brown hot water after new element installed (???)

[snowdog]

I just had a faulty element replaced in my 2 year old water heater. Hopefully this fixes the problem I posted about in another thread (not enough hot water) - seems like it should, the other one did test as bad resistance-wise which is why they replaced it.

My issue now is - I am getting dirty brown water out of all my faucets if i set them to hot. Cold is OK. The technician says that from draining/refilling the hot water heater it must have stirred up some sediment in the tank.

I can't pin him down on the best way to clear this up though - should I let the tank sit as idle as possible for as long as possible, or should I run hot water continuously until this clears up??? He's mentioned doing either but it seems like he doesn't have a definitive answer ("you can try just letting it sit"..."you can try running the water for awhile" etc).

As it stands right now, I cannot use the hot water for anything (cooking, cleaning, showering, etc) because it is so dirty. And I'd like to get this back to normal as quickly as possible. What do you think is the best way? I've never seen anything like this before either with this tank or my old one.

[SlowCoder]

Check this out ... Hot water is brown! Help!

This subject was an interesting one to me, and sounds like something I might benefit from doing also.
For clarification from the pros on this board, it sounds like I just hook a hose to the heater drain and open it up until the water is clear? No need to turn off the water at the main, or turn off the heater, correct?

[snowdog]

Oh crap. Thanks for that thread. Looks like I have my work cut out. This is not going to clear up by itself I'm afraid.

My big problem is that I have NO DRAIN on the floor near the hot water heater for me to drain it into. In fact the only drain down here in my finished basement is the one 8 feet up in the air that my washer is connected to. In order to drain my tank they had to use a pump (which of course I do not have myself). I do have a pump that can be powered by a drill which I bought in case of emergencies so I will try that although I suspect it is a piece of crap and will not work.

Just hooking up a short hose to my water heater now and draining out a bucket of water it is very dark brown. Sheesh. I guess I have to try to do this "flushing thing". Gotta run out now to a hardware store first to buy a shorter length of hose than my garden hose to connect to my washer drain (I only have one short hose about 6 feet then a long like 25 foot regular hose)....I am pissed that as part of the $300-400 I just paid for this service to change one element that they did not think to take care of all this in one shot.

[SlowCoder]

If you've got a plastic storage bin you could probably use that to flush the water into it with your 6' hose, as it apparently only takes a few gallons of water to flush.

(For those of you waiting to pounce, notice I said "6 foot", not "6 inches" )

[snowdog]

Right you are Slowcoder! I just came back to this thread to report on what I've been up to and see your post, we are on the same wavelength - I have had some success.

My experiences for taking water out of a hot water heater have all been of the DRAINING type (where you are emptying the tank and cutting off the intake valve) and for my situation with that (having the nearest drain 12 feet away and 8 feet up in the air) is that we needed a pump, because the rate that the water drains out of the bottom of the tank just ain't enough to push it along a hose that distance etc. Emptying seems to take forever and goes at a trickle.

However since this is different - this is leaving the intake fully open and trying to FLUSH out crap in the tank itself - I decided to try my small washer hose into a bucket and see what that looks like. And with this arrangement, opening the drainage at the bottom of the tank, man I get some serious pressure. I could easily flush this out a long hose connected up to my washer drain without having to use a pump (but I don't have a good longer hose which is another story).

Anyway - what I have been doing the past hour or so is flushing out water at varying pressures into a bucket using my short hose and that is getting out A LOT of crap!!! What started out as dark brown colored water with huge chunks of sediment like I was washing my feet off at the beach, is now just cloudy (after about 20 trips with a 2 gallon bucket up my steps to the nearest sink).

My faucets upstairs look a lot better as well - not dark brown like before but are on the cloudy side.

I want to try flushing out a lot more but without the bucket shlep routine and am going to try to get something about 12 feet long which is all I need to connect me to my washer drain....

[HayZee518]

since there's no problem in your cold water line - shut off your heater breaker open the hot water faucets and let er run. remove the aerator from your faucets as these may plug up after a while. when the water runs clear replace the aerators shut off the faucets and turn on the breaker and let the water heat up. there may be some brownish stuff later but it should clear up very soon.

[snowdog]

Thanks Hayzee, I'll do that too. Thankfully I did know enough to turn my heater circuit breaker off through all this flushing but that is GREAT that you mentioned that in case anyone else is reading this!

I am back from the hardware store and am going to try some more power flushing from the bottom of my heater to the washer drain, then I will flush out from all my faucets to get those cleaned out too (taking out the aerators, another good tip)!!

Now that I know about this stuff I may flush out my heater every couple months to hopefully prevent some of this stuff building up the way it has been.

Fingers crossed after this I can get back to normal (hot water and no muddy water blues).

[snowdog]

Success! Using the longer hose to the washer drain, varying the output from slow/fast a couple times, and letting it really flow, did the trick.

Checking into a bucket I don't get any more sediment in the bottom of the bucket, and blasting the faucets for a bit things look clear instead of like coffee. Whew. Guess my water bill will be a bit higher next month. Good thing I don't have to do this with my car's gas tank!

I never knew about any of this stuff as far as how this crap builds up so much and can get stirred up like this if you have to drain & refill your tank. What a nightmare of a day.

Thanks everybody.

[SlowCoder]

I never knew about any of this stuff as far as how this crap builds up so much and can get stirred up like this if you have to drain & refill your tank. What a nightmare of a day.

I knew sediment builds up, and I'm actually surprised it doesn't clog your p-traps after a time. Just take the lid off your toilet and see the junk that's built up.

[HayZee518]

anytime you drain ANY hot water heater OPEN THE BREAKER and PUT THE GAS VALVE TO PILOT [if its a standing pilot.