Help draining water heater!

Thanks everyone for your replies. As DH had just come back from a trip, he decided to hold off on this for another week. We have one good working element. We have to keep our showers short right now, but at least we have hot water.

I'm going to have him read this thread so he can decide the best course of action.

Once again, thanks everyone.

The electric water heater that came with our house had a burned out lower heating element. I couldn't get it out, and I couldn't drain the tank. Once I finally removed the lower heater, I could see why it went. The lime was built all the way up to it, and I really twisted the element when I removed it.

I didn't have money for a new heater, so I tried to de-lime the old one. I removed the plastic valve and eventually installed a pipe nipple and gate valve. I then poured a commercial de-liming solution (Redhot?) into the heater. I had a drill mounted pump, so I connected it to the gate valve (with adapters), and let the outlet go in the heater hole. I recirculated the de-liming solution several times.

To start the flow, before I installed the gate valve, I drilled out the lime with a long auger bit. Water started to trickle through, so I attached the pump, put the solution in, and let it run. After several cycles of pump solution into a bucket, detach hose, run rod into hole to know pieced apart and remove, reattach hose and pour solution back in and start over... I finally got most of the lime out. Then it was a matter of rinsing out the tank a number of times, reinstalling, letting it heat up the first batch of water, drain that, then refill.

The whole procedure took more than 1/2 a day, but the water heaters been working for the last 8 years since I unplugged it.

Don't forget a new anode, since your old one is probably shot.

Michael

Yes lie will built up on the elements. I just use a small tap hammer and chip off most of the lime then i just put the element into some descaling chemical and soak it till it gets clean.
I clean heating elements like that all time those that are in huge coffee brewers, they are the same type of heating elements that are in WH's. As coffee brewers maintain hot water in their tank just like a HW does.

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When our hot water heater went out, I wasn't able to drain it from the bottom faucet either. But, I remembered that everytime we replaced a hot water line under the MH, hot water always drained out of those pipes and we would end up soaking wet. So, I undid one of the hot water lines underneath the MH and drained my water heater. Then I removed the broken heating element and sucked out all of the sediment by using my carpet cleaner. Then I removed the drain plug at the bottom of the water heater and replaced it with a new one. Installed my new heating element, refilled with water and it has been working like a charm since then.

I hope this helps!!!

If you were responding to my post... I wasn't talking about lime building up ON the element, but rather up TO the heating element. The bottom of the tank was solid with lime.

Michael

Finally got the darn thing changed this weekend. It was all bent up. I have no idea how it worked at all. We've been here 3 years and it was already there like that.

DH did it with water in the tank. It should have been an easy old out, new in but DH had to fight to get it out.

I'm very happy to not have to rush through all my showers. Most of the time I try to not use too much but now and then a girl needs a little extra time in the shower.

Thank you all for you help.