How to Flush your Hot Water Heater & Remove Sentiment

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this video could save you hundreds of

dollars

we're talking hot water heaters today

when was the last time you flushed yours

i woke up one morning and my bathtub

looked like

this i promise there's nothing in that

bathtub

except for water so i called the plumber

luckily they could come the very next

day

and he talked to me about what i need to

do and my biggest fear

is that i'm gonna have to buy a new hot

water heater this house is about seven

years old now

it shouldn't need a nail water heater we

actually have two so he came

and i learned way more than i expected

from this that will change what i do in

my house from now on because

getting a new hot water heater is super

expensive it's not something you want

and i'm really into saving money on the

big expenses and doing maintenance on my

home so i don't have those and to try to

make my appliances and everything last

as long as possible

so what did i do i asked facebook and

here's what everyone said

if you're new here and you haven't

subscribed make sure to hit the

subscribe button we'd love to see you

again he's already here

let's talk the reason you needed new

water heaters is it the

water heater itself started leaking so

you'd have water pooling up in here

um or you'd have a puddle of water run

into your drain or

something like that so what's that

buildup and sediment right there that's

kind of rust colored

so that's most likely from like your tnp

or something it could be some sort of

leak it could be

um sweat from a water heater

heating up that cold water it just

condensates and causes that water to

escape to the outside of that that tank

and then run

that if you were leaking you'd have

water here

okay i'm really glad to hear that he's

not telling us that we have to get a new

water heater i wasn't worried um i mean

i could sell you new water

if you absolutely want one but we just

need to flush this one

yeah and i've heard this is something

you can do yourself at home i've never

tried it

absolutely so what you could do i mean i

could do it for you today if you'd like

please just take a

short little hose what if you don't have

a short hose

you could use a long one it doesn't

matter okay

a short hose is just easiest because you

just hook it up and then you go right

there and you're done so you're going to

hook we're going to hook up the hose to

that part

on both of these and then there's that

one

you don't have to do them at the same

time you can do them one and then the

other

um what i would do is do this one first

and then do that one because because

this one pushes its water

into here so if you turn this you put

your hose on here

and run it in then you're taking all

your dirty water from this

pushing it into that one okay and we

have to do it more than once

yeah so you do you do this one turn it

for 10 seconds or so how do you turn it

just a flat head screwdriver oh if i had

you'd stick it inside

that's how i need to turn it to the left

if it's just a quarter turn two so it'll

only turn

halfway okay and then it'll take like a

few minutes to do that

and then i do it again until it runs

clear or can i even tell

you can you can run it until it runs

clear okay

or you can just turn it on count to 10

turn it off

and then let it settle so you'd wait

another minute

to two minutes or whatever and make sure

nobody's using any water in the home

okay and then you turn it back on run it

for 10 seconds

turn it off and you do that over and

over and over again until you're not

getting any dirty water out

at all okay so the easiest way for me to

know that i'm not getting any dirty

water out is i actually use a 5 gallon

bucket

oh fill that five gallon bucket up and

then okay

okay and then you can then you can see

yeah okay

that makes sense dump it and then do it

again fill that bucket up so

it's gonna be five gallons coming out

yeah

okay you got 50 gallon or 40 gallons in

each one of these

okay and then your water supply to your

system will actually refill that

so you could fill that five gallon

bucket up a million times and never

ever clean this thing all the way out oh

water okay unless what you did was turn

the water

off uh-huh turn that valve up there and

then what you do

is you'd only get 40 gallons out of it

so you'd fill that five-gallon bucket up

put up eight times if you were to turn

the water off

you don't need to turn the water if you

just leave that water on you want that

pressure you want that

to push that out because that's could be

sediment at the bottle

and that could just clog your drain

should we be doing this like on a

regular basis

um once a year minimum oh

or maximum once a year maximum would be

the recommended by the manufacturer you

can maybe do it once

every two years oh no the lights just

powering up oh we have

automatic lighting in here okay this is

a gas

water heater right this is a gas water

heater right yeah you can

yep and he's gonna go get a bucket we

need a bucket and that's it right we

just need a bucket that's all

yeah the instructions are very

complicated you want me to read them

no no no let's just try it not good

it says monthly drain off a gallon of

water to remove

silt and sediment that's it that's it

okay great thanks now that's all we're

going to do

for sure and then if we're inspired

i'm going to play with this thing what's

that

that is a pressure temperature valve

and you check the seating of that oh

that's too complex for me

it's a hose from a laundry so i knew

it could take hot water without causing

because garden hose might not good

garden hose by now but it's

you're not going to do it for very long

it's got the instructions

those are the instructions okay let's

try it

you don't have to use a bucket but we

want to use it to see we want to see

if they're sealed this is supposed to be

done monthly but it's been seven years

so we'll see what we get i'm so curious

i'm gonna do is screw this on to that

valve

yeah see the artist has a drain you know

right there

so it's easier but you couldn't reach

right

it wouldn't fit that's not a long enough

hose

to go well not i could route it

on the other side and that would

probably make it better and it might

but even if it's spilled on the floor it

wouldn't be the end of the world

now we're going to have to use some kind

of a tool to

turn on the water in there and so we're

getting a big screwdriver to do that

okay so this valve will turn off both

the hot water this is both the cold

water and the hot water that's

both of those this is just the hot water

side

you know cold water in hot water out so

it's just the side now

make sure i get the screwdriver on there

right

okay oh my goodness look at that

ah there's definitely sediment okay

this is surprising i didn't know what to

expect and i wonder what ours will look

so my father-in-law is teaching me this

and then i'm going to try it at my house

let's see

how much it will be

yeah wow i want to know have you

been have you ever drained your hot

water heater before

and if you haven't are you going to do

it now that you see this video

let me know in the comments i'm super

curious because

my father-in-law has lived a long time

and he's never done this so i'm getting

a lesson

a lot earlier that i can start doing

this and hopefully get more use

and better performance out of my water

heater save money

okay i wonder if it's going to overflow

because it's going to drain the entire

thing

no is it off yet no

and it seems like it's going to be hot

so if it overflows

i didn't know this is going to have so

much suspense and you have to do the

whole thing though right we have to keep

it no

just a gallon oh just a gallon okay just

one gallon every one

that's it we're done okay now you can

put that down the drain

or i think i'll instead of running it

down the drain with all that sediment in

oh right maybe i'll take if i can't

carry it without spilling it

but what are you gonna do put it outside

yeah

in the yard okay yeah well that was it

everybody knows how now so you have no

that's why

it is you know why people should do it

is because

it's not very complicated no but it's

something we always forget and don't

think about well

they say i never reviewed the

instructions on how to do it yeah so

when you get your new house or when you

move in and you should look at all your

instruction manuals and if they say to

do maintenance put it in your calendar

right away a little word of wisdom is

keep your instructions

and i'm keeping them where they're they

were hung

there's like a pouch there to hang a

pouch to hang them on did that come with

a hot water heater

yeah everything was and see there's one

for the heater right

there you only have to turn the screw

that releases the water about a

eighth of a revolution so do it very

slowly

it's not it's going to come out

very easily and then you don't have to

turn it back

to shut it off very much okay so you

don't have a big mess that's the

whole point you don't want to have too

much water coming out yeah

just don't put it on plants because it

might be saline

because it probably has

you can see the look at all that whoa

that's crazy

yeah we're running the hot water

first it's cold to see if it turns color

right yeah

in a moment it'll be so hot that you

don't want to leave your finger

at it which suggests to me at least that

probably you know it's coming out the

top of the tank

so it's not a fruit and i don't want to

run the whole tank

to do it but at least it's not terribly

dirty

so okay good yeah

i want to do it myself it's like 70

because it's just the cost of you coming

out yeah so what we're doing now is just

the dispatch fee of 69. that just

comes out to evaluate what's going on

and give you the price

if you'd like for me to do the water

heater drain

flushing system it's a level 2 of 185

with the addition of the 69.95 it's like

300 bucks so it'd

be 254.95 so i'm gonna try this myself

and i can do this it'll save me like 250

bucks

no 200 185 185

so i can i can do it and then we can

okay thank you

i appreciate that yeah so it should be

pretty pretty simple

i mean you just get your garden hose it

doesn't matter how long it is

but yeah you just stick the end in make

sure you do hold that hose on that

bucket

turn your valve on fill that bucket up

turn that valve off and it'll just rush

out

yeah just like a a hose outside if you

want so i have to hurry and turn it off

be ready to turn it off it did fill that

bucket up in maybe

15 seconds so fast okay not super fast

but yeah you turn that

just leave your hand there with your

valve your screwdriver

see it get your flat head slot slide it

into that slot

turn it on and you'd hold that that hose

okay

turn it off okay just the only thing you

need to worry about is rotating your

wrist

basically so okay i can do it okay thank

you

that's so helpful okay i'm gonna record

myself doing this and then i'm gonna do

it every year from now on

yeah so what you do um in a continuous

like thing you're gonna do it every year

basically what you want to do is just

look for the color

right so if you turn it on one year and

it comes out crystal clear

you're good then oh you don't need to

flush it that year yeah

if the next year you go turn it on and

you get sediment you get like

filled up or anything like that inside

that that fills your bucket

you get white flakes or brown flakes or

whatever then you need to

get that rest of that out of there so

you dump that bucket do it again dump

that bucket do it

until it's crystal clear okay so i

probably don't have to do this very

often

yeah okay that's a good well i'll be a

pro as long as i can remember

that's why i have it on video too i can

go back and check yeah

okay i am glad because i was so worried

that we're gonna have to get

send a thousand dollars on a new water

heater because it should last what how

long

so water heaters typically have a six

year warranty from the manufacturer and

this is eight years old

so they last anywhere between seven to

ten years

is there anything i can do to make it

last longer because they're kind of

expensive we have two big ones

so there are some tricks and things like

that that you can do but it doesn't give

you a warranty

yes so there are additional things like

anode rods and stuff like that that go

inside the water heater

um and you just take the old animal rod

out put a new one back

in and you have to have a torque wrench

okay and it's this is beyond my pay

grade and so there's nothing like

any maintenance or anything that will

prolong the use or how we use

a water softener that prolongs that

helps to prolong that

okay um draining or flushing

the heater helps prolong the life

because it prevents buildup from

building up but you said we don't

okay but we only do that if we have

build up okay yeah so

if you spray it out and it's crystal

clear you don't have any buildup in the

bottom of the heaters

okay so um and then

just making sure that you are

um your pressure regulator in your home

stays at a controlled

pressure so where you're at 65 pounds

right now

that's what you want it to stay so if

you wanted to get a

pressure gauge or something similar to

what i have this guy

okay then you can see you can just get

it at any plumbing supply store or

anything like that okay

i would check your pressure on your

water heater like i did where i hooked

that up

yeah you're gone you i would say check

that every single time you go to flush

you know okay if your pressure you know

one day you test it and then the next

year you test it and the first year you

got 60 pounds

and the next year you got 100 pounds

your pressure regulator went bad

somewhere in

that year and so what you would need to

do is replace your pressure ring

and that'll help keep your water heater

safe so it's a pressure regulator that

you need to replace not something like

adjusting the pressure yeah so they have

they have a range of 25 to 75 pounds

which is

direct from the manufacturer then the

manufacturer presets them to 50

pounds okay um when they get installed

they usually don't get touched

oftentimes um some people won't prefer

to have higher pressure so

oh that's okay you want higher pressure

in your shower

so you get you're at 60 pounds which is

acceptable it's within that range of 25

to 75 pounds

if your pressure in your home gets above

75 pounds

your pressure regulator has gone back

it's no longer holding that pressure

back

and maintaining that pressure in your

home just like your heart

your heart has high blood pressure

you're

putting too much pressure on your blood

vessels and your

blood is moving too quickly you bleed a

lot faster and things like that

so i like this we're getting a health

lesson too

your pressure regulator is your home's

heart

if it's not maintained your home

will start bleeding through your faucets

through your water heaters through your

bathtub

your toilets those things will all start

leaking

so those are okay okay

great and so our city is flushing the

water today and i thought it was having

it had to do with that but it doesn't

seem to have anything to do with that

it's just timing

so yeah when the the water gets flushed

your city gets flushed

that water does turn that brown color

because they cleaning out the system

so you were the lucky person who turned

it on and it turns out that you turn it

on the hot side

most so all that dirty yucky water went

into your water heater

oh so it was caused by the city

okay then why didn't anyone else in my

neighborhood have this colored water

maybe they didn't just oh yeah i just

had bad timing

you were the first person it's possible

that if they were running water they

could have been using like a hose bib or

something and so all that dirty water

just went out

into their yard anyway they didn't

notice it

um maybe they flush the toilet and just

turn their toilet bulb around a little

bit they're like oh

that's why you know but it was only hot

water so

okay so it just you were just the lucky

person

okay okay so i had to pay 70

to learn that and i will never have to

pay that again because now i know

hey i'm back in the bathroom i'm really

happy about everything i learned so much

today

let me know if you learned something too

give this video a thumbs up if you did

and go ahead and share it with anyone

who you think who doesn't do maintenance

on their hot water heater thanks so much

for watching i'm gonna put a link to my

Why is my water yellow all of a sudden

How to Flush your Hot Water Heater & Remove Sentiment

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