thanks for the info. I bought a brass valve and was going to install
it but I can't get the old one out easily. I am afraid I might break
something it seems to have been twisted in pretty tight.
Also, do I use teflon tape or something to seal the brass pipe going
into the tank ?

thanks

On Fri, 05 Dec 2003 14:25:25 -0500, Phil Munro
wrote:

Phisherman wrote:

On Thu, 04 Dec 2003 21:31:12 -0700, Rein
wrote:

I have a gas water heater, about 5 years old.
When heating up it makes some pretty bad banging noises, almost as if
a rock is bouncing around in it.
I've been pretty good with flushing it and I hardly see any sediment
come out when I do. ( I open the valve and water runs out, good
enough, right ?)
What can it be ?

also, every time I flush it, the darn valve keeps dripping water out.
Replaced it once with a new one form hd (it's plastic) but now it does
it again... why ? Guess I need to replace it again ?

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A bumping sound is a clue that there is sediment at the bottom. If
your water is hard and there is no softener, that;s anther clue. The
metal brass valves are much better than the flimsy plastic ones.

Here is what I wrote about my gas water heater:
The sediment I find in my water heater is relatively heavy and sinks
around the edges of the bottom of the (gas) heater. I think draining
the heater would just waste water.
What I have done is to replace the cheap plastic drain valve with a
3/4" ball valve. This required a short stem from heater to valve, and
a hose fitting was mounted on the outlet side.
If I open this valve somewhat quickly when the heater is on, it causes
a bit of an "explosion" in the water, which stirs up the sediment, and I
can see the sediment in the bottom of the bucket. I *know* I am getting
sediment out of the heater. This is the way I "drain the sediment from
my gas water heater."
When installing the ball valve, I also tried to reach in and clean and
scrape sediment out from the bottom of the heater.
After several years now, my gas water heater does not rumble any more
(due to sediment on its bottom surface).
My plan is to remove the brass ball valve when the heater does need to
be replaced, and use it on the new one from the start. --Phil

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