Water Heater Maintenance

[doc holiday13]

I've got very calcium heavy water. I use a water softener but still get fixture buildup. I did a draindown on my heater last week week to pull the sacrificial rod and replace if necessary. COVERED in calcium buildup. So I dumped 2 gallons of 30% industrial vinegar into my 50 gallon heater tank and let it sit for 2 days. Any plumbers think this was sufficient time to descale the heater tank? I ran out the water last night and it was super fizzy and definitely had a vinegar smell but not strong enough to act like smelling salts.

 

[Huntindog45]

ive gone down the rabbit hole of trying to fix a water heater before.... i fought it like i was Tyson... eventually just had to replace it. It just seems once shit starts to go wrong with a water heater the problems just seem to keep stacking up.

 

[pirogue]

Do you have the salt free type softener, or different

 

[S-3 ranch]

I’m in hard water country myself
And a yearly flush and check the element is my way of trying to keep a buildup
If you do replace, try to stay away from the big box stores, somehow the Chinese build them different, there’s a couple of good YouTube videos on that subject

 

[doc holiday13]

ive gone down the rabbit hole of trying to fix a water heater before.... i fought it like i was Tyson... eventually just had to replace it. It just seems once shit starts to go wrong with a water heater the problems just seem to keep stacking up.

Water heater is ~5 years old. This is my 2nd time doing a flush. The first time I think i only let the vinegar set for 5 hours. I also used less vinegar. I don't have any issues ATM but I am curious how much time this is buying me. I figured having a solid 54 hours of soaking that much vinegar would be good

Do you have the salt free type softener, or different

Salt type. During the winter I burn off 5 gallons of water every 2 days with a pot of water on top of my wood stove. The softener helps A LOT I've pulled water directly from a spigot i have that is before the softener and generally I'll have scale in 4 days. Using water from a spigot after the softener, I won't have much scale after 20 days of boiling, Water heater(55 gallon) probably heats up 2-3x a day so its processing A LOT more water even though its post softener

 

[Davyalabama]

With hard water, you are doing about what I would do. Yeah, it's a pain, but you are doing about what I would have done when I lived in another county. I think I was replacing the lower elements every year. The Vinegar and water treatment didn't really help. The last year or so before I left, I was just flushing real good with water and replacing the bottom element. All that other stuff didn't seem to matter, it was going to build up, period. I thought, why waste my time, just flush, replace, carry on. It took longer to get all the hoses, run them out the window, and flush than it did to replace the element.

 

[Haro450]

There isn't much to a electric hot water heater. I don't know what replacing it would actually do. I flush and vacuum out the one we have. You could buy a cheap camera online and see if there is a lot of build up on the tank walls. My moto has always been if the tank is good to just buy new elements and control boards.

 

[cnelk]

On a side note [but still pertaining to the water heater] if youre getting sediment, you might have low water pressure on the hot side of a nearby faucet [i.e. kitchen or bathroom sink] due to some sediment collecting at the mixing valve.

I just went through this on my kitchen sink but its an easy fix.

Just turn off the valves under the sink - both hot and cold.
Remove the supply lines just above the valves, then open the faucet and move it back and forth between hot and cold.
That should release any sediment, but just to be sure, I took my shop vac and sucked the hot supply line out.

Put supply lines back on, turn on valves and...

Bingo - water pressure was now the same for both warm and cold

 

[SloppyJ]

This reminds me, I need to replace my element. I have installed plenty of water heaters but never opened one up. I think mine is struggling after 10yrs.

 

[TaperPin]

I’ve always warned remodeling clients that have hot water heater work done to clarify up front who pays if faucets clog up after any work on the heater. So it was ironic when our gas valve went out I figured it would be a good time to replace the anode, and flush it out. I should have let it sit for a while after the work was done to let any chunks that didn’t flush out settle to the bottom, but I was in a hurry and sure enough three shower valves, two bathroom faucets and the kitchen faucet plugged up. Luckily the bathroom faucets had screens on the supply lines that trapped everything, but the coarse screen on the kitchen faucet supply lines let enough crap through that no amount of back flushing would get it cleared out. It sure doesn’t take much to screw up new style valves. Lol

 

[PlumberED]

Replace the anode rod every 4 or 5 years. Flush the water heater out annually by hooking a hose to the drain valve on the bottom and let it run for 10 or 15 minutes, leave the service valve on to the heater during this process to force the debris out of the tank. I have not had much success in getting the debris out by just draining the tank, most of the stuff tends to stay inside the tank when you drain it by gravity. As for debris getting into your faucets, etc. We always removed all of the aerators and flushed out everything out when we placed the system back in service. This prevents most clogged fixtures.

As far as water treatment, I don’t know a whole lot. Softening the water is the correct treatment if the water is hard. I think I remember reading somewhere that softened water is slightly corrosive. Maybe someone else has some knowledge about that subject and will chime in.

 

[rileybassman]

I live in super hard water country... I flush and replace my elements annually. It's relatively cheap maintenance. I've burned out several elements around 1.5 years due to sediment building up to the lower element.

 

[Nine Banger]

I've burned out several elements around 1.5 years due to sediment building up to the lower element.

This is what we see in southeast.

Sludge builds up and only one element is working properly.

 

[CaribouRanch]

Curious if on-demand water heaters have this same problem too. Maybe easier to clean and maintain?

 

[johnjay]

good advice

I’m in hard water country myself
And a yearly flush and check the element is my way of trying to keep a buildup
If you do replace, try to stay away from the big box stores, somehow the Chinese build them different, there’s a couple of good YouTube videos on that subject

 

[PlumberED]

Curious if on-demand water heaters have this same problem too. Maybe easier to clean and maintain?

The scaling in tankless is usually worse. They require yearly maintenance to descale the heat exchanger. The descaling process is fairly simple if the correct valves were installed.