draining water heaters

[capncarl]

What is the temp in your attic now? You don't want to wait till July or August and it is 200 in the attic to check on it!
capncarl

[leehljp]

Temps hitting the lower 80s this week for the first time since last fall. Nights in the low 60s. Might need to check it this weekend, early in the morning.

[capncarl]

Yep, 80 degrees outside may equate to 90-100 in attic temp. Early morning temp probably = 60. Remember to take notes so you can add to my list.
capncarl

[capncarl]

A web site that I've referred to concerning water heaters for home and work use is waterheaterrescue.com. It's set up much like this site so it's easy enough to use. By studying your heater a minute you should be able to plan your repair and not just climb up in the attic and quickly find that you need another fitting to make the ball valve or whatever work etc and not turn this into a 3 day job! Try not to step through the ceiling, but if you do we can talk about that for months!
I hope you have enough room in your attic to work and possibly get the old one out and new one in. If I remember right the life expectancy on a water heater is 12-13 years. (Another one of my complaints, sure they want you to replace it!) Some builders install the water heters in the attic before they put the roof on! Knowing that the next fool will not be able to get that waterlogged chunk of weight out without cutting a hole in the roof and hiring a crane! Good luck
capncarl

[woodturner]

Sadly I've not done this basic task.
One reason is that the water heaters (both of them) are located in the attic above the second story.

Oh, that's annoying, and will make it more challenging to remove the valve to get the sediment out.

There is often sediment that won't come out by simply draining the tank, even if the inlet water is left on to help flush the tank. I usually drain the tank, remove the valve, and loosen the sediment with a wire or screwdriver through the valve hole. If it is really bad, commercial sediment dissolver can be sprayed or squirted in, allowed to soak for a bit, and then the tank can be flushed again.

Of course, all of this is much easier around here, where the heater is in the basement and there is a floor drain nearby - we can just let everything flow into the drain.

Might be another argument in favor of a tankless heater :-)

[trungdok]

This doesn't really answer the OP question (many have already gave good answers), but just adding additional tip.

When I flush my water tank, I usually shut off the supply line, drain the tank and keep the drain line open, turn on the supply line real quick to let the rushing power of the incoming water upset the sediment and force it out the drain line, shut off the supply line, repeat... After a dozen time or so, the tank is adequately clean of sediment. There are still some hard sediment in there, but that's alright.

[dbhost]

I could be wrong, but I fail to see how dirty water from a human, say your kids playing in the mud and then showering off, is any different from dirty / sediment filled water from your water heater. My heater is in the laundry room and the hose can and does easily run out the shop man door and then outside, and to the curb, so no worries by me on that, but if I were in your shoes I would drain to the closest tub...

[capncarl]

A tip for draining the tank a little faster, after the supply pressure flush as trungdoc described, with the drain valve open, turn off supply and open a hot water spigot valve to allow some air in the sys. It still glugs and acts like it is choking. After a few minutes I usually remove the top element on an electric water heater to allow more air into the tank and speed up the drain considerably. (Pressurizing the tank with compressed air is still 10x faster, really appreciated if the tank was foolishly installed in the attic!).

[Pappy]

Another of those jobs that needs to move up on the 'Honey-Do' list. Our water is extremely hard and the deposits in the tank are bad. I usually think of it when the hot water runs out in the middle of a second shower off a 50 gal H/W heater and by then it is an all day affair sucking the sediment out with a plastic hose attached to my shop vac. Then I usually replace the lower element.

Keep meaning to do 2 things to help the situation. First, establish a schedule of flushing the tank once a month and, second, installing a whole house filter in the inlet line to the H/W heater.

[tfischer]

Our water is really hard too. We have a softener, but I'm not always the best at keeping it full of salt (oops!)