Most people don’t think about their water heater until there’s no hot water. If you’re one of those people, now is the time to learn how to flush your water heater! By flushing your water heater regularly, you can help keep it running smoothly and avoid any problems. Plus, it’s an easy task that only takes a few minutes. So read on for instructions on how to flush your water heater.
How Often Should You Flush Your Hot Water Heater?
Although it’s not something people often think about, flushing your water heater is an important task that should be done regularly. Depending on the type of water heater you have, you’ll need to flush it every six months or so.
How to Flush Your Hot Water Heater
This is a guide for flushing your water heater. The instructions will be geared towards those who have gas heaters, but the process should work roughly in the same manner with electric models as well (although there may need to adjust some settings).
I’m going to turn off both electricity and natural gas here so that we don’t accidentally do anything while doing these steps!
1. Turn the Knob on Your Hot Water Heater’s Thermostat to “Off”
If you have a gas water heater, the thermostat is usually found on or near it. Other sources say that if your home’s pilot light doesn’t seem to be working properly then just turn off all heating devices including this one! When doing so make sure everything else like lights and appliances is turned Off too because when we lose power sometimes things can trip alarms in case there was damage done during an outage. Which would mean bad news for psychiatric patients who saw their therapists go out at 5 pm today (or anyone else living without electricity).
2. Turn Off Gas to Hot Water Heater
To avoid stopping your gas water heater, find the pipe that leads from it and turns it off at either a valve or shut-off switch. If you decide not to turn on any heat whatsoever just make sure there’s no leak before moving forward!
3. Turn Off the Cold Water Supply to Hot Water Heater
The cold water valve is usually found near the top of your hot-water heater. Turn it off to avoid freezing pipes!
4. Turn on the Hot Water in a Sink or Tub
The best way to avoid a vacuum forming in your lines while you’re draining the hot water tank is by leaving it on during the entire flushing process.
5. Connect Garden Hose to Drainage Spigot
Make sure the hot water is flowing smoothly before turning on any spigots. If there are basement pipes that need to be isolated, make arrangements for pumping them up so you don’t end up flooding your home!
6. Turn on Spigot and Drain
When draining your tank, make sure you do it slowly so as not to create waves that will splash over with liquid. If there are too many sediments in the water and/or when I started my drains were brownish-green then perhaps the commenter could kindly help me by taking a look at how they teach people who have never drained their saltwater tanks before.
7. Flush
Flush your hot water tank by turning on the cold spigot leading into it and let run for a few minutes until you see clear water coming out. This may take some time but don’t worry because there is likely still residue inside of yours! Keep repeating these steps until no more sediments come out. And start seeing brown stains near where they attach to their fixtures. When finished flush with fresh cold tap flows twice daily.
Finishing Things Up
When you’re satisfied with the clarity of your water, it’s time to put things back how they were. Turn off both ends and disconnect hoses from valves or pipes under the sink (or tub). Leave cold one running so there’s still some running through thermo block collar at the bottom; turn on hot for now without pressure until we get this all sewn up then shut tight!
If you’re noticing that your water heater is not working as efficiently. There are a few things to try before calling in for service. First off, if it’s an electric model and the breaker switch has been flipped from On-to Off. Then flip both sides back again by turning them at their respective poles next time around!
The gas unit will already have heated up after 20 minutes so set about doing other tasks while waiting patiently until everything is ready including flipping on some nearby faucets.
