My Water Heater Won't Drain [Fix It With 3 Easy Steps]

are you trying to drain your water heater and it just doesn't seem to want to drain or it's draining a trickle maybe you've left it on overnight and it's not flowing I have three simple steps to guarantee that I can get your water heater to flow [Music] I've broken the video into three sections the first step is to show you exactly how to get your water heater to drain if that doesn't work I have some tips and tricks that will guarantee one way or the other we're gonna get this we're gonna get the water out and then Section three is to explain why we're why the water heaters not draining in general section number one let's do the traditional way of draining the water heater I'll go over it in concept and then I'll show you how it's done this little drain down here is the drain valve for the water heater you know it's likely that there's all sorts of sediment built up behind here and after we hook up our garden hose who knows if it's actually gonna drain so I'm gonna go through the process and show you exactly how we would normally do it there's a couple different ways we'll start with step one so let's get going the first step is we've taken a garden hose and we've connected it to the drain valve that's equipped on the water here itself before we shut down the water in coming into the tank we're gonna open the valve and you can hear the water rushing out the reason why we're doing this is because at the bottom of this tank there is a ton of built-up sediment from the minerals extracting itself in the water and building up at the bottom of the tank so by opening the valve up under pressure without turning the water off up top it allows us to flush the sediment that's gonna clog up the filter alright not the filter but the drain out of the water here so basically what anything that's near this thing will just get sucked out and forced out of this hose right here we're gonna let this run for about 60 seconds that'll ensure that anything that's near it is jammed out now let's go up to the top of the water heater we're going to turn the valve that lets the water into the water here and also gives it pressure we're gonna turn that off so this is on and then perpendicular is going to be off now we want to repeat the same process at the bottom of the tank again so this time we're going to open the valve again this is just a quarter turn valve sometimes you'll have a plastic valve on here for example the Rheem Performance Series from Home Depot gives you a plastic valve if you have that Valve you're kind of screwed taking them out sometimes they'll crack inside the threads and then your water heater is pretty much toast so if you have a plastic valve down here I wouldn't even try this so next thing is we need to turn the water here off so on your thermostat you're gonna see all the settings for the heat and then you're also going to see the setting for pilot as well as it off so we're gonna turn it over to the off mode as well as shut the valve off so you'll know it's off when it's perpendicular to the pipe like this is on this is off which makes relative sense now that I've got the water heater drain open and I've got the incoming water line off it is not actually draining nothing's coming out so the reason why is because it's air locked in order to get the water to come out we need to let air in so right now we've got no way for the air to get into the tank for example in this straw right now I've got my finger over the top as soon as I let it out the water comes out so basically we need to let our finger off the straw in the plumbing system and allow the air to get into the tank so we can drain it so I'll show you how we're gonna do that come with me okay so now that we've got the water heater the valves open the incoming water off we're going to open up a hot water line this is gonna allow the air to seep back into the water heater and let it flush so we've opened up the hot water side in one of the faucets and it happens to be that those faucets are lower than this water heater so it's not gonna drain that way so the second thing that will guarantee you can get air in the tank and let the water out is to loosen up one of the supply lines this is supply line it out of the tank so what I'm gonna do is basically just release collar and do you hear that that is the air being sucked in now the air can go down into the water heater so let's go outside and see if it's draining if you live in San Diego and you need help doing a repair or replacement we're more than glad to come out and give you a quote or you can go on our website at quick water heater comm and check out our advertised all-inclusive pricing right on our website ah and this is the desired result so it's draining now so this is actually a newer water heater if you have an older water heater that process we just used probably won't work so let's go back inside and I'll show you what to do next if this doesn't if this isn't happening for you if the traditional method of just hooking up a hose and shutting off the valves didn't actually do anything that means that you probably have too much sediment in the bottom of the water heater and it's never show you next is a special technique that we've kind of figured out over the years to get the water heater to drain every time so here's what it is it is a 3/4 valve and you can see this hole and once I pull that other valve out you'll see that this hole is three or four times the size so anything that's stuck in the water heater right now will be able to pass through this but it will not pass through the hole on the other valve which is about like that first step is to remove the drain valve so what I'm gonna do is create the suction similar to what I did with the straw keeping my finger over it so that when I take the valve out it doesn't shoot water every we're going to turn the water off and then I'm gonna relieve the pressure I'll be right back I'm just gonna open the hot water faucet or you can also release the pressure from here so you just want to let it do its thing until it no longer so you can you can't hear the water running in the tent any longer okay so what I've basically done is created a vacuum the water heater valve is off so there's no incoming pressure and I've opened the valve so that all the water pressure will remove itself from the tank and go down out the hose so basically there's a vacuum in here there's no air being allowed in so it won't drain so remove this valve down here it'll just come on no I will leave it open to verify that we're not going to water oh it's actually we've got so much vacuum that it's sucking in the drain valve so that's open barely any water is coming out here's the most important thing this is a new valve that we're gonna install on the bottom of the water here the hole is significantly larger probably three times four times the size of the manufacturers drain valve so that if anything is actually in the way in there it'll drain right out of this hole what's happening currently is the holes too small there's probably a piece of sediment stuck in there that just won't allow any water to get by so I'm going to show you how to put this thing together real quick and then we're gonna drain the water here you're going to want to get some plumbers tape and wrap your threads we're just gonna screw it together like that and then take the other end and do the same thing okay so now we did we have two one and a half inch nipples going into a 3/4 ball valve I suggest using a pipe wrench for this because these things can really get wedged in there especially if the water heaters older okay remember if you don't have a vacuum started meaning that you've turned the water off at the top and you have drained down the water to create pressure or like a negative pressure inside the tank if you remove this it's going to shoot water at you so because I've created a vacuum in there it will that's all it's going to do some tape on here we're gonna permanently install this so that anytime in the future if we need to drain the tank for service replacement it won't drain easily okay so this is different just for demonstration purposes but in theory I would spin all these joints together much tighter when I do the final installation but now we can connect the garden hose to it like that all right so now I'll let that go again now this time the hole is huy thing that's stuck in there will just flow right out of the tank so now we're gonna do the same thing we did before and let some air into the tank wasn't I do that through the hot supply line or you could do it through the cold whichever I'm even here burbling in there get that out of the way and now we're gonna go outside and make sure it's raining all right perfect and now we have proper flow so regardless of what water heater you have that method is gonna guarantee get you some flow in if it doesn't basically open up the valve jam a screwdriver down there and you can get anything out if it stops but that's pretty much as guaranteed as it gets okay so as you saw bigger hole your tanks gonna drain the stock drain valve that they have on the water heaters really is pretty much useless especially after the first couple years or if you have any hard water minerals in your tank which is almost everybody so if you're interested in learning what this is how to build it jump over to our website quick water heater comm click on the FAQ section and then look up water heater drain valve I'll find this thing there I'll show you exactly how to make it where to get the parts and how to install it properly okay and the final section is section three why won't this thing actually drain well what happens is when you heat water up it separates the calcium magnesium from the water and deposits all the minerals at the bottom of the tank as they settle they kind of compress like dirt and eventually it will clog up the valve if you realize what's happening here you also have to realize that this is happening throughout your whole house all the pipes are collecting sediment inside of them as sediment collects it also can create pinhole leaks it creates you know the minerals that build up on your shower doors edging gear fixtures basically replacing all your faucets and anything that touches the water constantly because of these minerals the best way to get them out as a water softener or an oil salt softener if you're interested in that you can always find out more information on our website at quick water heater com you don't need to replace your water heaters off and as you are if you actually just remove the minerals and treat the water first if you live in Southern California we have absolutely terrible water and it's most likely you're replacing your water heater way too often if this video is helpful for you please leave us a thumbs up subscribe to our Channel and if you have any questions or comments please leave in the comments from below and we'll be back

Channel: Quick Water Heater & Filtration Company

Views: 468,561

Keywords: Water Heater Will Not Drain, Water Tank Will Not Drain, Hot water heater will not drain, water heater won't drain, water heater leaking, fix water heater, how to drain water heater, water heater maintenance, san diego water heater repair, water heater specialist san diego

Id: CU6uWIN-Ans

Length: 11min 45sec (705 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 29 2019