I drained my 3 year-old gas water heater last night, for the first
time. I drained it into a sump pump pit that is in the basement at a
lower level than the water heater, through a piece of garden hose that
I screwed onto the drain output. There was no sign of anything other
than clear water throughout the entire 40 gallon draining process.
After it finished draining, I turned the input water back on and put a
couple of gallons of fresh water into the heater to see if I could
stir up anything on the bottom. But the new water drained out clear
also. I guess I should be happy, but I am wondering if I missed
something.

"hr(bob) " wrote in message
...
I drained my 3 year-old gas water heater last night, for the first
time. I drained it into a sump pump pit that is in the basement at a
lower level than the water heater, through a piece of garden hose that
I screwed onto the drain output. There was no sign of anything other
than clear water throughout the entire 40 gallon draining process.
After it finished draining, I turned the input water back on and put a
couple of gallons of fresh water into the heater to see if I could
stir up anything on the bottom. But the new water drained out clear
also. I guess I should be happy, but I am wondering if I missed
something.

Probably not. If everything goes right, the water passes through and leaves
little or nothing behind. Mud comes from solids the precipitate out when
standing. If you have good water, there will be little solids. Some water
supplies have lots of sediment. If you have a whole house filter in line,
that helps too.

On Oct 20, 6:35�pm, "Ed Pawlowski" wrote:
"hr(bob) " wrote in message

...

I drained my 3 year-old gas water heater last night, for the first
time. �I drained it into a sump pump pit that is in the basement at a
lower level than the water heater, through a piece of garden hose that
I screwed onto the drain output. �There was no sign of anything other
than clear water throughout the entire 40 gallon draining process.
After it finished draining, I turned the input water back on and put a
couple of gallons of fresh water into the heater to see if I could
stir up anything on the bottom. But the new water drained out clear
also. �I guess I should be happy, but I am wondering if I missed
something.

Probably not. �If everything goes right, the water passes through and leaves
little or nothing behind. Mud comes from solids the precipitate out when
standing. �If you have good water, there will be little solids. �Some water
supplies have lots of sediment. �If you have a whole house filter in line,
that helps too.

my heater never has sediment of any type, so i quit draing it after
one drsaining where the thermocouple failed after turning tank off.

to me water heaters are install and forget till they fail or get old
and i replace them as preventive maintence.

if you divide the purchase cost per year of service its less than a
buck a week, or one cheap candy bar per week.

not worth messing with, espically risking premature tank failure

On Oct 20, 7:20*pm, " wrote:
On Oct 20, 6:35 pm, "Ed Pawlowski" wrote:



"hr(bob) " wrote in message

....

I drained my 3 year-old gas water heater last night, for the first
time. I drained it into a sump pump pit that is in the basement at a
lower level than the water heater, through a piece of garden hose that
I screwed onto the drain output. There was no sign of anything other
than clear water throughout the entire 40 gallon draining process.
After it finished draining, I turned the input water back on and put a
couple of gallons of fresh water into the heater to see if I could
stir up anything on the bottom. But the new water drained out clear
also. I guess I should be happy, but I am wondering if I missed
something.

Probably not. If everything goes right, the water passes through and leaves
little or nothing behind. Mud comes from solids the precipitate out when
standing. If you have good water, there will be little solids. Some water
supplies have lots of sediment. If you have a whole house filter in line,
that helps too.

my heater never has sediment of any type, so i quit draing it after
one drsaining where the thermocouple failed after turning tank off.

to me water heaters are install and forget till they fail or get old
and i replace them as preventive maintence.

if you divide the purchase cost per year of service its less than a
buck a week, or one cheap candy bar per week.

not worth messing with, espically risking premature tank failure

The argument I've heard is that draining them can leave some sediment
in the valve. If so, after a couple of times you may find you can't
shut it all the way off.

I've never drained one and so far never had one fail that seemed to be
sediment related. But with a number of kids, may our flow through was
enough to keep it clean.

All the water heaters that I have installed recently have had a dip tube
that was curved at the end so as the cold water comes in, it swirls the
water constantly cleaning the bottom.



"hr(bob) " wrote in message
...
I drained my 3 year-old gas water heater last night, for the first
time. I drained it into a sump pump pit that is in the basement at a
lower level than the water heater, through a piece of garden hose that
I screwed onto the drain output. There was no sign of anything other
than clear water throughout the entire 40 gallon draining process.
After it finished draining, I turned the input water back on and put a
couple of gallons of fresh water into the heater to see if I could
stir up anything on the bottom. But the new water drained out clear
also. I guess I should be happy, but I am wondering if I missed
something.

On Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:21:32 -0700 (PDT), "hr(bob) "
wrote:

I drained my 3 year-old gas water heater last night, for the first
time. I drained it into a sump pump pit that is in the basement at a
lower level than the water heater, through a piece of garden hose that
I screwed onto the drain output. There was no sign of anything other
than clear water throughout the entire 40 gallon draining process.
After it finished draining, I turned the input water back on and put a
couple of gallons of fresh water into the heater to see if I could
stir up anything on the bottom. But the new water drained out clear
also. I guess I should be happy, but I am wondering if I missed
something.


Tanks with a "turbulator" very seldom have any sediment build-up.

On Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:20:59 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:

On Oct 20, 6:35?pm, "Ed Pawlowski" wrote:
"hr(bob) " wrote in message

...

I drained my 3 year-old gas water heater last night, for the first
time. ?I drained it into a sump pump pit that is in the basement at a
lower level than the water heater, through a piece of garden hose that
I screwed onto the drain output. ?There was no sign of anything other
than clear water throughout the entire 40 gallon draining process.
After it finished draining, I turned the input water back on and put a
couple of gallons of fresh water into the heater to see if I could
stir up anything on the bottom. But the new water drained out clear
also. ?I guess I should be happy, but I am wondering if I missed
something.

Probably not. ?If everything goes right, the water passes through and leaves
little or nothing behind. Mud comes from solids the precipitate out when
standing. ?If you have good water, there will be little solids. ?Some water
supplies have lots of sediment. ?If you have a whole house filter in line,
that helps too.

my heater never has sediment of any type, so i quit draing it after
one drsaining where the thermocouple failed after turning tank off.

to me water heaters are install and forget till they fail or get old
and i replace them as preventive maintence.

if you divide the purchase cost per year of service its less than a
buck a week, or one cheap candy bar per week.

not worth messing with, espically risking premature tank failure

So far mine is down around 45 cents a week and dropping. One
thermocouple replacement at about 5 years or so. We have pretty
agressive water, but use a water softener. The original in the house
lasted about 12 years, and was just a cheap contract house unit. Top
of the line GSW this time.

On Oct 20, 8:37*pm, "Cliff Hartle" wrote:
All the water heaters that I have installed recently have had a dip tube
that was curved at the end so as the cold water comes in, it swirls the
water constantly cleaning the bottom.

"hr(bob) " wrote in message

...



I drained my 3 year-old gas water heater last night, for the first
time. *I drained it into a sump pump pit that is in the basement at a
lower level than the water heater, through a piece of garden hose that
I screwed onto the drain output. *There was no sign of anything other
than clear water throughout the entire 40 gallon draining process.
After it finished draining, I turned the input water back on and put a
couple of gallons of fresh water into the heater to see if I could
stir up anything on the bottom. But the new water drained out clear
also. *I guess I should be happy, but I am wondering if I missed
something.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Interesting about the curved tube, I don't have a clue if mine has
onbe or not. Thanx for the idea.

Pick it up and shake it for ten min. and drain again.

Jerry


http://community.webtv.net/awoodbutc...oodWorkingPage



http://community.webtv.net/awoodbutcher/1974RuppCentair

On Oct 21, 1:32*am, (Jerry - OHIO) wrote:
Pick it up and shake it for ten min. and drain again.

Jerry

http://community.webtv.net/awoodbutc...oodWorkingPage

http://community.webtv.net/awoodbutcher/1974RuppCentair

Using the word "mud" makes me wonder if you missed actual sediment.
The only sediment I've seen come out of my water heaters are very
small particles, about the size of lead pencil points that are
slightly white in color. If you were looking for something more
like muddy water, you could miss it.

On Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:21:32 -0700, hr(bob) wrote:

I drained my 3 year-old gas water heater last night, for the first
time. I drained it into a sump pump pit that is in the basement at a
lower level than the water heater, through a piece of garden hose that
I screwed onto the drain output. There was no sign of anything other
than clear water throughout the entire 40 gallon draining process.

What's the drain valve like on yours? On mine it's a plastic thing where
the water path goes through a narrow channel with a couple of quite tight
bends. Whoever designed it was an idiot. When I was having issues with the
tank a few weeks back I was getting clear water out of the drain (and at a
quite good flow rate) - but the tank really was very badly sludged up, and
the valve body's just of such a poor design that it released water OK but
not any of the sediment.

I ended up draining the tank and taking the valve apart, which gave a
little less awkward path for the outflow. Then I'd turn the water on to
fill about 4 or 5 gallons of the tank (not enough to overflow the bucket
I was draining to - if you've got a sump you can add more and get a
better head of water) and feed a bit of wire in through the top of the
open valve body to dislodge sediment as it drained.

Even better would have been to remove the whole drain valve body (leaving
a 3/4" hole straight into the bottom of the tank), but it didn't want to
unscrew and I was worried about cracking it if I put any more force on it.

I turned the input water back on and put a
couple of gallons of fresh water into the heater to see if I could stir
up anything on the bottom.

If you want, you can probably unscrew the bottom element and just
visually inspect it inside. My lower element was jammed solid (I had
about 4' of breaker bar on it with no luck) so I couldn't take that
route. Throw a bit of plumbing paste on the threads when you put the
element back in and it'll all seal up nicely again.

cheers

Jules

On Oct 21, 7:59*am, Jules
wrote:
On Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:21:32 -0700, hr(bob) wrote:
I drained my 3 year-old gas water heater last night, for the first
time. *I drained it into a sump pump pit that is in the basement at a
lower level than the water heater, through a piece of garden hose that
I screwed onto the drain output. *There was no sign of anything other
than clear water throughout the entire 40 gallon draining process.

What's the drain valve like on yours? On mine it's a plastic thing where
the water path goes through a narrow channel with a couple of quite tight
bends. Whoever designed it was an idiot. When I was having issues with the
tank a few weeks back I was getting clear water out of the drain (and at a
quite good flow rate) - but the tank really was very badly sludged up, and
the valve body's just of such a poor design that it released water OK but
not any of the sediment.

I ended up draining the tank and taking the valve apart, which gave a
little less awkward path for the outflow. Then I'd turn the water on to
fill about 4 or 5 gallons of the tank (not enough to overflow the bucket
I was draining to - if you've got a sump you can add more and get a
better head of water) and feed a bit of wire in through the top of the
open valve body to dislodge sediment as it drained.

Even better would have been to remove the whole drain valve body (leaving
a 3/4" hole straight into the bottom of the tank), but it didn't want to
unscrew and I was worried about cracking it if I put any more force on it..

I turned the input water back on and put a
couple of gallons of fresh water into the heater to see if I could stir
up anything on the bottom.

If you want, you can probably unscrew the bottom element and just
visually inspect it inside. My lower element was jammed solid (I had
about 4' of breaker bar on it with no luck) so I couldn't take that
route. Throw a bit of plumbing paste on the threads when you put the
element back in and it'll all seal up nicely again.

cheers

Jules

It's a gas heater and very hard to get to since it is behind the water
softener. I think I'll just wait 2 or 3 years and try again. I
didn't see any small particles or anything, just clear water coming
out the end of the hose I was using to drain it so maybe our water is
pretty good. It comes from Lake Michigan via Chicago water system and
then our DuPage County water folks so it has a lot of places to drop
sediment as well as pick up god knows what along the way.

On Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:33:25 -0700, hr(bob) wrote:
It's a gas heater

yes, duh, sorry about that. That'll teach me not to post when I haven't
had enough coffee

I think I'll just wait 2 or 3 years and try again. I didn't
see any small particles or anything, just clear water coming out the end
of the hose I was using to drain it so maybe our water is pretty good.

Fairy nuff. If there's no apparent problem then it makes sense, I suppose.
If it's partially silted it'll lose efficiency, but there's probably no
easy way to monitor that over time with a gas heater.

(I must have pulled about ten gallons of crud out of ours, which obviously
hadn't happened all at once - yet in terms of water temperature it had all
seemed to be working fine until recently, and previous checks of the water
from the drain valve had shown no signs of build-up because the poor valve
design wasn't letting it through. It had probably been using way more
power than it should for several years...)

cheers

Jules