noise (banging) coming from water heater

[lwolff]

I have a noisy water heater. It's only 3 years old, 75 gallon, natural gas. The owners manual diagnoses mineral deposits in the bottom of the tank and suggests draining it regularly.

I drained the tank (as suggested) but the banging continues. Is there a better way to clean out the tank other than just draining it?

[Cass]

At this point there is no practical way to remove the deposits. Now or the next time you replace the heater install a softner and this should prevent that from happening to the new one.

[dubldare]

Generally, I will 'flush' tanks. I call it flushing because I leave the cold water on to the heater while draining.

The incoming water will put the sediments into suspension and carry them out of the drain valve under pressure. Turning the cold shut-off on and off rapidly also helps quite a bit. Kinking the hose does the same thing.

[Bob NH]

A 3 year old gas water heater is worth saving. Calcium deposits are caused by the fact that calcium salt becomes less soluble as the water gets hotter, so it deposits on the heat transfer surface. The banging is caused by the fact that small areas get so hot that they produce steam bubbles even under the pressure in the heater.

You can try the "Flushing" process described in previous posts. If that doesn't work you may want to try the "teakettle" process. If you put some acid (vinegar) in a teakettle and simmer it a while the calcium deposits will dissolve.

I'm an engineer who would consider it an adventure to pump dilute muriatic acid through my gas water heater, but that is not a challenge that everyone would welcome.

I found a site where Gary Slusser in Dec 2000 described the pumped acid process for cleaning a tankless coil. Maybe he can suggest the acid concentration for a water heater to save the need for experimentation.

[Cass]

While you can use muriatic acid it's use is not recomended as it will etch the lining of the heater and most likely reduce the life expectancy of the heater. If 3 years of use created the situation this would indicate water that is quite hard. Adding a softner will stop any additional build up and may slowly reduce the amount of sediment that is there now.

[hj]

Flushing will seldom stop the noise because it is often caused by "nodes" that have built up on the center flue pipe. The nodes allow water in, and then the hot flue gases heat it to the point it becomes steam and is forced out of the node where it condenses upon contact with the water and creates a mini-explosion as the excess eneregy is expended.

[plumber1]

I also found that its a waste of time to drain and flush noisy water heaters.

[master plumber mark]

try doing what that fellow told you to do....

its ease and can take care of the problem without too much
grief


AI dont know what the "nodes " are that Hi mentioned, but have
had fairly good luck with this next approach...


the next approach is to turn off the water to the heater, turn the
gas to piolit

relieve the pressure then take the drain valve totally out of the unit..


The water willl come out of the hole and make a mess,

make yourself a "mineral scraper" out of a piece of 3/8 copper

about 30 inches long


flatten down one end about 2 inches worth then bend it and make

an L

...Reach into the hole and simply scrape the bottom of the tank with your

new psecial tool........

It will even get to those hard to reach spots on the back side of the chimmney.....



as the water is comming out , so will the deposits.....


of course its going to make a hell of a mess on the floor

but a guy has got to do what you got to do

and I hope its
in an unfinished area of your basement--garage


It will silence those demons, for a while...maybe 1 year..

then do it again...