Hot Water Heaters

I know you might be asking, “How does hot water heaters save me money?”…well, if you do a little preventative maintenance on your hot water heater, then you will keep plumbers from charging you a lot of money later.Hot water heaters are quite a low maintenance item in your home.  If you take care of it, it will can last up to 10 years or more.

Draining your hot water heater is one of the best things you can do to make it last longer.  This will help get rid of any dirt, etc that might be in your hot water heater.

Go to the breaker box and turn off the breaker to the water heater and then make sure you turn the water off that is coming into the tank.  You should see a lever or knob at the wall or near the pipes of your hot water heater. Turn this off.  If you don’t have one of these knobs, then you will need to locate the main water shut off for your home.  This might be located on a wall in your basement, etc.

Once you are sure you have the electric and water off to your tank, you will need to look toward the bottom of your tank for what looks like an outdoor faucet.  You need to connect one end of a garden hose to this “draincock” and make sure the other end of the garden hose reaches outdoors or in a drain.  If you are using the drain in your basement, make sure you pop off the grid (lid)…this will keep things flowing smoothly and you won’t have to worry about water getting all over your basement.

Turn the knob part of the draincock open.  You want to do this slow so you don’t have a rush of water.  You want to run the water for a few minutes to make sure you are getting all of the debris out of the bottom of the tank.   When you notice the water is coming out clear, then you can turn the draincock knob off.  Allow your hose to drain for a few minutes before unhooking it.

Remove the hose from the hot water tank and turn the water back on that goes into the tank.  Do NOT turn the electricity on yet.  You want to make sure your hot water heater is completely full before you cut power back on to it.  If you wait about 10 minutes, your tank will be full and then you can turn the breaker back on.

If you don’t wait for the tank to fill up, you will burn up your hot water heater elements and will have to replace them.

Depending on if you have hard water or not, you will want to do this at least once a year.  If you have hard water, you will want to do this about every 6 months.