How Much Cost To Flash And Clean Electric Water Heater

in: Featured, How To, Skills

• May 5, 2022 • Last updated: September 3, 2022

How to Flush Your Hot Water Heater

When it comes to doing household chores, flushing your hot water heater is easy to overlook. I know I never thought near doing it until Jeremy included it in his truly handy home maintenance checklist.

But regularly flushing out your hot water heater is an important task. Getting rid of the gunk and mineral deposits that accumulate will help your hot h2o heater run more than efficiently also as prolong its life, saving you money in the long run.

After living in my home for several years, I figured my hot h2o heater was due for a affluent and decided to tackle this task. Fortunately, it turned out to exist super like shooting fish in a barrel. Excluding the time I was waiting for the h2o in the tank to absurd, it took me all of about twenty minutes.

I documented the process as I did it, just in example you need to do besides. Peradventure this post volition inspire you to finally knock this to-do off your listing this weekend.

Here'due south how:

How Often Should You Affluent Your Hot Water Heater?

Depending on your model, aim to flush your hot water heater every one to three years. Really, the job is so easy, information technology wouldn't be a bother to do it at least once a year.

How to Flush Your Hot Water Heater

Hot water heaters come in two varieties: gas and electric. I've got the gas variety, so these instructions volition be geared towards flushing a gas hot water heater. The biggest difference between gas and electric is that with gas, you lot'll be turning off the gas to your appliance; with an electric, you'll be turning off the electricity.

i. Turn the Knob on Your Hot Water Heater'southward Thermostat to "Off"

The thermostat on a gas hot water heater is usually found nearly the bottom of the tank. Other sources I ran across said yous could go away with but setting your thermostat to "Pilot." I decided to be extra safe and turned information technology off completely. If you turn your hot water heater off, and you have an older model, you'll accept to re-light your pilot light.

If you take an electric hot water heater, you'll want to observe your dwelling's billow box and plough off the switch that gives power to your hot water heater.

two. Plow Off Gas to Hot Water Heater

If yous have a gas hot water heater, detect the gas pipage leading to your thermostat and pilot light and turn the valve to the off position. If y'all determine to merely plow your thermostat to "pilot" you won't need to do this step.

three. Plough Off the Cold Water Supply to Hot Water Heater

The cold h2o valve is usually near the top of your hot water heater. Turn it to off.

4. Turn on the Hot Water in a Sink or Tub

Leave them on during the entire flushing procedure. This will help forestall a vacuum from forming in the lines while you're draining the hot water tank.

5. Connect Garden Hose to Drainage Spigot

Before you turn on the spigot, make sure the other end of the hose leads outside or at least into a saucepan. If your hot water heater is in the basement, you may need to get a portable pump in society to pump water out of the basement and to the ground flooring.

6. Turn on Spigot and Drain

Bleed your tank until the water runs clear and no longer has sediment. If your tank has a lot of sediment, y'all may demand to drain information technology completely. As you can see in this picture to a higher place, the water when I first started draining was a bit chocolate-brown and there was a lot of sediment at the bottom of the basin.

eight. Flush

To flush your hot water tank, simply plow on the common cold h2o spigot leading into your hot water tank. Let information technology run for a few minutes until the water exiting your hose runs clear.

This may take a bit. While the water might be running clear and isn't brown, you lot may still have some sediment. Here'southward a movie of the h2o coming from my tank when I beginning started flushing:

As you can encounter, I still had some sediment (can be seen at the bottom) coming out. Go on flushing until you have very piddling or no sediment in your water. Turn off the common cold water spigot leading into your hot water tank.

Finishing Things Upwardly

In one case you're satisfied with the clarity of your h2o, information technology's time to put things back to the way they were.

Turn off the drainage spigot and disconnect hose.
Turn off the h2o on your sink or tub that y'all turned on at the starting time.
Turn on the cold water spigot leading to your hot water heater.
Turn on the hot water spigot of a sink or tub to get the air out of the system. Cold water should exist coming out of the faucet at this point. Turn information technology off.
If you shut off the gas to your hot water heater, plow information technology back on.
If you turned the thermostat off on your hot h2o heater, re-light the airplane pilot calorie-free (it'south easy — I may do a post on this in the future), and then turn it to on.
If you have an electric hot water heater, flip the billow switch on your electrical console that gives power to your hot h2o heater.
Wait about xx minutes for the h2o to heat up. Turn on a hot h2o spigot somewhere in your business firm to ensure hot water is coming out.

Boom. You've flushed your hot water heater. Put it on your calendar to do it again in a yr.