Thank Your Plumbers — For Real!

Thank Your Plumbers — For Real!

Water Heater Maintenance: Removing Sediment From Your Water Heater

by Bill Turner

Your water heater is a necessary appliance in your home. It provides you with the hot water you need to do a number of the things you do every single day. These things could be difficult to complete without the use of hot water, or they may make these tasks completely useless without hot water. One of the reasons why your water heater may not be working properly could be because of sediment in the bottom of the tank. When this sediment settles to the bottom, it can block the heater core, which may cause an issue with heating up the water. Read on for some tips on how to remove sediment from your water heater.

Drain The Water

Drain the hot water from the tank in order to be able to reach the sediment at the base of the tank. You will need to turn the water off that is coming into the tank to prevent just running water through the tank and wasting water. Turn off the water, then drain the tank using a garden hose and open up the drain valve on the tank. The water that will be coming out will be hot, so you need to be careful when doing this. Drain the water away from your house to prevent flooding your home.

Vacuum The Sediment

Use a shop vacuum to vacuum the sediment from the base of the tank. To do this, you will need to attach the vacuum hose to the drain opening and suck out the sediment from the base. If you are unable to reach the inside of the base, you may have to attach a longer section to be able to reach inside of the tank with the hose to remove the sediment. Once you have it all removed, you can close the drain opening and turn the water back onto the tank to refill it. Test your handy work after a few hours to allow the water to heat up inside of the tank.

If your water heater is not giving you any hot water and you have hard water in your home, it could have a mineral buildup in the base of the tank. If you are not able to make this repair yourself, you can hire a plumber to help you make this repair and get your water heater working properly again. Be sure to keep a close eye on your hot water heater and maintain it to prevent an issue in the first place. 


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Thank Your Plumbers — For Real!

When you have a plumber come work on your home, we hope you thank them. Really, you should be thanking any contractor who works on your home, but we are a little partial to plumbers and happen to think they deserve a little more recognition. After all, the stuff inside the pipes they work on doesn't usually smell very good. And even though they wear gloves, they have to get pretty close to it! If you would like to learn a little more about plumbers, then we invite you to read this blog. After learning the basics, you'll really want to thank your plumbers!

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