Regular drainage of HW heater, or leave it alone?

Red Squirrel

I always hear mixed opinions on this, is it best to just leave it alone, or is it a good idea to drain it every now and then to clean sediment? When I lived at my parents' we never did it, and never had issues. There's one time where the tank did get a leak and have to be replaced, but I doubt that was because we never drained it.

My hot water is clean as far as I can tell, so any real advantage to draining the tank?

oh'mike

Any newer water heater has a feed pipe that is curved a bit--kind of makes a whirlpool in the bottom of the tank--keeping the sediment from forming.

I don't like flushing the heaters. I've seen more problems caused by opening the spigot than leaving it alone. ----Mike---

AllanJ

If sediment does collect in a gas water heater tank, that forms an insulating layer at the bottom of the tank and the tank bottom itself gets to a higher temperature possibly damaging the glass layer and letting corrosion set in sooner.

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Yoyizit

I have a 5' hose attached to the drain and whenever I need hot water in the basement I drain it out of the heater.

Scuba_Dave

Interesting idea, I should run a hose over to my basement sink