So I'm going to try doing what a fellow poster suggested and dump a gallon of vinegar in my water heater to loosen up any sediment. The last time I drained my water heater, no sediment came out, and with its age, I thought that was unusual.

How should I go about getting the vinegar in it? My thoughts were to cutoff the cold supply, disconnect the intake feed, drain some of the water, then add the vinegar via the intake.

Should that do the trick, or should I completely drain the tank then add vinegar? FYI - it's a 50 gallon WH.

I would go with draining the tank completely, pour in vinegar, fill with a little water (mostly to agitate), wait, then drain.

But that is the chemist in me coming out.

You might be able to pre-mix the vinegar a little with water, but it is more of the swirling that I would be wanting to go for. After a while, the vinegar will lose it "oomf" to clean out sediment/hard water minerals. I could see you draining and refilling with the vinegar several times before throwing it out and starting again (if you wanted too).

If you have access to fish tank pH testers, you could measure the pH of the solution to see how much vinegar (aka acid) you have left.



A completely different method would be pool acid, but diluted down. Test pH and do the same. Might be cheaper if you have the chemicals already (aka, you have a pool). Just another thought.


~egon

Dad and I did one in Houston years ago with Pool Acid (muratic acid). Worked pretty well. We shut off the cold water, drained the tank slightly, and removed the pressure relief valve and went in through there.

I think a gallon of vinegar will be ineffective for such a large container. It is common to treat a coffee maker with a 100% vinegar solution. A gallon of vinegar in a 50 gal water heater is really diluted.

I have poured household acidic cleaner ("CLR" into an electric water heater. I turned it off, removed the intake connection, and used a funnel. I didn't drain it at all first but I think that is a good idea. I wouldn't drain it completely because I wouldn't want the acid solution to hit the bottom of the tank first.

I used 5 gallons of vinegar and added a couple gallons of water through the intake to agitate it a bit. When I drained it, the water ran clear with virtually no sediment. When I put vinegar in it and let it sit for 15-20 minutes, it was brown when I drained it.

Here's a blast from the past...


I recently flushed my tank (4 months ago) and pulled about 20 pounds or more of calcium build up. If like to try to break it up chemically and flush it out instead of scrapping and sucking it out through the drain hole.

I'm going to try vinegar, but I'm wondering what kind of vinegar to use. I'm thinking a gallon of cleaning vinegar, not the diluted cooking stuff. Also, how long should I let it sit? Thoughts?

I'd give it a good 1/2 hour or so. Also I'm a little skeptical of how well it would work, but maybe it'll do something.

I'm going to empty most of the tank first, so it won't be very diluted. I may also use more than a gallon. The last time I had the tank empty, I replaced the original pvc valve with a galvanized nipple and brass ball valve, so I'm not worried about clogging the little drain valve holes (though the calcium pieces my not even make it through the drain opening). My problem will be the calcium deposits clogging the drain hose. If I can dissolve them, I can drain them through a hose more easily.

My water heater is going on about 18 years of service. I am confident it is about half full of sediment. Any thought of cleaning it out reminds me of the baker bros commercial where the WH shoots through the roof on the way to sub-orbital flight. Its in the garage, properly sloped, and up against an unoccupied bedroom.

I may be dumb, naive or just cheap, but I am waiting it out. Only way I would do maintenance on a water heater is if I had done it from day one.

Flushing isn't hard, just time consuming if it hasn't happened in a long time. You probably don't have as much as you think you do. When it starts to get full, you'll know because you won't have much hot water and your bills will go through the roof.

In my case, I moved into a house and didn't know the prior maintenance. Turns out there wasn't much. I had calcium deposits all the way up to the lower heating element, so there was no room for water and the upper was running constantly. I got 10 minutes of hot water before I was out. My bill went down $70/mth after I cleaned most of it out. Now I'm looking to finish the job and get everything I couldn't the first time.