Minimal water after draining the hot water heater

[granite]

I am no longer getting hot water after trying to perform maintenance on our hot water heater.

The situation: I live in a Colorado mountain house with septic, well and baseboard heat. The house has a variety of equipment include water softeners, cistern, RO systems and a TACO pump. We bought the house 2 months ago and so don't know the systems well.

This morning I followed the basic steps to drain the sediment from the heater and replace the heating element. I shut off the power, shut the various valves to and from the water heater, opened faucets, opened the relief valve and opened the drain. The water and sediment drained out. Unfortunately I did not have the correct heating element and therefore didn't really achieve my goal.

I closed the drains, opened the valves and turned the power back on. However after several hours I can't get any hot water out of the faucets. They were open for a while bleeding air. I did my best to bleed the air from the faucets and some valves on the hot water heater. However I can only get a trickle of lukewarm water from the kitchen and shower.

I'm trying to understand what I did wrong. Is there something obvious? Any triage steps would be very helpful.

Thanks

Granite

 

[Matt30]

This is where the use of a multi meter comes in handy. Is there voltage at the top element? What's the ohms reading through the element? Is the thermostat activating? Did you hit the reset button?

 

[havasu]

Did you open all the hot water taps when you were filling the tank? If not, your tank will be full of air.

 

[voletl]

Your aerators on your faucets could be filled with junk I would take them off clean them and see if that helps.
After open up all your hot taps and make sure the cold supply to the water heater is fully open and just let it run

 

[havasu]

Also, you may need to replace your pressure relief valve since you should never exercise that, which tend to drip afterwards.

 

[Mr_David]

They say drain the water heater once a year to remove sediments.
They don't say how much trouble you will cause doing it.
Drain cock now leaks because it won't shut off 100%.
You don't get all the sediments. When you refill the tank, you stir up what's in there. Some of it gets flushed up and out to through the fixtures.

Only a trickle of water coming out of all fixtures or just some? That would be a flow problem. Supply nipples on the water heater may need to be replaced.

Is there a gate valve to the water heater. did it open all the way.

Take off the shower head and aerator on faucet and check flow.

once you have established flow then go see if the WH is heating water.
You need an amp meter to check the amperage going through the heating element.

 

[KULTULZ]

I am no longer getting hot water after trying to perform maintenance on our hot water heater.

(Some Text Deleted)

This morning I followed the basic steps to drain the sediment from the heater and replace the heating element. I shut off the power, shut the various valves to and from the water heater, opened faucets, opened the relief valve and opened the drain. The water and sediment drained out. Unfortunately I did not have the correct heating element and therefore didn't really achieve my goal.

I closed the drains, opened the valves and turned the power back on. However after several hours I can't get any hot water out of the faucets. They were open for a while bleeding air. I did my best to bleed the air from the faucets and some valves on the hot water heater. However I can only get a trickle of lukewarm water from the kitchen and shower.

I'm trying to understand what I did wrong. Is there something obvious? Any triage steps would be very helpful.

Thanks

Granite

Why were you replacing one of two heating elements? Was the WH not operating correctly before?

You cannot properly drain a WH with the factory supplied gate valve. It has to be replaced with a full flow ball valve. Once initially drained, you then turn the water supply on and force flush the tank (with house water supply) until the water runs clear. The WH then has to be completely refilled and all trapped air purged before turning on power as an exposed element will burn in open air.

If a newer WH, the nipples will have valves in them that will foul easily. Best to replace with PEX lined nipples when you replace the drain valve.

REVELATION-

If there is substantial sediment in the tank, you might want to consider a sediment filter on the incoming water supply.

 

[granite]

Thank you Matt30, havasu, voletl, Mr_David, kultulz

I was able to solve the problem last night. It turned out to be a combination of minor issues and my lack of understanding of how it all works.

First - the low pressure cutoff on the well needed to be reset. The pressure was simply too low to get water to the upstairs faucets. Once I learned about that little component, we had cold water.

Second - there was either a blockage or a stuck valve in the hot water line. opening and closing several of the key valves got hot water upstairs.
Third - As voletl and Mr_David suggested, some of the aerators were clogged. I cleaned out several and the water pressure is much better. I also swapped out the sediment filter which was old and buggered.

Thank you to all who responded. This was a good learning experience for me. Ultimately I think the hot water heater is clogged and calcified and needs to be replaced - next year....