# 200 gallon electric water heater



## 422 plumber (Jul 31, 2008)

This heater probably cost 15 or 20 grand. The water softener quit working and the water is really hard. I pulled the elements, and had two holes that I could shop-vac thru. The vac hose was too big to go thru the hole, so I used a piece of heater hose as an extension. What a nightmare. The drain is at the bottom of the tank then it 90's out the side, so I couldn't get any scale to drain thru it. It took 4 hours to drain the tank, and I have spent 9 hours shop vaccing it. The pic on the right is about three 5 gallon buckets worth.


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## Protech (Sep 22, 2008)

9 hours? I would have just slid some 3/4" pex into an element hole and hooked it up to my 16 gallon shop vac.


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## 422 plumber (Jul 31, 2008)

Protech said:


> 9 hours? I would have just slid some 3/4" pex into an element hole and hooked it up to my 16 gallon shop vac.


Which is what I did, except using bigger hose. The scale kept clogging up the tip of the hose. I would have to pull the hose out and clean the tip and then stick it back in. Also, I was doing this blind, the holes are about 18" off the floor. I could only lean in and look while I was vaccing for short spurts, the kneeling and leaning kills my back and knees.


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## TheMaster (Jun 12, 2009)

No handhole cleanout?


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## Master Mark (Aug 14, 2009)

*Thats Fun , Fun, Fun,......*

That is what I run into all the time with normal
Bradford electric heaters in my area.....

usually the lime is knee deep and hard as a rock
 in the heater and their no drain anywhere in the 
middle of the slab home where it is located.


I just tell them its not worth their time for me to be there
all day long on a 8 year old heater....


in your situation they probably would let you fool with 
it for 2 weeks if necessary:laughing::laughing:..

stick it to them good....


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## 422 plumber (Jul 31, 2008)

TheMaster said:


> No handhole cleanout?


No,
if there was, I could have done the job in about an hour.


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