Sediment busters - bubble bubble?

[pasadena_commut]

I ran across a video for a device called a "sediment buster" on youtube today:



Basically it is a Y. The common leg screws onto a water heater drain valve, one arm has a ball valve and then attaches to a hose to drain the water, and the other arm has what looks like a common car tire valve. The body of the device is clear. Whenever the drain isn't passing sediment or even water, which is easily seen because of the clear body, some air is pushed through the tire valve with a tire pump or a compressor and then sediment/water starts coming through again.

As far as I can tell all this device does is blow some bubbles back through the tank drain valve, which jiggles around the sediment clogging it (either at the valve or the inlet at the tank), and lets more material pass - until it jams up again. No way it is doing more than that since once the air gets inside the tank proper it is going to bubble straight up to the top, which will do exactly nothing to move sediment around far away on the bottom. In the video around 4:45 one can see the drain valve on the tank. It turns 90 degrees to open or close, which would suggest it is a ball valve, but it seems to be quite prone to jamming, which suggests it is not full port and so constricts the flow. If anybody is familiar with that particular valve, please chime in with a description of it.

At first glance this device seems to be analogous to a piece of wire shoved back up the drain, but in a more convenient form. With a wire one has to keep putting the drain hose on and off, whereas here it can stay on. The thing I like best about it is the clear body. I have done something similar to this with a brass Y with a ball valve in each arm, and one arm attached to a hose from outside. This would back flush (powerfully) and stir up the sediment not just at the valve but over a pretty large area. Since one cannot see through brass I had to keep running outside to see what was coming out. If there was a similar Y to the one I used, but in clear plastic it would work much like the sediment buster, but probably better, since a big slug of water will stir up the bottom over a large area, whereas a small stream of air will only stir things locally.

 

[sarg]

With the crappy "factory" compression type drain valve you can spend a day screwing around trying to clear any large sediment.
And it appears to be an electric heater which you can simply drain the water & use a wet vac to clean the tank through the bottom element hole. I do it every six months.

 

[havasu]

It seems plausible for a gas water heater. I also like his thoughts about not touching the TPR valve. Anyone know is this is available to purchase at a big box store, or is it an online purchase only?

 

[pasadena_commut]

The TPR valve or the sediment buster? HD has TPR valves in stock on site but does not even list the "sediment buster" as an item they carry. The only place I found that sells the SB is Amazon.

 

[TomFOhio]

That would be nice for when you go to drain a tank for repair or replacement and a little trickle comes out. If it
would blow it out enough for it to drain that would be nice. Wonder if a person could make one of these without
costing an arm and a leg.

 

[pasadena_commut]

That would be nice for when you go to drain a tank for repair or replacement and a little trickle comes out.

Well, yes and no. It looks easier to clear the drain valve with this device than with a wire or back flush, but if the valve isn't full port it is just going to jam again. Even with a full port drain valve if there is a significant amount of sediment, like solid up to and over the tank side of the outlet pipe, it is going to be a PITA to get the tank clean. If I looked back up the drain valve, assuming like mine it is a straight pipe so that is possible, and saw a wall of sediment, I wouldn't bother with this device. Instead I would unscrew the TPR valve and start hosing it out from the top.

Sadly gas water heaters are just not designed to be cleaned. For instance, if the floor was slanted slightly (maybe 5 degrees) with the cold water dropping in at the high point and the drain valve emptying from the low point. That is, sediment would naturally slide downhill towards the exit if it was stirred up at all. If they were like that then yes, one could really flush the tank using just the cold water and a good drain valve. I think, obviously I don't have a tank like that to test the idea. Since they are not designed to be cleaned, all sorts of kludges are needed instead. Personally I think full port drain valves should be mandatory in their manufacture. Those crappy plastic gate valves are absolutely worthless if there is much sediment.

 

[RS]

We have a well with a pressure tank at our summer house, every fall before we leave I blow out the system. I set the regulator on the compressor to 50 psi, and the air going down the dip tube agitates the sediment and the heater cleans out very well.

 

[pasadena_commut]

...and the heater cleans out very well.

How do you know? Just because sediment isn't coming out with your current flushing method doesn't mean that there isn't more that would come out with a different approach.

On a slightly related note, the water heaters for RVs are mounted sideways and from what I have read they are easier to clean out. I don't have one, but as I understand it the drain valve is at the lowest point (as one would expect) and since the "bottom" is the side of a cylinder it is a curved trough. Blasting water in pushes the sediment down the trough and out the drain valve.

 

[RS]

I haven't seen an RV heater like that, and we've had a few. Our winter home in Arizona is a park model RV, and it has a 20 gallon electric water heater with no drain, just inlet and outlet. The water quality here is pretty bad, so I expect it's partially full of sediment. It works fine, and we have adequate hot water for all of our needs. It's the original, so it's over 10 years old, so I check it every few days. It has a drain pan that is piped outside, so I don't expect any damage when it starts to leak. The local hardware store always has a few available, and it will be easy for me to change, I'm going to run it to failure.

 

[pasadena_commut]

I haven't seen an RV heater like that, and we've had a few.

Some must be:

https://rv101withmarkpolk.com/2019/10/24/understanding-rv-water-heater-by-pass-systems/
If yours only has inlet and outlet I guess you just pull the inlet hose/pipe off and spray in through there with something like a conical brass nozzle in bursts, until no more sediment comes out. In the diagram in this link the drain isn't shown at the lowest point, for artistic reasons, but I suspect that is really where it is. I mean, dumb design to put a drain inches above the bottom of a tank.

 

[RS]

That would be nice for when you go to drain a tank for repair or replacement and a little trickle comes out. If it
would blow it out enough for it to drain that would be nice. Wonder if a person could make one of these without
costing an arm and a leg.

Any garden hose Y would work, but I've never seen a clear one, but that's not really necessary if you can see the discharge. It's east to connect an air hose to a garden hose, and I use an air compressor with the regulator set at 50 psi.

 

[pasadena_commut]

Any garden hose Y would work, but I've never seen a clear one, but that's not really necessary if you can see the discharge.

This site has some clear PVC pieces:

https://www.usplastic.com/catalog/default.aspx?catid=592
I suppose if one could figure out a way to insert one on the outlet side of a brass Y (with full port ball valves in each arm) that would provide the necessary window near the WH to see if sediment was moving or not. In other words, one arm of the Y to the compressor or a hose (both for back flush), one arm of the Y to the clear fitting and then a hose to the discharge location, and the leg of the Y to the WH drain valve.