Water Heater Tuneup
 

Recently saw an ad in The Villages for a Water Heater Tuneup for a price around $250. Having had a water heater problem (Gas) recently, I found that the Plumber's first observation was the age of the water heater (17) years. From that point, it was why spend money on an old water heater , buy new. I repaired myself with TOTV guidance for $35.

What would you expect a Water Heater tune-up to tune up? Make your water heater more efficient? Can't happen. Perhaps drain the tank? Ok. Drain your wallet? Yep!

My guess is that this is a totally deceptive ad and would challenge any company who offers this service to give a legitimate reason why this would be of value.

Draining and replacing the anode rod? Checking flame ������. Or heater coil? (which highly doubtful they do the anode rod) at my house if the replace the anode rod they earned their money. Due to 18” off floor? They would have to disconnect and remove heater to get anode rod out due to about foot and half from ceiling.

Do you know if the new gas tankless heater need any maintenance? I have no idea, just asking. Like you, there is nothing to do to a water heater tank that you have to do.

Yes they do require regular maintenance!

For a tank heater they probably replace the sacrificial anode as well as draining it.

For a tankless WH it's flushed with vinegar when it is isolated from the water mains. This is a fifty to seventy-five dollar job or diy.

Yes they need to be flushed at least every 2 years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znuACzzav_Y

Diy
 

Just flush it once a year. 5 gallon bucket, 3 gallons of vinegar and a pump. It takes about 20 minutes or so. When it’s done it doesn’t hurt to run a bucket of clean water through it for a couple minutes while you still have your two isolation valves off.

You don't ever have to replace anode rod. If you knew what it's purpose was, it would make sense.

With a water softner in supply line , cleaning for tankless is not needed

I don't know much or really anything about water heaters. What I've been led to believe is that a lot of the issues with water heaters is a buildup from the impurities in the water. I had a two-tank water purification system put in my house a couple of years ago, when they installed it, they drained my water tank and told me the heater life would be extended. As I said I do not know anything about water heaters, but I do know that I was changing my water filter in my refrigerator every 6 months, and they are not cheap. I haven't had to replace one in years. I believe it might be worth the expense to see if this is an option, not only will you extend the life of the heater, but you'll get clean water.

water heater
 

replace the anode rod......clean burners with wire brush

Next your homeowners insurance will disqualify you for having a water heater older than ten years!

Have you checked your owner's manual? If you don't have a hardcopy even at 17 years old a manual should be online and not too hard to find. That should answer your questions about maintenance.

Thankless maintenance
 

They do "require" some kind of flushing and descaling service. I have heard they use some sort of vinegar mixture to descale the heat exchanger. They weren't around when I was in the business so I never did it myself. I would guess if you have a water softener system this would be needed less often.

True
 

Two days ago I received a notice that I needed to replace my hot water heater due to its age ( 2002 original) my new insurance company would not insure if this isn’t done. Thinking of tankless. Any suggestions? We have gas.

I have read my Rheem manual, and it doesn't have any definitive recommendations for maintenance of an electric tank type water heater. It only "suggests" draining a small amount of water from the tank occasionally. There is no recommendation for draining and flushing the entire tank, or for replacing the anode. I have never done any maintenance on a water heater.

Huh? You don't HAVE to do anything, except pay your taxes. You don't HAVE to replace the anode rod, but you should unless you want the tank to rust through and leak or rupture.

Anode rods are available in "linked" segments of approximately 18", which allow them to be installed in tanks that are mounted in a way leaving little vertical clearance.

Water Input
 

I think electric water heaters have a major enemy called calcium. We had an electric heater many years ago that had heating elements that needed changed out every few years. Our water was high in calcium and when the tech removed one of the elements a lot of sand like material came out; he stated it was calcium. I’m not sure if Florida water has a high concentration of the mineral or not. If it does, I would drain it every couple of years.

Yes, yearly flush out of the tank to get rid of the sediment.

Annual flushing and replace anode rod every 4 or 5 years is adequate for electric H20 heater, never owned a gas or tankless heater so not sure. On the other hand, you can do nothing and just replace the heater every 10 - 12 years for about $850.

The Villages water has calcium, but it is not very high in calcium. Basically, it is considered to be average water.

Most people never pay attention to their tank hot water heater, gas or electric until it bursts, stops working, leaks or the insurance company sends them a letter.

For tank hot water heaters you should drain a couple of buckets of water yearly to reduce sediment and although you can change the anode rod (Its not that easy), its best to just replace the tank the year after the warrenty is up since under normal conditions the anode rod is supposed to last the warranty life of the tank.

If you have a whole house water filter in the garage yearly tank draining isn't necessary and if you have a water softener even better.

The thought process to change the tank hot water heater right after it's warrenty limit, 10-12 years normally, is because you never know when the tank will leak or burst causing all kinds of other damages to your home, some of which might inclulde mold.

I always hear stories of that one person who nurses their tank hot water heater for 15-20 years or even longer to only find out that it was leaking for the last 5 years or more and now they have mold and other sheetrock damage. Or the same person who goes away and when they come home they find the water heater burst and there is flood damage.

So all this said, a very high efficiency 40-50 gallon tank hot water heater costs on a non-emergency basis about $1,200 installed. This is not a huge cost to incurr every 10-12 years given all of these unknown risks will be mitagated and you will be saving money with an efficient heater.

As far as electric or gas tankless heater conversions, if you have an electric tank hot water heater you probably don't have enough electric at the tank for the tankless unit. So a new electric line will need to be run. For gas you need to check the size of the gas supply and the exhaust. Either way it can be costly to do the conversion since you only spend a couple hundred dollars a year to heat hot water for a typical home here in the Villages and the savings with tankless isn't that much. You should consider a tankless heater if you have a larger family and need unlimited hot water. Most of us here in the villages are two people households and a tank heater supplies more than enough hot water.

I wonder how many people have a problem with the faucet on the tank after draining the tank. Lot of sediment goes through that valve

Or a with whole house water filter, I plan to clean my tankless every 5 years. After the first year of use, the screen was completely clean.

Do you really think that opening the small drain valve will get rid of the sediment? The valve opening is very tiny compared to the overall size of the tank. Most of the sediment is caked onto the bottom and sides of the tank, so draining the tank using that small valve will not remove it.

If your water comes from Sumter county, this isn't correct. Water harness here is 172 mg/l based on the county's 2021 water report. 120 - 180 mg/l is considered hard water.

Here is the report: Sumter County Water Report

And here is the definition of hard water: What is hard water

I've had good luck flushing tanks using the drain valve. Leave the water on while opening and closing the drain valve shut-off. The water pressure helps blow out and break up the deposits. And when testing the TPR valve, or opening it to help the water drain from the tank, give the TPR a couple of taps with wrench to help clear out the sediement which can accumulate on the rubber seal in the TPR.

It is difficult to determine how much sediment you can remove by opening the drain valve. But, it seems to me that you will get a similar flushing action by just turning on the hot water faucets full blast in your house, especially near the water tank. The hot water pipe existing the water heater is actually larger than the drain valve. If you really want to flush out the tank, you need a larger drain valve.

I'm not saying that The Villages doesn't have hard water, but compared to the overall country, it is not anywhere near as bad as the water softener salespeople will tell you. Look at the water hardness maps. There is a large portion of the country that has much harder water than The Villages.

Take a small scrap of window screen. Place it at the end of the hose (when draining a water heater). It’ll show the sediment. The issue with flushing using faucets is that they have aerators, which are notorious for trapping sediment. Of course you can always remove the aerators and flush them. Just throwing this info out for homeowners.

I do believe cold water enters the tank through a pipe that extends almost to the bottom and hot water is taken out near the top of the tank. Hot water, after all, rises. So you should expect to get no sediment out from the hot water faucets in your home.

If you turn on all of the hot water faucets full blast, after a few minutes, all of the hot water will be gone and you will create enough turbulence in the tank to flush out some of the loose sediment. The drain valve at the bottom of the tank is designed to drain the tank, not to create a flushing action. The drain valve is way too small to be very effective at flushing out sediment.

I've flushed pounds and pounds of minerals out of my tank over the years using the drain valve. The driveway gets covered in white crystals. The cold water coming in at the bottom of the tank stirs them up.

IMO the scale water at bottom of tank, whey you open up the drain the scale water get drained. I notice color difference for couple mins. IMO If you let the scale set in bottom long enough that’s when you get build up. IMO that’s why recommend draining.

instant gas hot water heater
 

has anyone replaced their hot water heater with a gas instant hot water heater? if so, who did you use to buy it from and install it? do you love it?

I did as a DIY job. Tankless heaters require a 3/4" gas line. Most tank WH have a 1/2 line. If that's the case for you consider how far you have to go to plumb a 3/4" gas line.

I purchased the heater from Amazon.

Wow! A water heater that’s 17 years old must be close to the end of life. Usually, you have to start thinking about replacing your water heater after 10 years. It’s better to replace the water heater before it quits working and floods the area than waiting for the failure to occur. That way, you can control the outage, while the water heater is being replaced.

Otherwise, with Murphy’s Law, the water heater will most likely fail on a holiday weekend, or at the most in opportune time. The rough ballpark cost is about $2,000 for a tank water heater and $4,000 for a tankless water heater. The tankless water heaters tend to be best for large families where everyone is using hot water at the same time. But the tankless water heater must be designed for the maximum hot water load.

The tankless water heaters might be more practical if the house is unoccupied for months during the year. If you only have electricity, then when there’s an electricity outage, you instantly have no hot water, unless you have an electric generator.

The tankless water heaters tend to last a little longer than conventional tank water heaters. But the cost tends to never break even for the extra cost of the tankless water heater, during the water heater’s lifetime.

When the water heater is being installed, it’s important that the threaded connector is not soldered while it is connected the water heater’s threads. The heat from the soldering reduces the lifetime of the threads near the water heater.

Our water heater flooded our garage because it was installed improperly at the 6 year point. Fortunately, the threaded pipe that broke could be removed and replaced. That repair cost was $295. We’ll start thinking about replacing the water heater in a few years when it’s about ten years old.

Replace the zinc rod that attracts minerals and slows tank decay, unless you have a well, never. Drain tank of sediment by opening drain at the base of tank, nope, the cheap valves will either leak or break at a higher concern than any advantage. Tanks can last 5 years, or 25 years and it usually depends on demand so in TV with two adults they can last a long time. Visually inspect your tank when passing by and look and listen for changes. If you have a concern, get an inspection. Tankless natural gas water heaters can go out of adjustment and have more stringent maintenance requirements; however, the rule of thumb is the same stop look and smell. If you have a change in the delivery of hot water from any natural gas tank call for service. Remember if you call a fox (service person) into your hen house eventually, he will eat your chickens. 35 Years working on and around natural gas equipment.