How to drain water heater with “cold water diffuser” cold water inlet/drain combo??

[Jeffress77]

So we just bought this house about 8 months ago, and this is a Vaughn 80gal. electric water heater. The tank has a “cold water diffuser”. The cold water supply inlet for the unit is at the bottom, and evidently this doubles as the tank drain as well?

I want to flush/drain the tank but man, I am confused here.

I shut off the power going to the unit. Then I wanted to keep the cold water pressurized to flush the tank rather than just simply drain it because I fear there will be lots of sediment. However I don’t know if that’s possible.

I attempted to simply open the drain valve at bottom, but only achieved cold water draining (obviously since there was full pressure from cold water supply. So then I shut off the cold water supply ball valve, and opened the drain and it trickled to stop almost immediately. So then I thought I’d go to the upper level of the house and open the hot valve in the bathtub, while keeping the tank drain open. That didn’t achieve any results either, really.

So here I am… how to get the water/sediment out of the tank when cold water supply inlet doubles as the drain??

Thanks in advance!

Photos attached

 

[MicEd69]

I'm not familiar with these, so I looked at their sales brochure online. With a combined cold-water inlet with diffuser and drain, the water will have to drain through the diffuser. According to the cutaway in their brochure, it appears the combined cold-water inlet and drain isn't at the bottom of the tank. As such, it doesn't appear that there is much you can do about sediment that has accumulated at the bottom of the tank. These water heaters have a Hydrostone lining and no anode rod. To drain your water heater, you do need to let air into the tank. If your water heater is in your basement, opening a hot water valve on a faucet upstairs should work. But as it didn't in your case, you can open the TPR valve on the side of the water heater. Just be aware that they sometimes do not reseal and require replacing after the have been opened. The flow from the tank drain may be slow as the water has to flow backwards through the diffuser. I'm not sure what the diffuser looks like.

 

[Jeffress77]

I'm not familiar with these, so I looked at their sales brochure online. With a combined cold-water inlet with diffuser and drain, the water will have to drain through the diffuser. According to the cutaway in their brochure, it appears the combined cold-water inlet and drain isn't at the bottom of the tank. As such, it doesn't appear that there is much you can do about sediment that has accumulated at the bottom of the tank. These water heaters have a Hydrostone lining and no anode rod. To drain your water heater, you do need to let air into the tank. If your water heater is in your basement, opening a hot water valve on a faucet upstairs should work. But as it didn't in your case, you can open the TPR valve on the side of the water heater. Just be aware that they sometimes do not reseal and require replacing after the have been opened. The flow from the tank drain may be slow as the water has to flow backwards through the diffuser. I'm not sure what the diffuser looks like.
View attachment 45588


View attachment 45589

 

[Jeffress77]

Thank you for your response. I am thinking the same thing about opening the TPR valve.. and this water heater is older so I am guessing it will not reseal properly.

 

[MicEd69]

With the configuration of this water heater, it appears that removing any accumulated sediment through the drain with the diffuser is pretty much an exercise in futility. And I'm not sure I would worry about it. You could drain the water, remove the heating elements, and try to access the tank through those holes, but that seems like a lot of work. And doing that could damage the Hydrostone lining.

I'd call them and see what their customer service says before doing anything further.

 

[Jeffress77]

With the configuration of this water heater, it appears that removing any accumulated sediment through the drain with the diffuser is pretty much an exercise in futility. And I'm not sure I would worry about it. You could drain the water, remove the heating elements, and try to access the tank through those holes, but that seems like a lot of work. And doing that could damage the Hydrostone lining.

I'd call them and see what their customer service says before doing anything further.

So I did actually call them a little while ago, and their explanations and sentiments are the same as yours.

They basically said that the tank “could” be drained through the drain/diffuser but it would be SLOW process that wouldn’t amount to removal of sediment, just the water in the tank. They recommended if I “really wanted to, and was really worried about minerals/sediment” I could replace the heating elements with new ones and drain that way also as you mentioned.
However he also basically said:

“If there is nothing really wrong with the unit and it’s working well, why bother? Our water heaters are designed to work for many years and never have to drain them. Or replace anything And yours is only from 2010 so it’s still not very old.”

LOL. I wasn’t expecting that. 14 years seemed like a decent length of time to me. So I guess just keep running it and hopefully it lasts a while longer….

 

[sarg]

Suggestion :
Drain the tank and remove / replace the bottom element. Get some auto heater hose ( 2 feet ) and it will fit in the end of a wet vac. Clean out the sediment.
I do this every six months with ours. ( crappy well water.. lots of sediment ... sometimes up to the bottom element )
And from experience if you have any signifacant sediment in the heater ...... trying to flush it out throught a drain port ... especially the factory drains .... is pretty much a waste of time. Even with the special "3/4 ball valve drain made for flushing" ...... it's like peeing in a fan. Ya just get wet.

 

[Jeffress77]

Suggestion :
Drain the tank and remove / replace the bottom element. Get some auto heater hose ( 2 feet ) and it will fit in the end of a wet vac. Clean out the sediment.
I do this every six months with ours. ( crappy well water.. lots of sediment ... sometimes up to the bottom element )
And from experience if you have any signifacant sediment in the heater ...... trying to flush it out throught a drain port ... especially the factory drains .... is pretty much a waste of time. Even with the special "3/4 ball valve drain made for flushing" ...... it's like peeing in a fan. Ya just get wet.

View attachment 45590

I’ll have to do a little research on how to remove/replace the element in this. That’s something I haven’t done before.

 

[MicEd69]

I’ll have to do a little research on how to remove/replace the element in this. That’s something I haven’t done before.

You obviously cannot use the different drain valve sarg shows. And removing a working heating element just to remove sediment when you have a water heater functioning well, which is what I understand based on your comments, doesn't seem logical to me. You've not indicated the quality of your water. But if your water heater is 14 years old and it is currently providing you hot water without any issues, I'm thinking I would leave well enough alone if I was you.

 

[Twowaxhack]

So I did actually call them a little while ago, and their explanations and sentiments are the same as yours.

They basically said that the tank “could” be drained through the drain/diffuser but it would be SLOW process that wouldn’t amount to removal of sediment, just the water in the tank. They recommended if I “really wanted to, and was really worried about minerals/sediment” I could replace the heating elements with new ones and drain that way also as you mentioned.
However he also basically said:

“If there is nothing really wrong with the unit and it’s working well, why bother? Our water heaters are designed to work for many years and never have to drain them. Or replace anything And yours is only from 2010 so it’s still not very old.”

LOL. I wasn’t expecting that. 14 years seemed like a decent length of time to me. So I guess just keep running it and hopefully it lasts a while longer….

Does your heater have the 4” optional hand hole cleanout ?

 

[Jeffress77]

You obviously cannot use the different drain valve sarg shows. And removing a working heating element just to remove sediment when you have a water heater functioning well, which is what I understand based on your comments, doesn't seem logical to me. You've not indicated the quality of your water. But if your water heater is 14 years old and it is currently providing you hot water without any issues, I'm thinking I would leave well enough alone if I was you.

Yes I suppose I meant to say “if I began having issues”

 

[Jeffress77]

Does your heater have the 4” optional hand hole cleanout ?

No it does not.