On Tue, 16 Feb 2016 17:28:10 -0600, SeaNymph
wrote:

I apologize if this was discussed before my time.

We have an 85 gallon Marathon water heater, which I really like. I've
read different things about periodically training water heaters and I
don't know what to believe.

I'm not sure if its necessary, just wondering what others think.

At most it's only needed by some people. The notion that everyone
should do it is poppycock.

I've been here 33 years, never done it. Never had any problem
bedcuase of it. Last time this was discussed there were a lot of
stories of valves that couldnt' be fully closed after they were once
opened, especially if they were plastic.

First electric WH leaked after 15 years (counting 4 years before I
bought hte house.)

But I got mixed up, I think, and decided after 10 years that one WH
was broken when it probably just needed a new thermostat or heater.
Cut it open and found only a tablespoon of sediment in the bottom.
Only 1/4" high. Since the heating element was a few inches higher
than the bottom, it would have taken over 250 years before the
sediment reached the element. If it does't reach the element, it
causes no harm.

I have "city water" that comes ultimately from one of 3 reservoirs
around here.

You would be better off asking neighbors with wells in the same
aquifer and similar water softening what happens when or IF they drain
theirs. Do they actually get sediment coming out? How much? Unless
there is a lot, there is no point to doing this.

In the last conversation, with different people maybe, most people
were against it.