How to drain and flush a water heater. Detailed walk-through on how to drain and flush a gas or electric water heater. I show how I flush my water heater from beginning to end. And just as a reference, here is the steps I took in the video:
1. Connect garden hose and route outside or to floor drain
2. Set gas valve to pilot or off - for electric, turn off the breaker
3. Close water supply valve going to water heater
4. Open hot water faucet
5. Open drain valve
6. After 3-5 minutes, open pressure relief valve to help it drain faster. If water comes out of the pipe close it and wait for a few more minutes before opening again.
7. Water heater completely drained
8. Open water supply valve to water heater for 20-30 seconds and close
9. Allow for water to drain out and open it again. Do this 4-5 times.
10. If water is not flowing out from garden hose, try blowing air backwards into the hose to free up any big chunks of debris.
11. Close drain valve tightly
12. Open water supply valve and allow water heater to fill completely. After a minute of filling, close the pressure relief valve. If water starts flowing from the pressure relief valve sooner, close it right away.
13. After water heater tank is full, allow water to run from hot faucet for a minute to purge our any remaining air.
14. Turn gas valve back to ON and increase temp setting back to where it was. If you turned it to OFF, you may need to re-light your pilot light. If you have an electric water heater, simply turn power back on.
15. Your hot water should be back in about half an hour or so. Also, be advised that you may have some yellow water coming out of your hot water faucets for a day or so because of the stirred up residue inside of the water heater tank.
Tools used:
15 foot garden hose: https://amzn.to/2AWcemB
Drain valve cap: https://amzn.to/2Dmn3jH
For other water heater videos, check out the playlist below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-LsUWlWVh0&list=PLK8tZPlovA8AJXKuLPbaG6uPbG28wRD6L
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