Hey all,
I have a tank water heater and am thinking maybe it's a good idea to flush it since I haven't done so since moving in (in 2021). The unit is a Bradford White Eco Defender with Hydrojet technology from 2014. There's not much clearance in terms of swapping the anode rod out so am hesitant about doing it (on top of never having actually swapped out an anode rod before). I know they sell the rods that are split into flexible portions but not sure what size I would need and don't want to get into a situation where I end up starting the process and get stuck halfway through.
That said, I'm wondering if it wouldn't hurt just to do a flush for the time being at least to inspect and see how much sediment gets flushed out?
Is this a bad idea? I'm not sure how much, if any, maintenance was done on this unit by the previous owners. If not, can flushing a unit that potentially has never been flushed before result in catastrophic failure (e.g. something gets plugged up or stuck and now the unit has to be replaced, etc)? I'm just wondering if this is one of those types of things where it's generally "if it ain't broke don't fix it" ? I've just heard/read multiple things about how it's good to do a flush of the system every now and then but just want to make sure before I start going down a potential rabbit hole haha.
And another side question that has come up is if it's worthwhile to go through the trouble and extra costs of replacing with a tankless water heater. I actually got some quotes on doing something like this before and I was told that it would require new PVC venting to be installed because the existing venting isn't fitted appropriately and adequately to handle a tankless install. They'd have to run a length of PVC horizontally across and put one or two holes in the side of the house (through stucco) to provision proper venting for a tankless system... converting to tankless was *significantly* more than just doing a 1:1 tank swap (I think the tank swap would be somewhere between $1500-2000 on the low end and converting to tankless was around $4200 at the time I got the quotes, which was approx a year ago)
I have a tank water heater and am thinking maybe it's a good idea to flush it since I haven't done so since moving in (in 2021). The unit is a Bradford White Eco Defender with Hydrojet technology from 2014. There's not much clearance in terms of swapping the anode rod out so am hesitant about doing it (on top of never having actually swapped out an anode rod before). I know they sell the rods that are split into flexible portions but not sure what size I would need and don't want to get into a situation where I end up starting the process and get stuck halfway through.
That said, I'm wondering if it wouldn't hurt just to do a flush for the time being at least to inspect and see how much sediment gets flushed out?
Is this a bad idea? I'm not sure how much, if any, maintenance was done on this unit by the previous owners. If not, can flushing a unit that potentially has never been flushed before result in catastrophic failure (e.g. something gets plugged up or stuck and now the unit has to be replaced, etc)? I'm just wondering if this is one of those types of things where it's generally "if it ain't broke don't fix it" ? I've just heard/read multiple things about how it's good to do a flush of the system every now and then but just want to make sure before I start going down a potential rabbit hole haha.
And another side question that has come up is if it's worthwhile to go through the trouble and extra costs of replacing with a tankless water heater. I actually got some quotes on doing something like this before and I was told that it would require new PVC venting to be installed because the existing venting isn't fitted appropriately and adequately to handle a tankless install. They'd have to run a length of PVC horizontally across and put one or two holes in the side of the house (through stucco) to provision proper venting for a tankless system... converting to tankless was *significantly* more than just doing a 1:1 tank swap (I think the tank swap would be somewhere between $1500-2000 on the low end and converting to tankless was around $4200 at the time I got the quotes, which was approx a year ago)
Statistics: Posted by jplee3 — Mon Sep 16, 2024 2:00 pm — Replies 20 — Views 639