Drain electric water heater - yea or nay?


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Old 04-29-18, 02:02 PM
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Drain electric water heater - yea or nay?

Hello, I am installing a water softener in my home. I need to drain water from my system to rearrange the piping from my well supply, to the softener and ending just downstream of my electric water heater. I have been running 12 GPG hardness water through the heater for at least 15 years. I am tempted to drain some of the system water from my water heater. On the other hand, I am hesitant to chance a problem with the heater drain valve. Any opinions are greatly appreciated.
 
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Old 04-29-18, 02:05 PM
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I am tempted to drain some of the system water from my water heater.
Why ??

The water heater should be flushed yearly as part of service.
If you need to drain to empty the pipes.... do it.
If the valve leaks...... put a thread on blank cap on it.
 
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Old 04-29-18, 04:09 PM
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If you haven't drained from the bottom of the water heater in the past 15 years it's not really about doing good for the water heater. It's more your curiosity about what may come out. Without at least yearly draining mineral deposits and sediment have been building up. You might find that almost nothing comes out the valve when you open it. But, since an electric heaters heating elements are located up on the sides the sediment on the bottom is less important than it is with a gas heater.
 
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Old 04-30-18, 03:26 AM
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I drain off several gallons from my water heater twice a year as maintenance. Often on old heaters that have never had any sediment bled off the valve won't completely close when you get done
 
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Old 04-30-18, 04:07 AM
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In all likelyhood the bottom will be filled with scale and not much if anything will drain.

You can fix this with a bit of work but you would need to be determined to do so.
The valve can normally be screwed off and you should be left with a 3/4" female pipe thread.
How you remove the valve wil depend if you have a floor drain nearby.
If you open the valve and nothing comes out unscrew and remove it.
Replace the valve with a 3" x 3/4" galvanized or brass nipple and cap it with a 3/4" ball valve.
This will allow you to use a stiff wire or other narrow tool to be able to repeatedly probe the scale to allow the tank to drain.
Once the water is drained you can then access the bottom of the tank to pull out the scale with a narrow tool.
I have made a vacumn tool out of a piece of 3/4" copper tube to attach to a wet vac to get in and suck out the scale.

This is a job that could take awhile to do but the only other option is to open the valve and if you're lucky it will drain on it's own.
A way to clear the original valve if you leave it on is to get a female garden hose adapter and reverse flush it.

Sounds like a bit of work but once you do it is actually pretty simple.
 
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Old 04-30-18, 04:25 AM
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Whatever you decide to do regarding drainage . . . . make sure the power is turned OFF before draining anything, and that the tank has re-filled before turning the power back on.

As a Real Estate Broker, I have repeatedly dealt with calls from the Buyers of vacant Homes, and Camps , who open the dwellings up and make the mistake of turning the power on before the tank has had the opportunity to re-fill, and burned out one or both of the elements, and call then to complain. There's usually a big sign warning the occupant of this potential; but it often gets ignored.

I used to keep a couple generic 3 and 5 KW Elements on hand just for those emergencies.
 

Last edited by Vermont; 04-30-18 at 04:57 AM.
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Old 04-30-18, 04:56 AM
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Thanks for adding this important step.👍
 
 

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