>You do change out your hot water heater tank anode every 3-5 years and flush
>the tank every year or so, if it's bottom gas fired, right?>
>
>Jack
Yes, I do, anyway. I pulled the anode out of my 75 gallon tank when it was five
years old and it only had a few inches of magnesium left at the bottom of the
rod. Since it is in a closet, I got a segmented rode that you can "fold" so you
can put in a full length rod even though you do not have sufficient clearance.
The basic wisdom is that a rod will last about five years without a water
softener and only three years with a softener.
I also put a 3/4" ball valve on the drain so that it can really flush the tank
with some "gusto" (the original small drain valve really would not flow enough
water to suck up the large decayed rod sediment off from the bottom of the
tank.
The hose on the ball valve now will shoot water and sediment 30 feet into the
air). :-)
I know the standard information says in order to flush, just drain a few
gallons
out of the tank. What I found works the best is to completely drain the tank by
flushing it out the 3/4" ball valve, then open the cold water inlet just enough
to pressurize the tank and put a few inches of water on the bottom of the tank,
then open the ball valve to flush the few gallons of fresh water off the bottom
of the tank. By repeating this process multiple times, it removed a great deal
of sediment off the bottom of the tank that normal draining did not remove (I
was amazed how much sediment remained in the tank after "normal flushing").
The tank also is much quieter now (no knocking/thudding) when the burner is
running.
best,
doug
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