Water Heater Tanks - How Often Do You Drain Yours?

[photohause]

New home built three years ago...time to drain, or not?
How often do you guys drain your heater tank?

Change out the anodes, if so, how often?

[Tenzing_Norgay]

Depends on condition of water. If you're bored, there's no harm in draining it whenever. Bad/failing anode will smell like sulphur/eggs. Good luck getting it out of the tank by yourself.

[Iosef]

I drain mine and shovel the calcium chunks out of it, every decade or so. It doesn't accumulate much, despite this being high calcium water. That's because I rewired the power panel so my heater only receives 126V instead of 252V. It draws 25% of the wattage, so the elements don't get anywhere near as hot. That's also why my thirty year old water heater is still using the original heating elements, when a coffee maker only lasts about 18 months here. Yeah, my line voltage is a little high

I hook it back up to both sides of the line, when I have company staying over, but that doesn't happen very often. Living alone with a 40 gl water heater, slow recovery works just fine for me.

[Tenzing_Norgay]

[jjk308]

I've got a water softener so there's no buildup and no need to drain. Last one failed early because the expansion tank failed. Expansion tanks have been a must have since the county installed backflow preventers because one idiot in St. Petersburg hooked his reclaimed water up to his drinking water inlet.

[TC6969]

I drain mine when it dies so it wont weigh so much rolling it to the curb.

[zeebaron]

You're supposed to do it every 6 months, per the manufacturer instructions. I just installed a replacement one a few months ago here. They only seem to last about 8 years. Last one leaked through the top, took out the heating elements and could see how rust had eaten right through the tank up there.

[zeebaron]

Bad/failing anode will smell like sulphur/eggs. Good luck getting it out of the tank by yourself.

I haven't tried the anode rod yet, but the elements alone required an impact wrench.

[nickthefish]

We went tankless and never looked back. The only thing i would recommend is to get one that is big enough for your WHOLE house, especially if more than one person wants to take a shower at the same time.

[zeebaron]

We went tankless and never looked back. The only thing i would recommend is to get one that is big enough for your WHOLE house, especially if more than one person wants to take a shower at the same time.

They are great if you have natural gas coming into your house. Otherwise, they usually require expensive wiring upgrades for electric ones and yearly intensive maintenance of the heating elements to descale them.