Draining Hot water tank

Molo

Molo

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Hello All,

I tried to use the spigot and the water slowly ran out. I finally dragged the thing outside and turned it upside down. Alot of water ran out of it. But there's still water in it! How can I get the rest of the water out? Will a few gallons in the bottom of the tank cause it to crack if the tank is left in freezing weather?

TIA,
Molo
 
I hate to say this but it sounds like a red neck thing to me.

It would have been better to have pressure in it when you open the valve to help blow the stuff out. Sometimes you need a coat hanger to help with some of the chunks. But I bet that one is about 1/2 full of sentiment.
 
No...the redneck thing would be filling it up with chemicals and launching it from your pickup like a rocketship while yelling "Dont mess with Texas!" woohoo

Mike
 
Instead you could have unscrewed the drain valve, put in a 3/4 nipple and put a hose on to drain. Flush it several times. Put on a new sillcock or boiler drain.
 
install a 3/4" brass nipple in place of the drain cock and install a full port ball valve on the end of the nipple. Next time you need to drain it you will have fewer problems.
 
Cass,
I install that on every water heater I install. I tell the customer that is for them to powerflush the w.h. every 6 months. They usually don't. But it is really for me, when I come back to replace it in 7 years, it drains in about 3 minutes.
 
I have rigged a 1" nipple with full flow ball valve that I use to drain electric heaters out of the lower element hole. Once this low it can be removed and the rest drained outside the home.

I live in a hard water area and lots of people still don't have softners. A 3/4" nip with valve at the bottom in many cases still would drain very slow.

I once had a heater that I could not budge / move. The customer cut the tank open about 1/4 way down from the top and the tank was full of lime to that point. That is the worst case I have ever seen.
 
I've seen it above the lower element, but not that high.

To get the old heater out quickly, you can shut the house water off and, keeping all faucets and ballcocks closed, put a compressor on the laundry tub faucet and blow back into the W/H and once you make a little room, you can pressurize the heater and let it blow back to the laundry tub out of the cold side. Quickly lets you move the old one away.

And if the drain valve is so-so, blow the water to a floor drain, move it aside and start on the new one.
 
Thats all fine and dandy as long as your not on a finished first floor closet.
 
That's true, but most heaters were in a basement or in a slab home with a floor drain or take it outside.
 
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