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How To Extend The Life Of Your Water Heater
Like myself you probably have anxiety about the possibility of some day having to replace expensive equipment in your home. For instance a water heater replacement can set you back close to $1000 dollars when it goes out. There are some ways to extend the life of your tank style water heater and have it last 5-10 years longer, with only a few adjustments and some regular maintenance. Most people aren't aware that cranking up the temperature on your water heater to get more hot water out of it will significantly cut the life of your water heater. Every degree that you turn your water heater up equates to several pounds of sediment build up each year.
Sediment build up, or Calcium Carbonate, causes multiple problems for your water heater and plumbing system. Excessive sediment breaks up and ends up getting into your faucet aerators which will result in low water pressure. It also eats away the sacrificial anode that protects your water heater from having early rust from electrolysis. On electric water heaters the sediment will build up around your heating elements causing them to have poor efficiency or even short out completely. Once the sediment has built up on a large scale it is almost impossible to clean it out.
So how do you keep this from happening? Pretty easily actually. Start by setting your water heater to 120 degrees. This is hot enough to kill the bacteria on your dishes but reduces the amount of excessive sediment build up tremendously, plus your will save 3-5% of energy monthly. Remember - just because you increase the temp doesn't mean you will get "more" hot water. The other measure you can take is to flush your water heater annually. This is actually a recommendation in your water heaters instructions by the manufacturer, most people just don't know or forget. To effectively flush your water heater there are a couple of steps. First turn your temperature control to "vacation" on natural gas or propane models. This will keep the water heater from running continuously while it is empty. For electric water heaters simply turn off the breaker. Then turn off the water supply valve at the top of the water heater and hook a hose up to the drain . Run the hose outside or into a drain and open up the drain valve. Usually this is accomplished by turning the knob counterclockwise. Now you will need to open up a couple of sink faucets of shower valves to the hot side in order to vent the tank. If there is not a ton of sediment it should drain on its own. If you have excessive sediment you can try turning the supply valve back on for a couple minutes to try and flush it out. I recommend turning the faucets off when you do this and repeating the flush once the tank is empty.
Now you are ready to close the valve and fill your tank back up. Just like that, you have saved your self hundreds off dollars.
At Brown Plumbing a once per year water heater flush is a free service provided with installation of a new water heater.
