draining and cleaning hot water heater

krackeer · 04-02-2015, 11:30 PM

I drain my hot water heater often, but have never completely drained it. On your home water heater you simply hook a hose up to the bottom, drain it and flush it to get all of the crud out of the bottom. How do I get the crud out of the bottom of my tt water heater? Logic(ya right)tells me to pull the plastic plug, turn the water back on and flush away. Right? Will a garden hose hook up where I take the plug out so I can direct it away from the tt. Am I making this harder than it is?

Quahog · 04-03-2015, 04:44 AM

Get yourself one of these... I think Walmart may have them also.

Amazon.com: Camco 11691 Water Heater Tank Rinser: Automotive

Paintinfool3 · 04-03-2015, 06:07 AM

Well I guess you could pull the drain plug and if you were hooked up to city water turn the hose on and let it rinse through it ... If you could find a fitting with the same threads as the plug you might be able to hook a small hose to divert it but mine is a tight fit behind one of the lines so I wouldn't be able to fit a full size water hose behind it .... I would just let it drain naturally through the plug and get out of the line of fire when you turn the hose on lol

Scoutr2 · 04-03-2015, 06:38 AM

I drain my water heater after camping if I'm not planning on going out again for a couple weeks. Especially in hot weather, the water gets skunky sitting in the tank. I just pull the plug and let it gush. That tends to keep most of the lime buildup flushed out.

**norty1** · 04-04-2015, 02:09 PM

http://www.googleadservices.com/page...%3Dsem&cad=rja

This little flusher can be screwed to the end of a hose and used to flush all the scale, etc from the tank.

linkbelt · 04-04-2015, 02:54 PM

I have an rv that is 23 years old. I always drain the water tank after every trip.
Tank still has the origional heating element and works fine.

rick danger · 04-04-2015, 06:09 PM

How about sticking a pressure washer in the drain hole? To much? Ruin something in there?

**Crabman** · 04-04-2015, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scoutr2

I drain my water heater after camping if I'm not planning on going out again for a couple weeks. Especially in hot weather, the water gets skunky sitting in the tank. I just pull the plug and let it gush. That tends to keep most of the lime buildup flushed out.

This is what I do as well...

hoppers4 · 04-04-2015, 08:08 PM

Drain after every trip. My last rig I replaced the plastic plug with a brass fitting, flexible rubber hose, and a valve so I could drain the tank very quickly every time. The plastic plug however is only applicable to Atwood water heater. I currently have a Suburban and behind the plug is an anode rod so I can't put a valve in it. I can drain the system with the low point drains and flush it with the water heater tank rinser at the end of the season to get the remnants of zinc from the anode rod out of the tank.

jal0710 · 04-07-2015, 07:26 AM

How much "crud" does a person get with the Atwood heater with the plastic plug? I have simply drained mine every time we come back from a camping trip and have never had a problem with the heater getting "cruddy". We have been fifth-wheeling since 1993 and have not had this problem.

Scoutr2 · 04-07-2015, 07:39 AM

If your HW heater has an anode rod, the purpose of which is for it to deteriorate instead of the metal tank lining, it will accumulate a fair amount of "crud.". If it is a Suburban HW heater - it probably has an anode rod and you should flush frequently.

If you have an Atwood with a plastic plug - and no anode rod, you won't get too much buildup and simply draining the HW heater frequently will keep the buildup flushed away.

Just my experienced opinion.

Camper_bob · 04-07-2015, 07:54 AM

As far as getting "crud" in that tank, I've seen some nice build up in the open part of the back of my plastic plug, so I can only imagine what's going on in the tank.

Short of having one of those nifty rinsers, I just remove the plug to drain whatever's in there, (don't re-insert the plug) connect city water and let 'er rip. I don't worry about the water coming out of the drain hole, I just let it do what it does. I don't know exactly how effective it is at agitating any buildup and getting it out, but it's all I've got at this point. I do this about every other time I have the trailer in my driveway, and I always store the tank "empty".

hoppers4 · 04-07-2015, 08:10 AM

My Atwood water heater never had any crud in it as such but there was usually a small amount of sediment that would show up at the beginning of the flush. I use a sediment filter but there would still be a bit of sediment that would end up in the tank.

Scoutr2 · 04-07-2015, 08:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Camper_bob

As far as getting "crud" in that tank, I've seen some nice build up in the open part of the back of my plastic plug, so I can only imagine what's going on in the tank.

Short of having one of those nifty rinsers, I just remove the plug to drain whatever's in there, (don't re-insert the plug) connect city water and let 'er rip. I don't worry about the water coming out of the drain hole, I just let it do what it does. I don't know exactly how effective it is at agitating any buildup and getting it out, but it's all I've got at this point. I do this about every other time I have the trailer in my driveway, and I always store the tank "empty".

Good advice! I think I'll start hooking up to city water and flushing every now and then in the future.

You may also like: