[rfehr613]

I need to flush our water heater at the house. I don't believe it's ever been flushed, which means it could have up to 10 years of calcium buildup in it.

I flushed the tank at our rental property down the street, which was of a similar age at the time. I replaced the stock valve with a 1" ID brass ball valve and tubing, and it still took me several hours of continuous flushing to get all the chunks out and get it to run clear. It was an enormous amount of calcium deposits that washed out, even parts of the anode rod washed out.

My concern with the flush at our home is that I'll have a similar amount of deposits as at the rental property, but i have nowhere to put them. I have an unfinished basement with a large utility sink at the rental, so i just used the sink to flush it and let the drain stopper prevent big pieces from going down.

At our home, the basement is finished and the only windows are 50ft away at the front of the house, are at a height higher than the tank itself, and the windows open right out to the public sidewalk. So i don't think draining out there is possible. I'm worried about running the drained water down the shower or sink drain because they run to a pump to get them up to the sewer elevation. Small debris would be fine, but not the huge chunks i had coming out at the rental property. I'm fully anticipating more deposits than i even have a container to hold. It may well be several 5gal buckets worth, if this goes anything like the rental property did.

So i was thinking of creating a sieve with maybe a few stacked 5gal buckets. I could either cut out the bottoms and attach various sized mesh to catch bigger debris, or perhaps i could simply do the same by drilling different sized holes in different buckets? Nothing so fine that it's truly filtering the water - fine particles should be ok going through the pump. I just want to catch the large and medium sized stuff so the pump doesn't get damaged or clogged.

I was wondering if anyone else has had to deal with a similar situation and how you handled it.

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[lenaitch]

Doesyour basement have a floor drain that empties to the sump or street?


I suppose some sort of sieve might work. Perhaps put a piece of ganvanized screen over the shower drain and keep cleaning it.

 

[rfehr613]

Doesyour basement have a floor drain that empties to the sump or street?


I suppose some sort of sieve might work. Perhaps put a piece of ganvanized screen over the shower drain and keep cleaning it.

No drain that I'm aware of, but that would present the same issues anyway since a floor drain would still need to tie into the pump to get to the sewer line. Though that made me wonder if maybe there's a cleanout at or above the height of the sewer line. I'll have to check tomorrow.

Here's the water heater in question. It's in the utility closet in the basement bathroom.

http://imgur.com/a/dNh9nfu

And here's a shot of the bathroom. You can see the shower on the left (utility closet is on the right)

http://imgur.com/a/G7E1VH7

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[SeniorSitizen]

We have a similar situation in our water system but the situation is sand. After determining the cold water was all that was affected that meant the sand was dropping out in our hot water heater. To solve i made a hot water tank into a sediment tank to install in the well house. As long as the specific gravity of the chunks is greater than water they will settle to the bottom of a sediment tank as flow continues. The collective sediment is then drained from sediment tank into a container under pressure.

 

[rfehr613]

We have a similar situation in our water system but the situation is sand. After determining the cold water was all that was affected that meant the sand was dropping out in our hot water heater. To solve i made a hot water tank into a sediment tank to install in the well house. As long as the specific gravity of the chunks is greater than water they will settle to the bottom of a sediment tank as flow continues. The collective sediment is then drained from sediment tank into a container under pressure.

That principle might work in theory for my flush, but in practice the churning of the water in any bucket i might use for draining would kick up a bunch of particles into temporary suspension. So overflowing the bucket would cause them to go down the drain. This is based on my experience with my last flush.

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[SeniorSitizen]

That why a tall tank works so well, especially when a filter is incorporated at the outlet near the top to catch any floating fines.

 

[rfehr613]

That why a tall tank works so well, especially when a filter is incorporated at the outlet near the top to catch any floating fines.

Yeah, it probably would be a good idea to install one of those, so long as maintenance costs aren't excessive. But how does this carry over to flushing my tank? Either way, a tank needs to be flushed on a regular basis to clean the water and protect the tank and tank liner. In my case, this maintenance is way way behind schedule, and the anticipated consequences of that are expected to be several cubic feet of calcium deposits.

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[SeniorSitizen]

Install the sediment system near the water heater and leave it there just for frequent tank flushing only. A garden hose is connected after the filter and ran to a toilet anywhere in the house if running it outdoors isn't allowed.

 

[rfehr613]

Install the sediment system near the water heater and leave it there just for frequent tank flushing only. A garden hose is connected after the filter and ran to a toilet anywhere in the house if running it outdoors isn't allowed.

I don't understand the point. It won't be filtering the water coming out during the flush. That comes out the drain at the bottom of the tank.

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[HotRodx10]

You should be able to get most of the deposits out through the drain under pressure. Just run the hose from the drain valve outside and open the drain valve, without turning off the inlet line.


If you want to replace the drain valve when you're done, you can shut off the drain valve, the inlet and outlet to the tank (or keep all the faucets closed, if you don't have a shutoff on the outlet). Have the new drain valve ready to install and a pan under drain valve. open the drain valve just a little to let off any residual pressure and close it again. Then remove the drain valve and install the new one. As long as it remains a closed system, you shouldn't lose more than about a half gallon of water while swapping out the valve. Air has to get in before the water can get out.

 

[rfehr613]

Actually, this whole thing just became a non-issue...

There's a cleanout for the sewer just a few feet from the tank. No need to filter the water, no worrying about damaging the pump, no mess (theoretically).

Also, i will definitely be replacing the stock valve to do this flush. Since I'm draining anyway, no need to worry about vacuums in the lines. This is what I'll be putting on. I was mistaken earlier when i said it was 1" ID. Just the drain tube is 1" ID. The brass valve and pipe are 3/4".

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[SeniorSitizen]

I don't understand the point. It won't be filtering the water coming out during the flush. That comes out the drain at the bottom of the tank.

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You simply connect the heater drain valve to the hose connection you would put on the sediment tank where the gas valve thermostat point was. That leaves a drain valve at the sediment tank bottom with water out to the filter from where the old T/P relief valve was.


But as you mentioned a moot point now, but possibly wants a DIY sediment tank and can see how easy it is. This scrap pile lo cost set-up has served us well for about 35 years.

 

[rfehr613]

You simply connect the heater drain valve to the hose connection you would put on the sediment tank where the gas valve thermostat point was. That leaves a drain valve at the sediment tank bottom with water out to the filter from where the old T/P relief valve was.


But as you mentioned a moot point now, but possibly wants a DIY sediment tank and can see how easy it is. This scrap pile lo cost set-up has served us well for about 35 years.

Well that might be ok on a clean tank with regular flushing, but that would've have every worked in my situation. I'd fill that tiny filter reservoir in a matter of seconds. I don't think you realize how much crap is going to come out of the tank lol

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[SeniorSitizen]

You aren't giving the sediment tank any credit and also I hope you aren't drinking this crap.

 

[rfehr613]

You aren't giving the sediment tank any credit and also I hope you aren't drinking this crap.

What comes out of the drain plug and what comes out of the tank outlet are two different things. Generally speaking, most sediment can't work it's way up to get out the tank outlet at the top. Anything suspended in the water can though, like fine particulates such as rust and small calcium deposits. The drain valve at the bottom of the tank let's out all the really nasty stuff that collects at the bottom of the tank. One you agitate these sediments, like what happens during a flush, you really gotta get them all out or they WILL end up in your water line.

We have a filter on the fridge line we drink from, so no we don't really drink it. That's cold water though, so doesn't go through the tank. The fine calcium matter that might get into the hot water line is more or less harmless to humans anyway though. But it clogs aerators, screens, and any filters downstream on the hot water line.

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[rfehr613]

Here's a good example of what happens inside a hot water heater tank that's not maintained. The tank at my rental property was as bad as the first example in this video, just scaled to about twice the volume (45gal). It took me hours to flush all that out, and I'm sure i didn't even get it all. I only got the loose stuff. And this was while doing the flush with that same 3/4" ball valve too. If you've ever flushed with a stock valve, you know how useless those things are. Nothing is going to fit through a 1/4" hole.

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[bfrabel]

Could you not just run a hose to your toilet? I'm pretty sure those are made to handle a few chunks every now and then.

The toilet should flush itself as needed as it fills up, over and over again. I would probably recommend standing there to babysit it, but I wouldn't think it would be a problem.

Another option would be to remove the toilet and just shoot the water down the hole.

 

[Missouri Bound]

Since it is your home, have you considered adding a water softener system?
That will keep your water heater extremely clean and limit the maintenance.
As far as filtering your drain water, use a 5 gallon bucket in a sink. Install an inlet in the side and just let it go. The sediment will settle and the bucket will overflow into the sink.
If it drains at all your sediment issue isn't that bad.