Hey guys Roger Wakefield here with Texas green plumbing coming to you again with another episode
Today what can I do to maintain my water heater? We can asked that question a lot the truth is
Other than draining it every now and then and when I say draining it. I mean flushing it
You don't actually shut the water down and drain your water out
what you do is you hook up a drain hose down at the bottom you run it into a
Five-gallon bucket if you do this every couple of months from the time
It's a brand-new or even if it's in the first year or two old
You can keep the sediment out of the bottom of it, and what that'll do is it'll flush out the calcium and magnesium
that build up in the bottom of your water here that actually make your water heater less efficient and
Will make it not last near as long
So flushing it is the most important thing you can do to maintain it if you've got a water heater. That's not working
Depending on if it's gas or electric that's gonna be up to you
Water heaters can be worked on by homeowners
it's not that hard if it's electric you want to shut your power off to your water heater and
First of all I'll check your power to it. See if your breaker has tripped by any chance
Check the power to it. You should have 240 volts for an electric water heater
Then what you want to do if you do have power shut that breaker off
disconnect the power you don't have to but I like to
disconnect the power
Check your elements check your thermostats and see if they're working now
You can get online you can check, you can find different videos to teach you how to test them
But what you're trying to check is the current on your
Elements and then check your thermostat and make sure that it's working like it should
Any of those can be changed out you can get online to the brand name of your water heater
Go to specs look at your part list and you can actually order the correct parts to make these repairs yourself
gas water heaters are a little bit different gas water heaters your main parts other than the air in and the air out or
Your control valve your burner assembly and your thermal coupling
Maybe your igniter, so look in your pilot light hole on your water heater
Or pull the cover if you've gotten older
one look in there
See if your pilots working turn your control valve up see if you get that whoosh
Make sure you keep your face back because I have seen water heaters where the fire actually came outside of the burn chamber
so
Any of these parts can be changed
you may have to drain down the water heater to change out your control valve if that's the issue or
You may just be able to disconnect your burner assembly
from the control valve
Disconnect it take the four screws out to pull it out of the water heater
And you can change any parts on your water heater
there's also ways to test these parts to find out what they are your thermal coupling you can test with a voltmeter and
Your control valve you can also test with a voltmeter the burner assembly pretty much
It's a tube with a burner on the end. It's gonna get gas through it. That's what heats up the water
so
Maintaining a water heater keep your area clean
If you've got a gas water heater
And it's giving you problems check your fresh air in and check your exhaust that could be a problem
If it's not getting enough oxygen down into that burn chamber your water heaters not gonna burn right and it could have got clogged
Birds could have built a nest in there and slowly clogged it up and now it's got not getting enough air and now it's burning
Up properly so maintaining your water heater is something that you can do at home
Unless it's leaking guys you can repair a water heater now
Don't get me wrong if your water heater is over six years old
I normally don't recommend repairing it because that money that you're investing in it your water heater could start leaking
Anytime after six or eight years, and if you've invested a lot of money in it now that money's wasted
I would rather see you take that money and invest it in a new water heater one
That's higher efficient and is gonna help save you money
So that's pretty much all I can tell ya
about how to maintain your water heater
If if you don't want to flush your water heater every couple of months
At least hook a drain line up to that Valve turn it on once a year
Let that valve run out into your driveway to your street your alley
You don't want to let run into your yard because you will kill the grass
Turn it on flush it. You'd be surprised at the stuff. You'll see come out of there so anyway
That's the information I have for you today. If you like these videos please subscribe to our Channel
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We've got different information on our blog and we've got different videos on this channel
Where we get more into detail about how to actually work on this stuff yourself
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Please like us. Please follow us. Please share our information. My name is Roger Wakefield
I'm with Texas Green Plumbing and we're trying to save you money one drop at a time. Thank you and have a great day