Make Sure Draining The Water Heater Goes On Your Fall To-Do List

Autumn’s cooler temperatures should serve as a reminder that it’s time to perform an annual maintenance job: draining your water heater to remove sediments and minerals that have built up inside.

Why You Need To Drain Your Water Heater

There are several key reasons why you need to drain your water heater:

• Accumulation of minerals can cause your water heater to work less efficiently and not heat the water as well as it could.
• If enough minerals build up on the heating elements, you may hear telltale popping noises. If this isn’t addressed, your heater will eventually stop working and you’ll be forced to replace the heating elements.

Draining The Water Heater

Fortunately, draining water heaters is not hard to do. All you need is a hose, and gloves to protect your hands.

• First, turn off the electricity or gas and let the water heater cool off. You could even turn it off overnight if you will be draining it in the morning.
• Turn off the water valve on the top and attach the hose to the drain faucet at the bottom. The hose can drain outside, in a floor drain (if there is one) or a sink.
• Open the faucet, and the water will begin draining.
• Open a hot water faucet in the house to allow air to come into the heater.
• When the process is done, turn on the cold water valve at the top for a short time to let a little more water in to flush out the remaining sediment.
• Repeat this until the water is clear.
• Close the drain faucet and open the cold water valve. Do not turn the gas or electricity on until the tank is full.

For more information about keeping your water heater in top shape or if the steps above are more than you want to tackle yourself, contact one of the experts at Sobieski Services.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Wilmington, Delaware and surrounding areas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC & plumbing systems).