Do you do it? Worth the trouble?

My heater is something like 8 years old and has never been flushed. I'm concerned that flushing it at this point may result in a problem getting the drain valve to close properly. Would you do it?

I am a firm believer in it. Its arguably more important on a gas water heater than electric, but I still do it on my current electric heater. If for no other reason, once you see what comes out, you will be glad you did it.

It is on my Spring list, with smoke detector and alarm system batteries, cleaning out the dryer vent, and servicing the HVAC

You keep flushing until everything comes out of the valve, so I have never been concerned with debris...I once had to use a piece of wire to break up big pieces of scale an a neighbor's heater that had never been drained...water would barely trickle out when we opened the valve.

If you are really worked about the valve, get a hose bib cap and have that handy before you start. Should the valve drip, you can screw that on.

If its been 8 years, consider replacing the anode. Less than $50 at the big box, and it can add years of life. If you have a clearance problem above the heater, they make a segmented anode that only needs about 18" of clearance above it. You unscrew the old one...if there is anything left of it, you break it into pieces to get it out. Then you just thread the segmented one through the hole and tighten the plug on the last piece.

I would first pick up a brass water hose cap with a rubber seal before I drained it. Then if you can't get the valve to close all the way or it drips, just put the cap on it. Then you don't have to worry water leaking until you replace the valve. Or at 8 years do what I did once and just leave the cap on until such time as you replace the water heater.

Waste of time and effort flushing a water heater

If you look at the drain valve the opening is the size of #2 pencil, only real way to flush them is to put a 3/4" galvanised nipple with a full port 3/4" ball valve

I have seen numerous people who had service contracts and drained their water heaters yearly, it never made them last longer.

I believe it’s worth it.
We have hard water so I clean ours out every 6-8 months. Water heater is turning 10 years old this May.
I change both elements out at the same time as well.
I don’t know what you call the stuff that flakes off the elements but it will be level with the lower element every time I open it up. Kill the breaker that provides power to the water heater and turn main valve off that supplies water to the heater. I connect a water hose to the drain bib and let it drain to where I can open the lower element with out water coming out. I attach a 3/4 flexible hose to my shop vac with duct tape and get after it. There’s usually some flakes left in the bottom so I just turn the water on a little and it flushes out the rest of the flakes through the water hose still connected to the bib. Put in the new elements, fill the tank and then turn electricity back on.

This couldn't be further from the truth. I flush both of mine for about 30 minutes each, twice a year, with a simple electric pump and a 5 gallon bucket. The vinegar that is the cleaning agent turns a blue'ish tint every time I do the process so I know it's working. One of mine is 14 years old now and still works like new.

You flush a tank water heater with vinegar? Very odd

How do you carry 50 gallons of vinegar? Where do you buy 50 gallons of Vinegar and how much does that cost?

15 years old here and I've never flushed it.

Two gas water heaters installed when house was new 23 years ago, never flushed and both still working.

That's impressive, must have good city water there.

The plumber who replaced our old water heater told me the reason why it lasted so long (13 years) was because I made it habit to flush it once a year. And the tank wasn't leaking at the time. We replaced it because everything wore out around it. Thankfully, our water heater is in our garage which makes it easy to connect a garden hose and give the truck it's annual hot wash. Unfortunately, our water is heavy with minerals.

I will add that if you haven't opened your tank's drain valve in quite a while, the cheaper ones sometimes drip after you close them. If yours does, you can find a screw on cap with a rubber inner seal at your local Ace Hardware to remedy the problem.

The plumber that recently installed a new water heater for me said it's a waste of time, it doesn't do anything. He said he doesn't even do it to his own.

Depending on your water quality, flushing the tank may not be necessary. But, flushing it is still a good idea, if only to find out whether or not a regular flush is needed. And it would be a good idea to unscrew the anode to see how it looks.

We are on well water, which is good, but full of minerals. Our little guest house had skunky smelling water a few years back, and I needed to fix that, using chlorine bleach. To introduce the bleach, I had to remove the anode. Well, there was no remaining anode. Being a sacrificial anode, it had been completely sacrificed. And the debris from that wound up plugging the shower head. Lots of debris. So I flushed it, did the bleach treatment, flushed it a couple more times. Put in a new segmented anode and all is well since then.

So, flush it and see what you get. If nothing, that’s good.

It's automatic transmissions that I never flush, but I digress.

I also have two water heaters at the ranch on hard well water. Never flushed them either, one started leaking after 24 years. Even though the other one was still working and not leaking I went ahead replaced both of them. Those are electric.

My parents gas water heater went 25+ years on hard well water, never flushed it either. It was making some really strange noises before it died.

Off topic, but I had a BMW with about 100K miles on it. It was in the shop, so I asked them to flush the transmission. They said they didn’t normally do that. I said to do it, so they did. At 140K I was back in the shop for something and the technician said that it was interesting that I had never had any transmission work done. He said that they usually died at about 120K. I told him I had it flushed at 100K and he said that was why I had not needed work. And, of note, the BMW tranny was made by General Motors.

And, back on topic, I no longer flush water heaters if I can help it.

Agree with those that mentioned water quality, have flushed ones we have had on well water, don't recall ever needed to on city water.

scale can build up until it corrodes the heating element at worst and lowers the efficiency it seems by reducing the volumne of water around the lower element.

I always heard electrical water heaters need to drained more than gas.

Either way just replaced mine(gas) and will never drain it. Comes with the territory, imo.

I flush mine twice a year after replacing the drain valve. I did it after replacing my bottom element 3 years ago.

That modification has been on my to do list for a couple of years.

We have two in our house, both are gas. One drains without any issues and is simple/easy to do. The our other water heater looks like it has rock salt inside it every time I drain it. So that one is a PITA to drain and I end up having to use a screwdriver to unclog the tiny built in drain port (hence the reason I need to swap out the drain valve on it).

It`s really to do. You can order all the parts from Amazon.

Replacing waterheater in the morning. Went to change filter in ac and noticed water in pan. This one has lasted 5 years from local hardware store. Plumber is bringing different brand and supposed to be American made. 1300 bucks ouch.nope never flushed one.

Do you know you are suppose to drain a gallon each month? To me that is silly and waste of time, and never heard of anyone doing it.

I had the plumbers add that type of supply valve, along with flex pipe connectors when they installed our new water heater about 10 years ago. The original was piped in with solder connections. When the time comes I can more easily replace this one myself.

I had to look that up. It sounds silly and only 'Some" companies recommend it. I`ll stick to my once or twice a year. My bottom element only last 2 years when the water heater was new. After draining it at least once a year it has lasted 3.5 years now. So, I have to say that has benefited me by draining it.