"Mike" wrote:

Hello -

I'm new to this group. There is a lot of good advice about flushing
and/or draining hot water heaters and I'm wondering if I need to do
this. It takes a long time (and a lot of wasted water) to get hot
water to the 2nd floor of my home (hot water heater is 2 levels below
in the basement). Would this situation improve if I were to flush
and/or drain the hot water heater? We've lived in this house for 3
years and I've never done it. The house is 28 years old, but the hot
water heater (a gas model) doesn't look nearly that old.

Thanks for any advice....

Mike

I dunno if this helps but when we moved to an old house (40 yrs old) warm water
would come only after running the tap for some time. Soon after the water would
go cold. Two storey house also.

One day I noticed that the washing maschine was using warm water (it's OK to do
that). I changed it to use cold water. From that day water has come warmer much
sooner and stays warm longer. I haven't changed anything in the boiler. I even
changed the washing maschine to use warm water again and sure enough taps turned
cold as before.

You case is probably "Your mileage may vary" -situation though.