Need ideas for water heater cleanout

Junkman · Feb 29, 2004

I have the same problem with my water heater tank and have never found that draining would help much. Mine is 20+ years old now and it still works well, but when the flame comes on, it sounds like there is someone in there with a hammer banging away. I have since learned that the sediment on the bottom of the tank is like a rock and that the heat is causing it to move around. Mine is oil fired. I thought of the muriatic acid as one way, but then I decided that I was going to first try citric acid powder. I have the powder, but have yet to try it. This past fall, I purchased another heater and am going to use the original one as a back up unit to the new one. I intend to install a filter screen in the well line and make sure that the water is always soft from now on...

dieseltoys · Mar 1, 2004

I used to work in maintenance at a hotel and the four 100 gallon tanks on site would get loaded with these calcium flakes about every two years. To clean them out I would remove the bottom elements and work through the holes with a shop vac reduced down to a piece of 1" rubber heater hose. The flakes were fine enough to get picked up and I would just work the hose around randomly until I felt it was clean. A piece of bent wire was also helpful in loosening up some of the sediment. I don't think the CLR will prove strong enough to eat the flakes up, the muratic acid probably will, but you might want to try a little test on some of the flakes if you can get a few out to see what the reaction might be like first if you decide to go that route. My only concern would be too strong of a reaction with the creation of a lot of foam and fumes, you'd have to make sure you had the tank vented to prevent a pressure buildup.

Richard · Mar 1, 2004

( shop vac reduced down to a piece of 1" rubber heater hose )

Thus far, that's the method I've essentiall used. It just drives me nuts to have to turn power off, drain, take element out, tinker around, put back together & put power back on.

Because of above, I put a larger drain in (full 3/4") and am hoping that someway, I can help entice all the flakes to exit the larger hole.

My first attempt over this weekend seems to have failed, because I hardly got any chips out. As I cleaned it pretty well last fall, I might not have "that" many in there but I doubt it.

I'm not too keen on using the muratic acid routine. I was around that stuff once as a child and still recall how nasty it was to sniff.

Why do they not simply build a larger cleanout.....

TheKid · Mar 1, 2004

What if you connected the 1/4 inch copper tubing to a hose. The water pressure from the tube should stir up the sediment and the extra water should help it to flow out. You could also flatten out the tip of the tube to give it a wider pattern.

Richard · Mar 1, 2004

VERY interesting thought.

Thinking (typing) outloud here...

Flatten the tubing a bit, attach to hose, drain heater (after shutting power off), take out element, insert "pressure" sprayer into said element hole, wildly spray into bottom area of tank while also having my drain hose attached to the drain.

Velly interesting. Seems to me, if nothing else, this would "shake up" the sediment on the bottom, I could then (sigh) reattach the element...

hey... just thought of this... are those anode rods hard to remove? I think I found mine other day (been debating on replacing it) and it LOOKS like it's just a 3/4" or so hex nut?

Remove that and use that hole to spray down (much less effort than taking the #$)@#&*+ element out) It could be replaced at same time.

Might definately be worth looking into

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TheKid · Mar 2, 2004

( Remove that and use that hole to spray down (much less effort than taking the #$)@#&*+ element out) It could be replaced at same time. ) If you had a long enough piece of copper tube you could slide it inside the clear plastic hose that you attached to the spigot end. That way you could blast the sediment loose and still catch the water in a bucket without having to remove an element.

Richard · Mar 2, 2004

That is exacly what I did. I cut say, a 12" piece of tubing and aimed it to a bucket for collection and put my scraper up. I'll have to see if this works too, it would be the easiest.

I love easy

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Boiler74 · Mar 4, 2004

I'm in the rental property business, and this is one of the common problems I see. What I have found to work the best to drain a electric water heater is an air compressor. My water heaters have di-electric unions (sp), so I took one, and fitted it with a quick-coupler air connector like you would have on air tools. Then, after making sure all faucets are closed, fill the tank with 60 psi or so. This will force the water out through even very clogged drains, taking a lot of the sediment with it. It won't get it squeeky clean, but will do a lot with a minimum of trouble. Just be sure to let the pressure bleed off through the drain hose before you disconnect from the quick-coupler.

I've also started installing elements that are advertised to work even when covered with sediment. And they are lifetime guaranteed. About 3 times the cost, but if they work, they're worth it. Luckily, my local Ace will back-up that guarantee if it fails.

Hope that helps.

Richard · Mar 5, 2004

Update on my concoction...

Went to local store, bought a 1/4" (maybe 3/8") tube about 5' long. Got a coupling where I can connect it to hose. Evidently it came of the "plumbing parts for mobile homes" rack.

The gameplan so far, is.. remove water inlet nipple on top of tank. Attach drain hose to drain. Use this in up/down, sideways/anyways fashion as a high pressure sprayer while (in theory) the chips move on out the drain.

I realize they'll probably just move about on bottom of tank and not necessarily out the drain right away, but I figure, if I can at least "shake them up" they might move out easier when I put it all back together and allow the 3/4" inlet pipe to REALLY add the flow.

We'll see.

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