Electric water heater draining

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Slippery Johnson

Slippery Johnson

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Hi. I can't seem to find an answer with Google. I need to replace the elements and I have to drain the water heater. It has this big, ugly plastic drain valve. When you attach the hose and try to open it, the hose turns with it and just twists. This feels like it's wrong. Also, water starts to leak from the valve and doesn't seem to come out of the hose. I'm afraid to open the valve more out of fear of it coming right off. It looks like a stupid design and I can't believe someone came up with this idea. I don't have a floor drain so I can't have it just pouring out. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks
 
Slippery Johnson said:
Hi. I can't seem to find an answer with Google. I need to replace the elements and I have to drain the water heater. It has this big, ugly plastic drain valve. When you attach the hose and try to open it, the hose turns with it and just twists. This feels like it's wrong. Also, water starts to leak from the valve and doesn't seem to come out of the hose. I'm afraid to open the valve more out of fear of it coming right off. It looks like a stupid design and I can't believe someone came up with this idea. I don't have a floor drain so I can't have it just pouring out. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks
Click to expand...
Indeed, the plastic drain valves supplied with water heaters are fragile, especially if they've not been used for some time.

Assuming that the valve is indeed opening, you'll need to supply a vent to the tank for any significant flow out of your garden hose, open a hot water valve @ a fixture nearby to create this vent. This can also be accomplished by manually opening the TPR valve, however it's been my experiences that they almost always don't seal fully closed if not operated for some time.

It's always prudent to have a new TPR valve on hand should you decide to open it, they are inexpensive and vital for safety reasons.
I'm almost certain you'll want to replace the drain valve with a proper brass one as well.

Good Luck!
 
Slippery Johnson said:
Hi. I can't seem to find an answer with Google. I need to replace the elements and I have to drain the water heater. It has this big, ugly plastic drain valve. When you attach the hose and try to open it, the hose turns with it and just twists. This feels like it's wrong. Also, water starts to leak from the valve and doesn't seem to come out of the hose. I'm afraid to open the valve more out of fear of it coming right off. It looks like a stupid design and I can't believe someone came up with this idea. I don't have a floor drain so I can't have it just pouring out. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks
Click to expand...
Open the relief valve to give the tank air to drain.

If the relief valve doesn’t close when you’re done, replace it.
 
Thanks for the advice guys. I know about opening the relief valve, my fear was that the drain valve felt like it was gonna just screw right off. As I opened it the hose was twisting with it and this didn't make sense to me. I figured I should be able to screw a hose on then open the valve, but when the hose started to twist I thought the whole thing was coming out lol. I did get it to drain, but it took a while since I don't have a floor drain so I used a small pump. Anyway, the elements are changed and the tank is filled and hopefully heating. I honestly can't tell if it's heating until it's hot I guess. I put my ear to the tank and there is a kinda hum so I assume it's heating up. Thanks again for your help and quick response.

BTW, I was thinking I should replace the anode rod. Can this be done without draining the tank all the way? I wish I had thought of it while I was buying the parts and I could have picked one up.
 
Something doesn’t sound right, can you post a picture of your drain valve?

Yes, you can swap out the anode if you drain the tank below the anode fitting.
 
I replace the factory drain valves ( usually compression types ) with a 3/4 ball valve made for flushing. The flush valve will decrease the drain time by about 2/3rds. The crappy factory valves will not pass sediment.
While you have the elements out use a wet vac with some heater hose attached to vac out the sediment from the tank through the bottom element hole.
DRAIN.jpg
 
sarg said:
I replace the factory drain valves ( usually compression types ) with a 3/4 ball valve made for flushing. The flush valve will decrease the drain time by about 2/3rds. The crappy factory valves will not pass sediment.
While you have the elements out use a wet vac with some heater hose attached to vac out the sediment from the tank through the bottom element hole.
View attachment 40962
Click to expand...

Nice, where do you get those? https://a.co/d/eOVR0Rc looks similar, should that be OK?
 
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