"J" wrote in message
...
I have an electric water heater that is just over 5 yrs old. I found the
scale had built up high enough to bury the lower heating element. (Yes, I
now know about cleaning it out on a regular basis.) This caused the
heating element to burn out. So I spent some hours cleaning as much of the
scale out via the hole for the heating element, and put in a new element.
It's heating water fine but I know it's just a matter of time before I burn
the element out again. This is a Kenmore Power Miser 9 that has a 9yr tank
and parts warranty, so I expect the hardware has some life left in it if I
could only clean all the scale out. Any ideas on how I can clean it out?

Thanks!
I dragged mine outside last spring and removed the lower tap as well as both
elements. I used a garden hose and a pressure washer tip in various holes
until things seemed to be clean inside. By tipping the heater with the tap
edge down I was able to ensure I got the scale out. Mine were loose
particles, not sure if you mean that in your case they are adhered to the
sides of the cavity?

You could also drain or partially drain the tank periodically to remove some
of the scale if it has accumulated in the bottom. My problem with this was
that small bits of scale would sometimes get into the tap valve, so when I
turned off the drain tap it sometimes leaked.

When we had a softener, we added small amounts of acid to our tank monthly
to help dissolve scale. If you're not going to flush it regularly, this is
probably your best bet.