Seven Maintenance Tips For Water Heaters

Most Water Heaters in the City of Los Angeles are old and damaged. So they shouldbe replaced right away either by yourself or a professional plumber.

The best Plumber I Ever Had Inc. is a reliable, affordable proffesional plumbing service in the Los Angeles Area that that has been in the plumbing industry for over 34 years. They also offer these plumbing tips to help out the general public. 

Maintenance Tip #1 - Getting the water heater ready. You must first urn off the power if the water heater is electric. Then turn off the cold water by turning of the valve to the cold water side. It should be located on the top of the water heater. Generally the cold water valve is to the right of the water heater. Open up a hot water tap in the house to release air pressure from the line. Then you should open the drain valve at the bottom of the water heater. It will look like a hose bibb. Let approximately a gallon of water out of the water heater and be sure not to let anyone use hot water while you are doing this procedure.

Maintenance Tip #2 - Overhead clearance. Anode rods can be almost as tall as the water heater in most cases and the anode rods generally are hard to remove because the ceiling is to close to the top of the water heater more often than not. In any case, lift the anode rod up as far as you can. Check to make sure that there are no wires showing or that there isn't any flaking on the surface of the rod. If all seems ok, then you can reinstall the anode as is. Most of the water is at the top of the anode rod and this is where most problems occur with them. If you need to remove an anode rod. Bend it in the middle against the water heater's opening and pull it out. To put a new one in, simply bend it in the middle again and straighten it out at the opening. If the anode top is wobbly when you try to screw it in, pull it half way again and attempt to straighten it as much as possible. If the overhead clearance is less than 2 feet, buy a link-type anode rod. It has "sausage" links of metal attached together. Its very easy to install.

Maintenance Tip #3 - Choosing and replacing anode rods. Three different types of metals are used to make anode rods. These metals are magnesium, aluminum, and zinc. Magnesium anode are used for soft water systems. Aluminum generally when you have very hard water or water that is softened heavily with salts and Zinc anodes are used to counteract the effects of sulfur smells in the water and are rare to find already installed in a water heater. Installing an aluminum anode after you discover your previous anode has deteriorated or become damaged is always recommended and should be done right away. If you install a magnesium anode after finding a heavily deteriorated anode it could cause a negative reaction in the water and cause an extreme amount of pressure and cause the water to release out of the household faucets. If you have to install an aluminum anode rod, it's a good idea not using hot water to cook with. Alzheimer's disease is one of the known problems when using aluminum anode rods according to modern science . The same cautions will should be practiced with zinc anode rods as they are only 10% zinc and 90% aluminum. If the rod bends easily in your hands, it is aluminum, if not it is magnesium. Anodes have a protective current of about two feet. Buy anode rods that are too tall for your water heater. Cut them down if you have to. Try to buy anodes that are more than 3 feet and 8 inches.

Maintenance Tip #4 - Adding a second anode rod. If a hexagonal-shaped head is on top of your water heater with nothing attached, you can install another anode rod to provide more protection for the water heater. Provided the hex-head exists, unscrew the hot water outlet. It's the pipe on top of the water heater on the left. This is where you can install a combination anode rod. Make sure the anode rod has a brass nipple that is 2 to 6 inches long. You should hire a plumber to do this generally because adding a second anode can be quite a task.

Maintenance Tip #5 - Removing sediment. There are three signs you have sediment buildup in your tank: A lower element burnout when having an electric water heater, A very noisy unit if you have a gas water heater, or a stinky, foul smell that will come with both types of water heaters. If sediment gets to thick or piles up high enough, the lower heating element within an electric water heater will be covered and unable to perform the task of heating up your water. If you used to have Hot Water for an hour and suddenly you only have it for a half hour now with an electric water heater, then its probably sediment build-up. Gas water heaters always get sediment build up at the bottom of the gas heater where the flame heats your burner plate. Water then gets covered by sediment and turns into superheated steam. This steam then expands and releases pressure that sounds like a loud rowr happening inside and if you smell or detect a sulfur odor coming from the water heater, this is due to sediment build-up which breeds foul smelling bacteria inside of it. You can get rid of or avoid this problem by installing a curved dip tube. You can also hire a plumber and have them use a special expensive Muck-Vac tool to remove this problem. Dissolving the sediment build up though is another alternative to this problem. It is also possible with an electric water heater to use a Shop Vac to remove the sediment out through the lower heating element. The how-to of these approaches is just below this sentence.

Maintenance Tip #6 – The installation of a circular dip tube and the flushing of your water heater. When you buy a water heater, it generally has a straight dip tube installed. The dip tube is a piece of plastic piping located within your water heater that stretches from the top of your water heater's cold water inlet to the bottom of the water heater. It's job is to gather the coldest water at the bottom of the water heater and draw it to where it can be readily heated. Sediment forms at the bottom of the water heater and does not move at all except at the small portion of the water heater where the dip tube extends to at the bottom. The water that comes out of this tube can push the sediment away. If your trying to wash the sediment out of the drain valve located on the outside of the water heater, forget it, it is impossible. Installing a curved dip tube where the bottom of the tube curves to a ninety degree angle, causes the bottom of the water heater to be swept by the incoming cold water.

Sediment is picked up and kept floating and still in the water. Opening the drain valve and letting cold water enter the water heater for 5 minutes can clear up most of the sediment inside most of the time. Installing a curved dip tube starts by unscrewing the cold water nipple. This would be the pipe on the right hand side near the top of the water heater. Using a curved handled pair of pliers, insert them into the hole of the cold water inlet and twist the dip tube up and out of the water heater. If you can get the dip tube high enough and you should be able to pull it out by hand. If this doesn't work and the hole is rusty, scrape the rust away first. Take the new curved dip tube and mark it near the top on the side that the curve points. Wrap the top of the curved dip tube with Teflon tape approximately 8 to 10 times where you will be screwing it in at the top. Insert the curved dip tube and point it so that water will swirl along the side of the water heater. Also point it the direction going away from the drain valve. The drain valve is located on the outside of the water heater at the bottom. Make sure it is fully open when draining the water heater. Even If you choose to use a different method to clean the sediment away from your water heater, you should still install a curved dip tube. Optimum flushing should be done every 3 to six months.

Maintenance Tip # 7 - Removing sediment with a Muck-Vac. It is recommended that you hire a professional plumber to do this job. To start, the the tool is very expensive and you do need to know how to use it, it's not rocket science but it is not a toy or easy task either. This is the most hands off method to remove sediment there is.