What lurks in your water heater?

My well pump died earlier this week so replacing it got me going on other plumbing maintenance. I installed my water heater 5 years ago and haven't drained it since. Uh-oh...

Pulled out the anode rod then put a hose on it, took a long time to drain out.

Anode rod is pretty well chewed up, I'll get a new aluminum/zinc one. Ended up taking the valve off the tank only to see solid goo blocking the way. Made a loop out of a clothes hanger and started hauling out muck and what I guess were chunks of the anode rod. Gross when you consider this is coming out of something that handles my drinking water! At least it didn't stink. My water goes through 2 filters before it get to the tank. 1 sediment and 1 carbon. Guess I'll be flushing this out more often now...

Do mine yearly.

As for overall water quality, it's the stuff we can't see in our water that really worries me. Fluoride, PFC's, nitrogen, and other cancer causing stuff that we have no control over.

Mine is about 3 years old, I should probably add this to the list.

I have a gas one and tried to drain it a couple of years ago. We have very hard water, so I can only imagine what it looks like inside.

Problem is, I don't know what the hell I'm doing with it. I did know to turn off the gas. And was able to drain some out of it, but started freaking out a bit with the "pressure valve".

Other than turning off the gas and draining, anything special I need to do? Does it build up a vacuum? When it fills and heats back up, do I need to open the pressure valve at the top?

I tried searching, but really didn't find anything other than "you could die, call a plumber"

Something tells me (since we seem to have less hot water), that if I open the tap now, nothing will come out......

-Rob

In reply to rob_lewis:

What about the pressure valve? Generally not recommended to mess with those since they don't always reseal if activated.

I don't think you're supposed to kill water pressure to the heater (or it will try to pull a vacuum with no faucets open), hook your hose up, set the knob to pilot (or off if you prefer, just a PITA to relight a sealed chamber unit), let er rip. I suppose you might run a faucet on hot a while with it on pilot to eliminate the scalding hot water hazard. There is a concern of sediment screwing up the crappy provided drain valve, replace it with a ball valve if that happens, with a ball valve drain you'd want to screw a plug in there in place of the garden hose adapter or wire it shut when you're done, or both, since those are pretty easy to knock open.

Hmmm. House came with two water heaters. Been here 12 years. Never drained 'em. Now I figure I'll just wait for them to die and replace them.

Thanks for reminding me, I drained mine this morning. It had been a few months.

I've owned my house for six or seven years and have never touched the water heater. It was new when I bought the house. Is this the sort of thing that is better to leave once it has been left alone for so long? Or should I just do it anyway?

You don't need to turn anything off. At the bottom of the water heater should be a bib. Like this:

Hook a hose up to that. Do not use the pressure relief. This is the pressure relief:

Take the hose from the bib to a toilet or sink and then open the bib. Let it run for a while, until the water coming out is clear. Then close the bib and carefully drain the water from the hose into the sink or toilet. (Don't just unhook it and coil it up, you'll get your carpet wet!)

Avoid dumping that much hot water into your drainage system. If there is any buildup of soap scum and grease, your just going to piss it off. It will soften, move and reform into one giant puss filled zit. Saw it many many times back when I first started out working for Rotor Rooter. We'd get called in to clear a main drain right after another plumber was there changing a water heater out. As a result, I always dump the hot water heaters outside. Just don't dump it on the grass or you will kill it.

In reply to tr8todd:

Would this puss filled zit also contain hair by chance?

Do you think this drainage will help a dead patch of St. Augustine grass grow? I got a nasty gram from my HOA saying something needs to be done. Green spray paint will only last so long.

That looks like Montezuma's revenge after a night of drinking and Taco Bell.