With time, your water tank can lose its efficiency. This decrease is caused by the accumulation of sediments. In gas water heaters, sediments collect on the bottom of the tank and slow the transfer of heat. In an electric water heater, sediment covers the lower heating element, causing it to overheat or even burn out. That’s why it is important to maintain your hot water tank once in a while. The task is easy, and flushing it once in a year or every 3 years is enough to keep it going. Keep reading this article and you will learn how to clean a hot water tank.
material required
- Screwdriver
- Garden hose
- Washing machine hose
Step 1: Disconnect the water heater
Always think about your safety first. This is why you must turn off the power of your electric tank at the breaker before you clean your hot water tank. If you have a gas heater, turn off the gas supply, then set the water heater to the pilot setting. Lastly, you can turn the gas control off.
Step 2: Flush to clean the hot water tank
Once the water heater is disconnected, you will be able to shut off the cold water supply. It should be somewhere on top of your hot water heater.
To do a deep flush of the tank, you need to drain all water.
Caution: keep in mind that the water inside the tank is still hot. Be careful when draining or accessing the tank.
- To start draining, you will need to relieve pressure in the system. To do so, run hot water through a faucet in the house.
- Then connect the garden hose to the drain valve. Make sure that the end of the hose leads to a bucket or a drain.
- Then open the valve to drain the water. It may take about 30 minutes. The water should run clean toward the end of the draining.
What to do if the water drains slowly
If the water is draining slowly or not draining at all, then it is likely that sediment is clogging the valve. In this case, you may want to do a backflush following this process:
- Connect a washing machine hose to a threaded faucet.
- Then, connect it to the garden hose. Always consider the possibility of a backflushing before you start your draining process as you may need an adapter.
- Open the faucet for a couple of seconds to blast water back into the tank. This should break any sediment clog.
- Now disconnect the washing machine hose, and continue to drain the tank. If it gets clogged again, repeat the backflush process until the tank drains.
Step 3: Flush the hot water tank
Now that the tank is empty, you can do a flush to remove some of the built-up sediments. The process is the following:
- Turn on the cold supply to blast water into the bottom of the tank. This will agitate and lift the sediment.
- Then, drain the water. Repeat the process as much as needed to get clear water running out of the hose.
- Close the drain valve and disconnect the hose.
Step 4: Refill the tank
- First, check that there is a faucet running hot water in the house.
- Then open the cold water supply to fill the tank.
- Check the faucet, you should hear the air being pushed out of the system.
- Close the faucet once you get smooth streaming water, showing that the tank is full and that the air has been removed.
- For an electric heater, turn on the electricity on the breaker. And for gas heater turn back on the gas, and relight the pilot.
Now you know how to clean a hot water tank. Please feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions, advice, or experiences. If you want to know more about water tanks, find out how does a water tank work.
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