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hey everybody today we're going to talk
about how to drain a hot water heater
now this is really important to do about
once a year because sediment can build
up inside your hot-water heater and it
kind of collects all down at the bottom
of the tank and eventually turns into
this big deposit that turns into like a
solid concrete mass at the bottom of
your tank this reduces the efficiency of
your tank and can actually shorten the
life of the tank
because that deposit is very corrosive
and it can actually eat right through
the metal of the tank and before you
know it your tank starts leaking and
it's an emergency middle of the night
replacing a hot water heater situation
so by draining the tank about once a
year you can stir up all that sediment
and flush it out so that it doesn't
collect in the bottom of your tank and
cause your problems down the road it's a
pretty simple process so let me show you
how to do it so the very very first
thing that we want to do is turn off our
heat source this applies for both gas
and electric I'll show you on how to do
it for gas because that's what I have
here if it's electric then you should
just go find the breaker where your hot
water heater is plugged in and flip that
breaker or simply unplug the hot water
heater from the wall for gas one though
the simplest thing to do is just to
change your temperature setting all the
way down to either pilot or vacation
mode if yours has one like that this
will prevent the burner from turning on
as you're flushing the tank with the
cold water and if you forget to do this
you have a very real possibility of
completely ruining your tank because
that burner will turn on and try and
heat up an empty tank which you can
actually melt the metal and cause your
tank to fail so very very important
first step turn off your heat alright
now that our heat source has been
disabled the next step is to locate your
cold water supply valve for your hot
water heater and to turn it to the off
position mine happens to be up on top of
my tank and it's just a simple ball
valve that you rotate just like that
now the next step is to connect a garden
hose to the drain spigot at the bottom
of your hot water heater you want to put
it on nice and snug but don't
over-tighten it as you can damage the
threads so now we're almost ready to
drain the hot water but there's one last
thing we have to do if we were to open
this valve now since there's no water
being allowed into the tank anymore it
would act like a straw with your finger
over the end of it and no water would
flow out so we need to allow some air to
get into the system to do that we just
open up a faucet anywhere in the house
on the hot water side only and this will
allow air to travel in from the faucet
side so that the water can drain out of
your tank ok with our cold water supply
turned off and a faucet opened so that
we can let air into the system we are
ready to open up this valve on my
particular hot water heater this valve
is the kind that only takes a quarter
turn so that the valve gets in line with
the drain pipe now when you open these
valves if you don't hear any water
flowing or air being sucked into the
system then you might have a backflow
preventor valve installed somewhere in
your in your plumbing and as a result
opening a faucet is not enough to be
able to let air into the system so that
this can drain properly so instead of a
faucet open we're going to use our
pressure relief valve to allow the air
to get into the tank now you want to be
careful with these because they are an
important safety feature of your hot
water heater these are here because if
the pressure inside your tank ever gets
large enough that the tank might
possibly explode then this relief valve
will open up and let all that extra
steam and hot water out so that your
tank doesn't explode you shouldn't play
with these toom often or too much and
you want to make sure that it gets
seated correctly when you're done with
this job but to open it is very simple
you just grab this little arm right here
and bend it straight up
and then you'll immediately hear the air
is getting into the tank and the water
is flowing out the bottom of so while
the waters draining it's a good idea to
come and inspect what's coming out of
your tank in my case the tank has only
been installed for a little less than
two years this is the first time it's
been flushed and the water that's coming
out is quite clear this will take quite
some time to drain be patient and wait
until the entire tank is empty one quick
word of caution this water is hot don't
let kids or dogs or friends or anybody
come and play in it while it's draining
just let it drain out into the street
don't put it on your flowers don't put
it on your garden this is scalding and
it can damage things or hurt somebody so
be careful all right so it's been
draining for about 15 or 20 minutes and
the tank is basically empty at this
point but the drain is such a gentle
process it doesn't really agitated that
sediment at the bottom of the tank so
before I'm completely finished I'm going
to do a couple of things I'm first gonna
open up the cold water inlet for about
15 or 20 seconds which is gonna spray a
whole bunch of cold water down to the
bottom of that tank and agitate whatever
is down there I'm then gonna let it rest
for 15-20 seconds let some of that drain
out and then I'm gonna repeat that
process three or four times
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and you can see maybe it's a little
difficult to see but there is some
particulate that is coming out with this
water that's draining out of the hose
now that I've done that one flush so I
went grabbed a bucket so that we could
see some of the sediment a little bit
better this is a clean bucket and you
can see there's a little flecks in there
in the water that we're kind of swirling
around these are all coming directly off
the bottom of my hot-water heater tank
that's the stuff you're trying to get
out of your tank and that's what's built
up over the last year and a half of us
living in this house
yeah there's still definitely sediment
coming out of the tank
so we'll keep flushing until we get a
bucket that's clear alright so I flushed
it four times now that way and let's see
how our water looks now
that looks very clear there is one
little visible spectra in there
the significantly better than it has
been alright so we're done with the
agitating kind of flushes and we're
ready to move on to the next step
alright so at this point the tank is
pretty clean there's very little
particulate still coming out and most
folks at this point we just fill the
tank back up turn off all the valves and
business as usual there's one more step
that I'm going to take just to make sure
it's as clean as I possibly can get it
and that is I'm going to fill the tank
completely back up with cold water and
drain it one more time by filling it
back up completely I'm going to agitate
even more of that water that's at the
bottom of the tank and that's the whole
point of this exercise to try and scrub
out the bottom of that tank as well as I
possibly can so I'm gonna fill it all
the way back up one more time
drain it all the way one more time and
then fill it back up for regular use so
to fill it all the way back up I open up
the valve on the top of the heater and
then I'm also going to close the valve
on the drain hose and I'm gonna close my
pressure relief valve just like that
alright I don't hear anything flowing
anymore into the tanks so as soon as you
think it's full open that valve back up
at the bottom and close the valve at the
top
and then we got another 20-minute wait
while this drains again all right so my
bucket looks pretty clean let's go ahead
and check to see how this water coming
out now looks this is after a complete
refill of the tank I see a few small
specks in there but it's really not bad
so I'll let this tank completely finish
draining and then I'll close the hot
water heater back up and refill it
completely all right so my tank is now
completely empty and I'm going to close
the drain valve and I can remove the
hose next I can open the cold water
inlet one more time
and that'll start to fill the tank now
I've still got my pressure relief valve
open because as the tank fills all that
air that's in there now needs to go
somewhere and I'd rather go out the
pressure relief valve and then into my
plumbing now you do need to use a little
bit of caution here because if you just
leave that valve open and fill up your
tank the water level will come all the
way up to the height of that valve and
come right back out that pipe and down
all over your floor so I'm not gonna
leave it open for very long I'm gonna
stand here and I'm gonna listen and as I
can tell that the tank gets closer and
closer to full I can go ahead and close
this relief valve and then I'll have
very little air in my tank ok the sound
has changed a little bit I no longer
hear the water trickling all the way
down to the bottom of the tank it's it's
filled somewhere better than halfway and
I'm not gonna risk it I'm gonna go ahead
and close this pressure relief valve now
so that no water comes out down the
bottom alright with the pressure relief
valve closed again now I can set my
thermostat back to my desired
temperature burner will turn back on
underneath the tank and I'm done and
finally the last step is to open the hot
water valve on any faucet in your house
to make sure all of the air gets bled
out of the system
once the water is flowing normally again
you can shut it off and you're finished
alright so that's it it's not a very
difficult job to complete but it is an
important job that you do need to do to
extend the life of your hot-water heater
flushing it out about once a year is all
it really takes to keep that sediment
from building up and ruining your tank
and making you run into an emergency at
some point down the road when your tank
finally fails so flush it once a year
and your hot water heater will give you
plenty of hot water for many many years
that's it for this one I hope you've
enjoyed what you've seen I hope you've
learned a little something if you did go
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very much for watching
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