then started stinking of seweage after a couple months. And the pressure would be pretty bad if the hot water wasn't used for a while. Like rattling the pipes and would blow the water clear out the sink.
Ended up being the wrong anode that was making hydrogen sulfide gas.
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WTF.... That is fucking crazy... I just go to Homeless depot and buy what ever rod is hanging on the rack. I think they are Magnesium???? :smokin::smokin::smokin: I don't have any stinking water issues... But this is a little bit of knowledge worth keeping in mind. :beer::beer::beer::beer:
 
billdacat said:
WTF.... That is fucking crazy... I just go to Homeless depot and buy what ever rod is hanging on the rack. I think they are Magnesium???? :smokin::smokin::smokin: I don't have any stinking water issues... But this is a little bit of knowledge worth keeping in mind. :beer::beer::beer::beer:
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In my case, the smell only came when running hot water. Our water heater was only two years old.

To test for yourself, run the hot water only at the sink. Let run a bit so it gets hot, then smell the water as it runs. If it does smell, it's the anode. Now do the same test with only the cold water running and it shouldn't smell. Water chemistry of course plays a roll, but the smell issue typically plays out with hard water.
 
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