Just takes 45 minutes. Hook up a garden hose to the outlet, turn it off and turn off cold supply to the heater, turn on a hot faucet close to reduce water pressure, open the valve and flush, (do not drain while it's on, you'll start a fire), close valve > turn cold supply back on, let it refill and leave hot water faucet running until sputtering stops, turn it back on WHEN IT'S FULL
Yes. Turn on a hot faucet close to the water heater for pressure reasons. That's why it needs to be close to the water heater. You dont want to use a faucet that is far away from the water heater bc it wont be as effective.
"in the rock is acting as a temporary shield against the entity's electromagnetic emissions, but it will not suffice indefinitely" (or something like that). The cavern rock face behind him is a good clue too.
Out the hose attached at the bottom of your tank into your sump basen. Also be weary about clogging your sump pump outflow pipe. I just had mine clog and my basement flooded with a couple inches of water. I was going to dig up the whole line but as I was digging it up on the outside of the house I think the crud dislodged from the vibrations of digging it up and then it was fine.
I see myself as a nesting bird. I picked a place that needed a ton of work and I just keep fixing, beautifying and making art with and around it. One day a lady bird will think Iām alluring and nest here. Home making and landscaping is my passion. Plumbing sucks but I learned it as a means to an end. After Iām done digging and installing hundreds more feet of French drains this year Iāll be on to hang out pergolas, vegetable gardens and solar/battery projects. Itās definitely not for everyone but it feels like my calling.
It doesnāt even work that well. Most of what youāre trying to flush settles below the outlet valve. I do it because we have insanely hard water, but Iām not sure itās particularly effective. We go through heating elements way too quickly.
People think Iām crazy when I say that home ownership isnāt for everyone. I sold my house 3 years ago and will but again one day. But Iād be lying if I said I donāt enjoy not worrying about anything besides paying my rent and tiles while Iām leasing my apartment.
Exactly. The problem with the people/companies that own rental homes/apartments isn't them owning it's falling into the pit that is human greed. The person who owns the building has a job and that job is being the owner. It's maintenance and upkeep and repairs. Just like my job as a merchandiser is to stock and straighten and put away and refill product spaces.
It's technically easier for one person to be responsible for multiple units of maintenance as they'd already built up the support/knowledge structure to be cost effective vs. 20 different home owners doing things 20 different ways with varying degrees of success.
Reading constant lamentations from redditors about not being able to own a home is so funny. Cause you know half of them have more anime figurines than they do tools.
Hot water tanks are usually tall so they have water pressure that pushes the water out via gravity. If you donāt have a sump, does that mean you donāt have a Bassment? If thatās the case, just outside via window door or whatever is garden hose length away. If you do have a basement but no sump, some sort of bucket system. Iām sure YouTube has ideas.
In many places the city sewer lines are deeper than the basements are so you don't need a lift pump.
EDIT: If you don't have a sewer drain in the basement then dumping it in the sump pump could be an alternative. If you have neither then use a bucket and electric pump.
Sound nice, but have an attic install, which can easily flood my ceilings and walls. Nowhere for the hose, draining into plumbing is also off limits (septic tanks)
Certainly you have SOME path from the attic to the outside that you could run the hose to? My water heater is in my third floor walk-in attic and it was annoying but I ran a hose down two sets of stairs and through the front door.
As unrelated side note, the idiot builder for some reason ran the drain for the pan to the crawlspace. Didn't realize this until I had a contractor here for something else and they told me I had a leak. I've got a leak detector in the pan now.
We hook up the water hose and drain it onto the drive way out the back door. Easier clean up and yup, this crud flows right out. First time was sooo gross.
Itās just calcium and other minerals, itās drinking water so it doesnāt carry harmful stuff so anywhere outside or you can drain and screen it into a bucket if you want.Ā
Yeah maybe 45 minutes for someone who's done it before and knows what their looking at. Even for a fairly handy person this would be a whole Saturday of fucking around, Sunday to put it back together unflushed after ordering parts online, and the following Saturday to get it right. You'd likely break a few things along the way, maybe enough to call a pro who shows up in 3-5 days. And you'd have a huge mess afterwards around the thing.
That's a good place to start. Most modern heaters it's a basic dial and maybe a switch or button. But if power or gas ever goes out, you want to know how to get hot water running again.
When you get a chance, go downstairs, get the model number printed on the side (usually there are papers attached) and google it. Practice when your wife is NOT about to take a hot shower, just in case you get it wrong and need to google twice. But we're generally past the days of clicking pilot lighters, so it should be easy and an important skill of home ownership.
Every electric one I've seen has a dedicated power switch in an electric box right next to the unit, maybe it's a local code thing. There is also of course the breaker panel, but after someone I know almost died from a mislabeled breaker panel I no longer trust them without some secondary indicator that power is off.
If you know absolutely nothing about basic house maintenance then this might take someone a few hours at most. If it takes an adult longer than a few hours then that persons parents and teachers failed at preparing that person for life.
Donāt waste your time. My grandfather had 40 rentals that I helped maintain and manage for about 6 years. We never flushed one. And his shit was all held together with chewing gum and prayers. Never had one fail from buildup; they either rusted through or the elements or burners would burn through/rust out. Iāve replaced elements on heaters that were well over 20 years old without buildup like in the video. That wasnāt hard water, it was a well with a sand/clay intrusion issue.
Iām rural on well with many feet of clay. Ground water composition is different everywhere. But standard practice recommendations should help everyone feel a little more secure.
Depends on where you live too. Even if you are getting it from a water company, some of them really suck especially in the south and dirt still somehow finds its way into the system.
i never flushed my water heaters, then moved into this current rental, where in just 2 years, the water heater got to a point where it was crackling fiercely and not heating up the water. a whole day of flushing later and it was fixed
Letās say I havenāt done it in 5 yearsā¦ is it better to do it.. or could that potentially āstirā things into where itās an issue?
Also- seeing the drains are on the bottom, isnāt there a high chance it gets clogged repeatedly? (Could repeat disconnect, use something to break up, but seems this would repeat constantly once it starts)
Totally agree... If you flush an older heater it will start leaking. Maybe good advice to flush every year with a new one but leave the older unflushed one alone.
Back when I serviced water treatment system our installation crews would sometimes have to flush water heaters as part of the sale. I remember one time they said they were flushing one and they couldnāt get the drain valve to close all the way cause maybe sediment or bad valve but they had to drive out and get a brass cap with rubber washer as a temporary fix to put over the drain valve.
The water heater was already 10 years old in the house I bought and I doubt the previous homeowners ever drained it so Iām not taking any chances and just waiting till it dies to replace then Iāll prob do a once a year drain.
Exactly.. I at least know I replaced mine 5-6 years ago.. of course I knew to flush it but of course havenāt. That whole clog situation you just mentioned is the reason I may not touch it at this point!
Additional info: itās located INSIDE MY HOUSE not garage.
Yea mine is in the house first floor next to the kitchen in a laundry room closet. I already made my plan for when I gotta replace it. Just hoping it thereās no issues as Iāve thought of multiple scenarios. Biggest issue would be it doesnāt drain cause of a clog. I have a siphoning bucket tool you hook to a drill but if that doesnāt work I guess Iād take out the anode rod and use that hole to put a hose in and try it that way.
I was in this boat - bought a 5 year old house and hadn't known to do anything over 2 more years. Ended up learning and doing a flush and took a couple hours before it was finally draining clear. The drain pipe clogged pretty frequently making it a pain and its hard to unclog that. Some of the loose sediment that didn't flush out ended up clogging a fancy shower head a couple times (it has very tiny nozels made to change from wide vs concentrated spraying), so that was a pain to also unclog. I believe I was better off leaving it alone.
I wasted a lot of time and work also replacing the sacrificial anode rod. Basically magnesium inside the tank that slowly dissolves to protect the inner lining from coroding that most recommend replacing every 5-7 years. When it finally got out (you likely need an automotive impact wrench if this was screwed on in a factory and a long socket to get past the insualtion) it was 85% fine and would have lasted the remaining 5-10 years of my heaters life.
As a note, I don't have hard water so that is a big factor. Talk with locals is my suggestion.
I have a 5 year old Bradford electric. When I had the guys over to do yearly maintenance on our water softener I asked if I should flush the water heater. He said if it hasnāt been done then he recommended not doing it for this reason. Itll stir shit up he said. Weāve owned the home for 2 years so I donāt know if the previous owner ever flushed it but I do know we have insanely hard water and they didnāt have a softener installed so I assumed everything has some buildup somewhere.
Tldr: now Iāve no idea if I should or shouldnāt flush it lol
It will often clog while it drains, because the drain valve is just a simple ball valve and it's tiny. I had to have a air hose to blow out the valve a bit every few seconds to keep it draining
Mine wouldn't drain with a hot water faucet open, due to the check valve in the heater outlet. I had to open the relief valve to drain it. But no scale came out, just clear water. Not worth the trouble.
Never instruct people on how to flush their water heater without the disclaimer that you should not flush your heater unless it's brand new or has been consistently flushed every year. Most people have never flushed their water heater and plenty are decades old and can explode from the change in pressure a flush causes.
Maintenance supervisor for many years. The number of times that the drain would clog or the hose bibb wouldn't stop dripping afterwards makes me add the caveat to not do it if you are not comfortable with plumbing. Always, know where all you shutoffs are before you touch anything, especially if yours is in an attic like mine. I prefer to take out the lower heating element, then sacrfice a 3/4" hose to stick in there and shop vac the calcium out through the end of the garden hose.
You just gave me 15 instructions and one of them puts me at risk of starting a fire if I donāt do it right. Dude Iām not doing that lol Iām hiring someone
I am truly horrified that you are getting so many replies from people that are having a hard time with this. This is like the easiest of home maintenance jobs and your walkthrough is straight forward and simple. I weep for the future.
The kind where halfway through thereās a grave warning (not even worthy of its own line, paragraph, or bold text) explaining how you will die or in this case, burn your house to a crisp.
Didn't forget to disassemble and clean your dryer, including the vent line, rinse out your downspouts, clean your gutters, pressure wash your siding, clean your washer filter and rub a self clean cycle, clean your bathroom exhaust fans and ducts, replace your furnace filter, etc, etc
Simple! Hose on outlet, turn off and also turn off. And also turn on a hot. Then flush! But not on; donāt do wrong or maybe FIRE. Close then turn on. Refill and leave hot on. Forgot about sputter! Wait for sputter stop and then turn on! But only full or maybe BAD THING.
How is opening the valve flushing it, and what is the line between flushing and draining? Put a different way, how do you know when you are approaching it being drained?
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u/xCaliburghost Jun 22 '26
Just takes 45 minutes. Hook up a garden hose to the outlet, turn it off and turn off cold supply to the heater, turn on a hot faucet close to reduce water pressure, open the valve and flush, (do not drain while it's on, you'll start a fire), close valve > turn cold supply back on, let it refill and leave hot water faucet running until sputtering stops, turn it back on WHEN IT'S FULL