Posted: 10/20/2010 3:44:42 AM EDT
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Background: 4 years of well water with high iron oxide content. The water softener was recently serviced, and is now operating as it is supposed to. The cold water no longer stains things with rust like it used to.
Problem: The inside of the water heater tank is likely coated with 4 years of iron oxide buildup from the water. The water can turn the bathtub brown within a week. Solution: New water heater? Anyone have any other ideas? Is it possible to flush the water heater with an HCl solution to clean it out? Any other options besides a new water heater? |
| If the heater is only 4 years old, yo could try to flush it. I don't know how successful you'd be in removing the buildup. You could remove the anode or plug, and look inside to see if there is a buildup on the walls. There might just be an accumulation o the bottom, in which case a flush might work. The easiest but not cheapest way would be to replace the heater. I'm cheap, so I'd try the flush first and if that didn't work I'd replace the heater. |
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Turn the power off, turn water off to water heater then drain it. After it has been drained pull the lower element cover off, remove the 2 wire from the element then remove element. Take a wet/dry vac with a 2 or 3 foot piece of water hose taped to end and suck out all the calcium/lime/iron oxide. After all this replace element and wires then be sure to fill tank with water fully before you turn on power. This will save you 250-500 bucks on a water heater replacement |
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Quoted:
Turn the power off, turn water off to water heater then drain it. After it has been drained pull the lower element cover off, remove the 2 wire from the element then remove element. Take a wet/dry vac with a 2 or 3 foot piece of water hose taped to end and suck out all the calcium/lime/iron oxide. After all this replace element and wires then be sure to fill tank with water fully before you turn on power. This will save you 250-500 bucks on a water heater replacement ...assuming it's electric. |