[MUSIC PLAYING]
All right, Ivan.
I heard that you have some questions about your water heater,
and preventative maintenance, and how we're
going to save you some money today.
A woman neighbor told me that you need to do maintenance once a year,
and I was totally clueless about it.
I understand that, and I'm going to show you a couple of tips and tricks
about what you can do to extend the life of this machine,
and how that's going to save you money.
I see that you have a gas, not an electric unit.
All right.
So if it was electric, we would be looking for the breaker,
so we can turn off the electrical power to the burner.
OK.
But it is gas, so I need you to grab that ladder,
and get it there, and turn off that gas valve.
All right.
You're just going to turn that to perpendicular with the pipe.
And that right there it's going to turn off
your gas, which is feeding your burner down on the bottom of the tank.
It's going to be your valve right over here.
You're going to close that valve for us.
And what we're going to do is we're going
to stop the supply of water that's filling the tank right now.
Let's take a look at the pressure release valve.
All right.
The pressure release valve is designed to fail before the tank does.
So right now, what's going on in here is a lot of hot water,
a lot of high temperatures, a lot of high pressure.
If it gets too high, this valve will release,
so it doesn't damage your tank.
OK?
And I see that you have an extension pipe running
down to the bottom about six inches off the ground, which
is perfect because safety first.
If this valve was up here, nice and high, and it failed,
you'd have the potential risk of being burned by scalding hot water.
So let's get a bucket.
We're going to put it underneath here, and we're going to release the valve
and distribute a couple cups of water.
Excellent.
Once you got it underneath there, you're going to come back up top
and lift that silver handle.
Just gently pull it up.
And we're going to get some water flowing.
All right.
You can let it go.
Once it stops running, we're going to know that the valve's in good shape.
If it does not stop, then we know the valve has failed,
and we will have to replace it.
It can be very simply and easily replaced by using a pipe wrench.
Once you get it out and get the new one in,
you will want to apply some Teflon tape to the threads on the new valve.
And apply that tape clockwise, so as you thread it down,
you're going to really seal up the union between the valve and the tank
to prevent any leaks in the future.
Now that we've tested our pressure release valve,
we're actually going to drain the tank and get any sediment out of it that
may have collected.
So does the tank have sediment?
Well, within the water, you have dirt, you got minerals,
and deposits that are actually going to settle down to the bottom of the tank.
And that's going to cause corrosion and rust on the inside liner of your water
heater.
So once a year, you want to hook up a garden hose
and drain that tank to get any sediment that may have collected out of there.
Perfect.
All right.
It's going to extend the life of your unit.
So let's just grab a garden hose.
Let's get it hooked up, and we're going to run it
outside to your closest drain.
And let's empty this tank out and get any sediment out of there.
All right, Ivan.
Now that we've gotten that garden hose run outside,
let's get this hose threaded onto that drain valve.
And we're to open up our pressure release valve.
Leaving this open is going to prevent a vacuum.
So this way, we get a good strong flow of water out of this system.
All right, looks clear.
Excellent.
All right, let's get back inside.
One last thing I wanted to talk about was
the anode rod, or the sacrificial rod.
Now since water contains a lot of particles, like chlorine, fluoride,
and magnesium, those particles will actually
corrode the inside of your tank.
So the sacrificial rod, the anode rod, is
made of usually aluminum or magnesium and will actually
attract those particles to it.
So it will extend the life of your tank.
But basically, it's sacrificing itself, so it will have to be replaced.
Now these rods are factory installed, so I
would recommend getting a professional plumber to come out and actually remove
it and replace it for you.
Now that we've gotten all the gunk out and performed our maintenance,
let's get the valves opened up and get it up and running.
Perfect.
All right?
First things first, we're going to start by refilling the tank with our water
flow valves.
You always want to make sure you refill your tank
before you turn on your heating element.
Otherwise, you will end up burning out your heating element.
A whole other repair.
Water valve's open.
Let's turn on that gas valve again.
All right, gas valve's open.
Let's ignite that pilot light and get some heat back in the tank.
Perfect.
So now, the average household is going to set its temperature
to 120 degrees on this water heater.
But a little energy saver tip.
Every 10 degrees you lower your temperature,
you will save 5% off on the operating cost of this water heater.
Excellent.
Saving money.
All right.
Thanks so much for coming.
No problem.
Thank you.
And thank you for shopping at Home Depot.