DIYbanter - View Single Post

J. David Boyd wrote:
writes:

I have a 7-year old A.O.Smith 40 gal water heater. Works fine, but I've
only drained it out once about 4 years ago. Assuming that that water
heaters last about 8-10 years, I have some questions
- how often should I be draining and cleaning it out?
- does regular draining help prolong its life?
- how does one tell that it's ready to break (instead of finding out
when the basement is flooded with hot water)?

Be sure to check your anode rod. Our's rotted away at just about the seven
year mark, and started filling the pipes with little balls of aluminum,
clogging everything. Very annoying.

Water heaters last much longer than 8-10 years. My grandmother has one that is
at least 40 years old, we've had to replace the heating elements a few times.
My dad had one that was ~ 20 years old before it had to be replace.

Dave

Ah. There is a *huge* difference between the life of
an electric heater vs. gas. The average life of a gas heater
today is about 10 yrs.

Monthly flushing (only need take 1 Gal out) of a gas heater
will help a lot by preventing solids forming on the bottom
of the shell. If the heater hasn't been flushed regularly,
it's virtually impossible to remove the scale buildup which
has already hardened.

Jim