Water heater sitting unused for 20 months

[ffffeeee]

House sitting vacant for 20 months and hot water not being used and need recommendations.

I'm not a do-it-yourselfer. I just want to know what I can hire a plumber to do.

I imagine the water in the tank contains various pathogens by now? I imagine water heater needs to be replaced? Is there a way to drain it out to a drain pipe instead of running a faucet in the house to drain it?

 

[Terry]

There are plenty of vacation homes with water heaters that are left for long periods of time.
The bottom of the water heater has a drain connection that takes a garden hose. You can use that to drain it and refresh it with new water.
Also running the hot taps works pretty well if you want to change out the water in it.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Jadnashua]

I'd consider running the thing for at least a day or two at the highest temperature the thermostat will allow. That should essentially cook anything inside, and then I'd run most of it out. It should be fine.

 

[WorthFlorida]

If you drain the tank and it is electric, be sure the power remains off so you do not melt the heating elements. If it is gas do not relight it until the tank is drained and refilled and water is flowing out of the faucets.

 

[ffffeeee]

I'd consider running the thing for at least a day or two at the highest temperature the thermostat will allow. That should essentially cook anything inside, and then I'd run most of it out. It should be fine.

Interesting idea. However, I don't live at the property and it isn't close by to where I live. If I were to do this, I'd prefer to be on site to monitor the situation for the duration. So that option doesn't work well for me.

 

[ffffeeee]

If you drain the tank and it is electric, be sure the power remains off so you do not melt the heating elements. If it is gas do not relight it until the tank is drained and refilled and water is flowing out of the faucets.

Thanks for this info. It is indeed a gas heater. Hopefully whatever plumber I get will know not to relight the heater until refilled.

 

[ffffeeee]

There are plenty of vacation homes with water heaters that are left for long periods of time.
The bottom of the water heater has a drain connection that takes a garden hose. You can use that to drain it and refresh it with new water.
Also running the hot taps works pretty well if you want to change out the water in it.

Thanks. I am mostly concerned about where the initial drain out of the old water will be drained out to. Where does the other end of the garden house feed the old water to? I don't want it drained using a house faucet or just dumped into the yard outside. After the new water is in, then I could use the hot tap periodically to keep it fresh.

 

[Jadnashua]

There may be nothing going on inside the WH. As long as you drain it far enough away from the house so it doesn't back up into the basement, I would not worry about it at all.

If there's no easy place to run the drain via gravity, you can flush it out reasonably well just by shutting it off, let it cool down (most garden hoses don't like hot water), then run the hose somewhere, possibly a laundry tub, or the stand pipe for the washing machine, and then just open the drain valve and let the incoming fresh water run for awhile. The incoming fresh water will mix with what's in there, and eventually, flush out the heater. Draining it with the inlet shut will also take awhile since it's just gravity, but you'd get all of the water out without using excess. You'd still probably want to turn the water back on and let it flush under pressure a bit, so in the long run, it might be a wash. It's hard to tell when you've run the whole volume out when it is being done by incoming fresh water, though. If the discharge water eventually looks clear and doesn't smell, you've probably flushed it well enough. I'd still run the thing on high for a day or two, then turn it back to your 'normal' setting.