How To Clean Your Hot Water Heater

in: Featured, How To, Skills

• May 5, 2016 • Last updated: September iii, 2021

How to Flush Your Hot Water Heater

When it comes to doing household chores, flushing your hot h2o heater is easy to overlook. I know I never thought about doing information technology until Jeremy included information technology in his truly handy domicile maintenance checklist.

Only regularly flushing out your hot water heater is an important job. Getting rid of the gunk and mineral deposits that accumulate will help your hot water heater run more than efficiently too as prolong its life, saving y'all money in the long run.

Afterwards living in my dwelling for several years, I figured my hot water heater was due for a flush and decided to tackle this task. Fortunately, it turned out to be super easy. Excluding the time I was waiting for the h2o in the tank to cool, it took me all of about 20 minutes.

I documented the process equally I did it, just in case you need to practise likewise. Maybe this postal service will inspire y'all to finally knock this to-do off your listing this weekend.

Here'due south how:

How Often Should You lot Affluent Your Hot Water Heater?

Depending on your model, aim to affluent your hot water heater every 1 to three years. Really, the task is so easy, it wouldn't be a bother to do it at least once a yr.

How to Flush Your Hot Water Heater

Hot water heaters come in two varieties: gas and electric. I've got the gas variety, and then these instructions will be geared towards flushing a gas hot h2o heater. The biggest difference between gas and electric is that with gas, you'll exist turning off the gas to your appliance; with an electric, yous'll be turning off the electricity.

1. Plough the Knob on Your Hot Water Heater'south Thermostat to "Off"

The thermostat on a gas hot h2o heater is unremarkably found near the lesser of the tank. Other sources I ran across said you could become away with just setting your thermostat to "Airplane pilot." I decided to be actress safe and turned it off completely. If yous turn your hot water heater off, and yous have an older model, yous'll have to re-light your pilot calorie-free.

If you have an electric hot h2o heater, y'all'll want to find your habitation's breaker box and plow off the switch that gives power to your hot water heater.

two. Turn Off Gas to Hot Water Heater

If you lot have a gas hot h2o heater, find the gas pipage leading to your thermostat and pilot lite and plow the valve to the off position. If yous decide to merely turn your thermostat to "airplane pilot" y'all won't need to do this step.

three. Turn Off the Cold Water Supply to Hot H2o Heater

The cold water valve is unremarkably virtually the tiptop of your hot water heater. Turn it to off.

4. Turn on the Hot H2o in a Sink or Tub

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

5. Connect Garden Hose to Drainage Spigot

Before you turn on the spigot, make sure the other cease of the hose leads exterior or at least into a bucket. If your hot water heater is in the basement, you may need to get a portable pump in social club to pump water out of the basement and to the ground floor.

6. Turn on Spigot and Drain

Drain your tank until the water runs clear and no longer has sediment. If your tank has a lot of sediment, you may need to drain it completely. Equally y'all can run into in this picture higher up, the h2o when I first started draining was a fleck brown and there was a lot of sediment at the lesser of the bowl.

eight. Affluent

To flush your hot h2o tank, only turn on the cold water spigot leading into your hot water tank. Permit it 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 chocolate-brown, you lot may nonetheless have some sediment. Hither's a picture of the water coming from my tank when I offset started flushing:

As y'all can encounter, I even so had some sediment (can be seen at the bottom) coming out. Continue flushing until you have very petty or no sediment in your h2o. Turn off the common cold h2o spigot leading into your hot water tank.

Finishing Things Up

Once you're satisfied with the clarity of your water, it's time to put things back to the way they were.

Turn off the drainage spigot and disconnect hose.
Turn off the water on your sink or tub that yous turned on at the get-go.
Turn on the cold h2o spigot leading to your hot h2o heater.
Plough on the hot water spigot of a sink or tub to get the air out of the arrangement. Cold water should be coming out of the faucet at this bespeak. Plow it off.
If you shut off the gas to your hot water heater, turn information technology back on.
If you turned the thermostat off on your hot water heater, re-light the airplane pilot light (information technology's easy — I may do a post on this in the future), and then turn it to on.
If you lot have an electric hot water heater, flip the breaker switch on your electrical panel that gives power to your hot water heater.
Wait about 20 minutes for the water to heat up. Turn on a hot h2o spigot somewhere in your house to ensure hot water is coming out.

Nail. Yous've flushed your hot water heater. Put it on your agenda to do it once again in a year.