Water heater help needed

[Gus]

Went to flush it today as I haven’t done it in a while and it is obviously clogged with sediment. When I opened the valve it started to flow then stopped. Anyone have any ideas?

[Buck hunter332]

Sediment chucks are clogging the value sounds like. Really hard to get em out might be able to take the valve off the heater if it’s threaded and get the chucks out them valves choke down the flow quite a bit

[brokeno]

Flush it back and forth until it flows

[Cookiemonster1]

start to drain first with main water turned on and then turn off water as draining. might just not be getting air flow to drain. once drained if it as a lot of sediment you can remove the bottom element and use a wetvac with a PVC piece made to suck it all out.

[merlin]

Replace the valve with a brass nipple and ball valve, then install male hose thread on valve. When u finish flushing screw a cap on it.

[Gus]

Flush it back and forth until it flows

How would you do this? When I open the valve where the hose is connected it won’t drain. I have the water supply on.

[Gus]

start to drain first with main water turned on and then turn off water as draining. might just not be getting air flow to drain. once drained if it as a lot of sediment you can remove the bottom element and use a wetvac with a PVC piece made to suck it all out.

I have the supply on but it will not drain when I open the valve the water hose is connected to.

[bowtec8]

It’s air locked. Flip the the over flow switch open on top and it will flow. Mine did the same thing.

[4dog]

does it have a plastic drain valve ?.. if so you can take the top off of it and poke something in it to get flow...also...turn off inlet valve and unhook it that will relive airlock..might have to poke it a couple or ten times..lol..when it starts to spew at the outlet valve put that cap back on till it clogs again and repeat the unclof procedure....good luck

[4dog]

unplug heater whatever you try.

[Hoss163]

You turn water off un screw the supply lines from nipples. If it doesn’t drain in screw the drain valve poke a wire in it and watch out sediment will start flowing out get a bucket to catch water . When it starts flowing out really good put valve back in hook up hose and drain it . If it stops draining do steps 1-3 again.

[sports]

Open a hot water faucet or several and see if that releases the air lock. If it does not i used an air blower hooked up to my air compressor at a low psi setting....30psi or so and blow thru your drain hose back into the water heater until it start to drain. It took a few cycles to get it going.

[White Falcon]

Easy fix..... I use my air compressor to blow air in the drain. It will unclog it. I would be thinking about purchasing another water heater.

[macoop]

It’s probably air locked. Pull the lever on the R&R valve at the top of it and open a faucet on the hot side and it should drain. If not blow through the drain with an air hose and you should be good to go.

[texan16]

Lots of good advice.... on a side note, how often should you drain your water heaters? I have two in my house we built 15 years ago and I have never drained them.