Draining Water Heaters: Is it Necessary?

LESLIE: Joanne in California has a question about a water heater. What can we do for you, Joanne?

JOANNE: Well, I’d like to know if you’re supposed to drain your water heaters?

TOM: Not necessarily, unless you have particularly hard water. Sometimes if you get mineral deposits that build up in the bottom of the water heater, they can actually act as an insulator and it will cost you a little bit more in your energy dollars to actually heat the water, Joanne. But unless you sense that that’s the kind of water that you have in the house …

JOANNE: We do. We have hard water.

TOM: Oh, you do? OK. Well, in that case, you know, draining a bit of water out once in a while is not a bad idea but you also might want to think about installing a water softener. We have, actually, a sponsor that makes one called EasyWater that works very well because you don’t need to be a plumber to install it. It basically will take the charge out of the hard water so that it doesn’t stick to each other anymore; doesn’t clog up your systems. So you might want to take a look at EasyWater.com.