On Oct 17, 4:52?pm, "J" wrote:
By 'lower tap' do you mean 'drain valve'?

I like the idea of shooting pressured water in there to possibly break the
scale up. I'm wondering if the internal lining is in any way fragile where
I could do damage buy sending in high pressured water? I understand the
tank is steel but has a glass liner to keep rust out of the water. I guess
I don't want to damage this liner.

"Mamba" wrote in message

...



"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.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

if you mess with the tank be prepared to instantly replace it. if its
located where a leak can do damage just replace it.