Mark D wrote:
Hi all,
Typically I've seen this a number of times, had this happen again the
other day, and it's the old woes every time it seems I'll drain a water
heater!

After you drain off X amount of gallons, then try closing the Drain
Faucet, they never seal again, and continue to leak leak leak!?

Typically too, they always seem to have these Plastic Drain Faucets, in
which you have to fear applying any type of torque, and if you do, the
the Handle usually strips out too!

My question is, can these faucets be replaced? Are they easily gotten
from the Big Box Stores-hardware Stores?

Can I expect more woes by trying to replace these Faucets? Can these
usually be disassembled, and just the Rubber Gasket replaced? Or? Any
tips/advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Mark


There are many good suggestions already, but I had exactly the same
problem on my hot water heater. What I finally did was to remove the
stem (the part that turns off the water flow) and reverse the washer on
the end. There is generally a screw holding the washer to the stem.
The valves are cheap and fragile so be careful, but it beats replacing
the valve.