Tips to Maintaining Electricity Water Heater

If you are a lucky owner of an electric water heater then here are very detailed instructions on how to perform maintenance to your electric water heater. Electric water heater maintenance can be a very dangerous thing if you do not follow the safety procedures that you will find in your water heater manual. If you do not have your manual, there are some general tips listed below. You can also see if you can find a copy of your manual online.

The first thing you will want to do when performing electric water heater maintenance is turn off the power at the breaker box. On the inside of the door of your breaker box you should find a diagram showing you which breaker controls your electric water heater. If it is not marked you should get in touch with an electrician to help you with this. It is a smart idea to make sure that all of your breakers are labeled.

After you have turned off the breaker to the electric water heater, you will then want to shut off the feed line valve going into your electric hot water heater. After you have closed the feed line water valve you will want to hook up your hose to the drain valve. The drain valve should be located near the thermostat; there should also be a picture of where it is at in your manual under electric water heater maintenance.

Before you open the drain valve that the hose is hooked up to, you need to turn on one of your faucets inside the house. You will want to turn on the hot water faucet. This will stop the vacuum effect while you are draining your electric hot water heater. You will also want to make sure that the open end of the hose connected to the hot water heater is outside and is able to drain somewhere that will not be damaged by hot water. The driveway or next to a sidewalk will work well.

Now you can open the valve that the hose is connected to so that the hot water can drain out. It is a good idea to open the valve slowly so that you can make sure that the hose connected to the valve is not going to leak. If it does leak, close the valve and retighten the hose. If the hose is not leaking, you are ready to drain the tank. Open the valve all of the way and watch the open end of the hose until it stops draining.

After the tank is empty, leave the hose hooked up and turn the feed line to the water tank bank on. This will help remove any debris that is left in the water heater tank. This is a step that is looked over with most people do their own electric water heater maintenance. Wait until the water coming out of the open end of the hose is clear and then shut the valve off to the feed line.

At this point you can also close the drain valve that the hose is hooked up to. Also, you may now remove the hose that is connected to the drain valve. It is a good idea to walk the hose out so that you drain all of the excess water out of the hose. Also, do not forget to close the hot water faucet that you had open to prevent the vacuum effect.

It is very important that your tank is full before you turn the power back on to it. With electric water heaters, the elements can blow if you turn it on without the tank being full. This is a safe precaution to follow with electric water heater maintenance. Not all electric water heater elements will blow, but it is better to be safe then sorry.

The last step to electric water heater maintenance is to test the pressure release valve. It is a good idea to read in the manual and follow the instructions in the manual for doing this. If you do not have the manual to follow for your electric water heater maintenance, see if you can find it online.

The tank should be turned back on at the breaker after the electric water heater has filled with water. You will have to wait until the heat of the water has been brought back up and the water heater is running as it was before the maintenance, actually better now that you have done your electric water heater maintenance.

Once the water heater temperature is back to normal, you need to test the pressure relief valve. Make sure that you follow the manufacture’s instructions. There should be a tagged located near the pressure relief valve on your water heater. If there is not, check in your manual that came from the manufacture.

That is the end of the tutorial and electric water heater maintenance. If you follow the directions and most importantly do not skip over the safety procedures, your hot water heater will be running like it is brand new. After you have completed your electric water heater maintenance make sure that you pick up all of the tools that you may have used and clean the area of any water that you may have spilled.