I have endeavored to fix another device I know nothing about (water heater help)

[Gerle]

WTF lol,A fuse? lol

For size comparison, he said.

 

[phucheneh]

Ugh. Transparency in government in great. Until you find what you're looking for...

Local water. Red is high sediment. Yellow is polluted. You should see what they are apparently deeming 'not shitty' (the blue)...it's...shitty.

Here's our local water supply. Cumberland River. Uggghhhh...that might be worse than Percy Priest/Stone's River (apparently that's what Lavergne, the area in the blue on the lower right, drinks).

 

[iGas]

The water won't drain out of the tank unless you open a hot water outlet someplace in the house. E.g., turn the hot water on in the shower (none will come out of the shower.) Otherwise, it forms a vacuum inside the tank, preventing it from draining.

Once it's drained, you may want to keep the elements off, but with the drain valve open, flush it out with more water (turn on the inlet water.) It might also be worth checking out the anode if it's getting older.

If you flush it annually, and replace the anode when it gets low, I can't see a reason that a hot water tank couldn't last you 40 years.

Hot water won't drain out of tank if you turn off all faucets, and cold water supply. Generally cold water supply continuously supply the hot water tank, hence hot water should be flushing out till you close the hot water tank drain at the bottom of tank.

It could be that 1 of the 2 heating elements have failed, or cold water supply tube is broken off.

It look like your local water board is doing a poor job at advising its users and maintain the water main pipping.

 

[phucheneh]

Because I'm sure you all cared, an update:

I used hot water for a bit today, then took a decently long shower. When I was done, I turned the water to full hot, and still had max temp and pressure.

Morals of the story: Flush your water heater. Don't live in Nashville.

I wonder how much of my tank is full of gravel that's too big to come out the drain...I need to take a pic of that thing; anyone know what I'm talking about? I'm wondering if I can pull it to clean and replace it with a metal one; or if it's just made into the cheapo unit.

 

[Red Squirrel]

For size comparison, he said.

My bad I missed that part.

I've heard of some small municipalities (<100 houses) where the water was so hard people's water tanks actually completely fill up with mineral deposits, until there's no more room for water. I'd hate to be the group of people having to haul that thing out after. Places like that pretty much need a whole house water softener.

 

[vailr]

One solution to consider: install a whole house water filter, before the water heater & near to where the main shut off water valve is located. Use one of the cheap $5 12" long woven white yarn type filters, and change out every 12 months, or so.

 

[Gerle]

RedSquirrel, yeah, that'd not be fun at all to move a soid rock the size of a water heater!