Electric water heater problems?

Not knowing where you live, it's difficult to say how much and what type of sediment buildup you have in the bottom of the tank. You mention elements, so we have to assume you have an electric unit, which means the sediment in the bottom of the tank could and probably has, by this time, completely covered the lower element, most likely causing it to fail. Cleaning, draining a 12 year old water heater is an effort in futility. The drain spigot is made to allow water to flow out, not sediment, meaning that the opening is too small to allow anything larger than a BB to get out of there. The most efficient way to clean as much as you can get out of a tank on an electric water heater is to remove the bottom element and use a wet/dry shop vac to suck as much sediment out of the larger hole, as you can get. I've taken up to four tanks of crud from some of the units I've cleaned over the years, none of which were that old. By this time the sediment is most likely eaten part way through the tank's sidewalls, which means not many more months or years before something starts leaking. The rotten egg smell comes from the anode rod, which is a sacrificial piece of metal inserted into the tank so that as the impurities come in with the water they have something other than the tank to work on. When it gets saturated it starts to smell like, guess what, rotten eggs. You'll need to drain the tank, remove the rod, (from the top), I believe it takes a 13/16" socket, cut off the rod with a hack saw and reinsert the plug. Then you'll have to flush the tank thoroughly to get rid of the odor. If you're going to all that trouble you may as well check the elements too, they should have between 12.3 - 12.7 ohms of resistance to function properly. You'll need a special large element wrench and ratchet to remove them.

At 12 years, the heater is nearing the end of its life. But the first thing I'd do would be to drain the tank to remove any sediment. To do this:

1. Turn OFF the power to the heater. NOTE: Failure to do this WILL cause the elements to burn out! (Same goes for a gas heater - turn the valve OFF first.)

2. Turn off the water valve at the heater inlet. or the main house valve.

3. Connect a hose to the drain fitting at the bottom of the heater. Run the other end of the hose to a floor drain.

4. Open a hot water faucet in the house.

5. Open the heater drain fitting. BE CAREFUL not to touch the water coming from the hose, as it's extremely hot and will cause burns.

6. Allow water to run from the hose until it's clear.

7. Open the heater inlet valve (or house main valve)

8. After about a minute (to allow a final "flush"), close the water heater drain valve.

9. Leave the hot water faucet open until water comes out without "spitting"

10. Turn on the power to the heater.

As for the rotten egg smell, check here information and procedures to reduce/eliminate the odor: http://www.uldrinkwell.com/drinkwell/rotten_egg_sm...

It is not an overflow, it is a safety valve for temperature/pressure relief. It is required by law to install a new one with a new heater. You usually can't reuse the pipes either, so that is why it costs so much money to install a new heater. It used to run about $150 plus the tank and labor, but that was like 30 years ago. It probably would cost about three or four times that now.

where i am from, if you smell rotten eggs in your water,it usually is salfor in your water. you might want to have your water checked. i don't think it will harm you, but you should have it checked out. most of the people i know with that smell in there water has well water.do you have well water ? i do not beleave your hot water heater has anything to do with the smell.and if your water still gets hot, its not the heating elements, you still might want to drain it and fill it up a few times.hope this info. was helpful

it could be smelling like rotten eggs due to high sulfur in the water. you might get lucky and be able to flush your heater, removing the debris. considering the age of your heater, you might be better off buying a new one. many gas companies give rebates on new energy efficient water heaters. depending on your water hardness you might want to install a water softener, extending the life of your water heater is among the many pluses of having one. flush the heater once a year and you should have no problems with debris buildup

1) Drain the water out of it. 2) Pull out water heater and place on curb. 3) Go to hardware store and buy a new one. With the symptoms you have described this is the easiest way to solve your problem.

no hook up a hose to the drain on the bottom and flush it out, then cross your fingers and hope the 12 year old valve thats never been opened closes back up

PLEASE CLICK BELOW. THIS WEBSITE WILL EXPLAIN IT ALL TO YOU. Need to replace mag-rods or nodes or take out all together. Talk to your local hardware store and they can explain it to you. Or you can purchase a "How To" book that will give you step by step instruction. Is not hard to do.

steam coming out hot water side