Flushing your water heater twice a year will prolong the life of your heater. It’s a simple process that will give you many more years of use.
To flush your water heater, hook a garden hose to your heater’s bottom drain. Run the hose outside or to an interior drain and turn the bottom drain valve on. Some of the new water heaters don’t have a handle as a child safety measure, so you will need to use a flat head screw driver to turn the valve on. Once the valve is open, let the water flow from the drain for about 5 minutes, and then close the bottom drain using the valve. During this process, be sure to not close any valves off at the top of the water heater. You will want to leave them on so you can use the water pressure to move any lime or other residue out of the water heater through the bottom drain.
