[Greenbuilding] [BULK] Advice on cleaning a water tank

[Lawrence Lile]

Cleaning a water heater tank is a frustrating experience.  Here is one
trick:

Open up any orifices in the water heater you can access, such as a drain
valve hole.  Find a piece of electrical conduit that is small enough to
go into this hole with plenty of play, like a 1/2" pipe for a 3/4" hole.
Attach this conduit to a wet/dry shop vac with duct tape. Plug the shop
vac into a GFI outlet for safety.  This will be messy.  

Get water into the water heater by some other means, such as cracking
open a supply valve to a trickle.  

Now comes the hard part.  Shove the homemade cleanout slurper into
whatever cleanout hole you've been provided, and work it around,
loosening up the deposits inside while slurping them up.  You can also
make a hook in a stiff rod, and use it to break up deposits.  

You may want to look up look up cursewords.com for a list of handy
expletives to use at this point in the operation.  

Now since a tank water heater's average life in hard water is ten years,
you are not so far from the end of it's useful life.  

When I've replaced water heaters, I've used tankless water heaters,
which should be less prone to calcification, and put in a water softner
on the supply to the hot water only, to protect my investment in this
expensive equipment.  I expect to not have to replace this setup for
many years, while enjoying energy savings. 
 
 
Lawrence Lile, P.E., LEED AP

-----Original Message-----
From: greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org
[mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of Racheli
Gai
Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2007 1:35 PM
To: Greenbuilder list
Subject: [BULK] [Greenbuilding] Advice on cleaning a water tank
Importance: Low

Hi Greenbuilders,

Here is a question from my husband John:

We have a gas water heater that is 6 years old and not heating water 
very effectively. Our gas
bills have increased recently (and the heater is the only gas appliance 
in our house).  Our water
is hard and I suppose that there are mineral  deposits at the bottom of 
the tank acting as insulation.
I've seen advice on the net concerning draining and cleaning the tank.  
It was suggested that
a lye solution (not in the drano formulation which contains aluminum 
and releases a potentially
explosive gas) would be effective in de-solving the buildup.  Any 
advice about the cleaning
the tank or effective/green alternatives would be welcome.

Thanks!
Racheli.


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