How To Purge A Hot Water Heater

in: Featured, How To, Skills

• May v, 2016 • Last updated: September 3, 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 it in his truly handy home maintenance checklist.

But 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 efficiently besides as prolong its life, saving you money in the long run.

After living in my domicile for several years, I figured my hot h2o heater was due for a affluent and decided to tackle this chore. Fortunately, it turned out to be super like shooting fish in a barrel. 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 as I did it, just in case you demand to practice as well. Maybe this post volition inspire you to finally knock this to-practice off your list this weekend.

Here's how:

How Frequently Should You Flush Your Hot Water Heater?

Depending on your model, aim to flush your hot water heater every i to 3 years. Really, the job is and so easy, it wouldn't exist a carp to exercise it at to the lowest degree once a year.

How to Flush Your Hot H2o Heater

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

i. Plough the Knob on Your Hot Water Heater's Thermostat to "Off"

The thermostat on a gas hot water heater is usually found near the lesser of the tank. Other sources I ran beyond said y'all could get away with just setting your thermostat to "Pilot." I decided to be extra safe and turned information technology off completely. If you turn your hot h2o heater off, and you accept an older model, you'll have to re-calorie-free your pilot calorie-free.

If you lot take an electrical hot water heater, you'll want to find your home's breaker box and plough off the switch that gives ability to your hot h2o heater.

2. Plough Off Gas to Hot Water Heater

If y'all have a gas hot water heater, find the gas pipe leading to your thermostat and pilot light and turn the valve to the off position. If you make up one's mind to just turn your thermostat to "pilot" you lot won't need to do this step.

3. Plough Off the Cold H2o Supply to Hot H2o Heater

The cold water valve is ordinarily well-nigh the top of your hot water heater. Turn it to off.

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

Go out them on during the entire flushing process. This volition assistance 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 to the lowest degree into a bucket. If your hot water heater is in the basement, you may need to get a portable pump in order to pump water out of the basement and to the ground flooring.

6. Turn on Spigot and Drain

Drain your tank until the h2o runs articulate and no longer has sediment. If your tank has a lot of sediment, you may need to drain information technology completely. As yous can run into in this picture above, the water when I starting time started draining was a fleck brown and there was a lot of sediment at the bottom of the bowl.

8. Flush

To affluent your hot h2o tank, but turn on the common cold water spigot leading into your hot h2o tank. Let 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 articulate and isn't brownish, you may withal have some sediment. Here'southward a movie of the water coming from my tank when I commencement started flushing:

Every bit you tin see, I however had some sediment (tin can be seen at the bottom) coming out. Continue flushing until yous have very picayune or no sediment in your water. Turn off the cold water 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 fashion they were.

Plough off the drainage spigot and disconnect hose.
Turn off the water on your sink or tub that you turned on at the beginning.
Turn on the common cold water spigot leading to your hot h2o heater.
Turn on the hot h2o spigot of a sink or tub to go the air out of the organization. Cold water should be coming out of the faucet at this betoken. Plough it off.
If you shut off the gas to your hot h2o heater, turn it dorsum on.
If you turned the thermostat off on your hot water heater, re-light the pilot light (it's piece of cake — I may practise a mail service on this in the future), and and so turn it to on.
If you take an electric hot water heater, flip the billow switch on your electrical panel that gives power to your hot water heater.
Wait about 20 minutes for the h2o to heat up. Turn on a hot water spigot somewhere in your business firm to ensure hot water is coming out.

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