How Do I Perform Annual Flushing and Maintenance on My Water Heater?

• Step One: Turn off your electricity or gas to water heater (electric water heaters go to your electrical breaker box , gas can be shut off at your water heater, look where your gas comes into your water heater within 3 free of where it enters the water heater you will see a shut off valve for your gas).
• Step Two: Hook a standard garden hose to the boiler drain of your water heater. (located on the very bottom of the tank.) Make sure the other end of the hose is in a safe place to drain the water heater outside your home or in a bathtub.
• Step Three: Turn on the boiler drain.
• Step Four: Run drain at full pressure for approximately 2 minutes. Then shut off  incoming water to the water heater (This is located on the cold water side of the water heater (right side at the top of the heater) see plumbing tips on how to shut down your water heater) The idea behind letting the water run at full pressure for approximately 2 minutes before you shut it down is to push out any sediment that is at the bottom of the water heater so water will drain out freely .  If you don’t run it at full pressure for 2 minutes sediment will probably clog up the boiler drain and the heater won’t drain completely .
• Step Five: After you have shut down the water heater, on the cold water side to stop the flow of incoming water  pull the T+P valve this is a spring loaded check valve on the side of the water heater aproxamtly ¾ of the way to the top. This valve may also be located at the top of the water heater. When the lever is straight out, it is open. This will allow air inside the waterheater, breaking the siphonage and allow the water to free flow.
• Step 6: Now you should have your water heater draining.  This will take approximately 15 to 20 minutes for it to completely drain. When you don’t see any more water coming out of the hose the water heater is probably drained.
• Step 7: A lot of pepole think at this point your water heater is drained and completely free of sediment, (not true). Let us pretend your water heater is a can of soda. In this example, we are going to take out 25% of the soda from the can and fill the remainder of  the can back up with sand. Then we are going to poke a little hole in the bottom of the can representing the boiler drain on the water heater. Now all of the soda will find its way out through the hole, along with some of the sand. But the majority of the sand will remain on the sides and the bottom of the can. Now how do we get the rest of the sand out?
• Step 8: Close your boiler drain and remove your hose. Then close your T +P valve, and turn the cold water valve back on. At this point, your should hear water rushing into your water heater.  (VERY IMPORTANT)  please make sure all of your faucets are off in your home except for the hot water side on your tub and tub only!  (not the shower)  After you turn on the cold water to your water heater you will hear air and burping coming from the tub spout.  This is normal this will continue for 3 -5 minutes. Then the water will run very dirty at first, continue to let it run until it runs clear. Once it runs clear shut it off.  All the dirty water that your see coming out of the tub spout is the remaining sediment in the water heater that has been pushed out by the presure of the water. The reason I suggested running the water in the tub and tub only is the tub is the only fixture in your home that doesn’t have an aerator or restrictor that can get clogged with sediment.
• Step 9: Last step, turn your electricity or gas back on to your water heater. Instruction on how to relight the water heater if it’s gas are on the side of the water heater.