Hard Water and Amateur Plumbers

August 2009 CC&R Corner by Will Bullington

Mike and Charlene French have lived in Lake Shastina for over five years and have never drained their water heater. Charlene is on our Environmental Control Committee and was mentioning that they no longer had hot water, only “tepid” water. This is where the conversation got going at our last ECC meeting in which everyone was talking about the hard water. I was telling Charlene that the minerals in our water, which is moderately “hard” such as calcium, settle in the bottom of a water heater and if not drained at least once a year, will cover the lower element. Usually this is followed by the element failing and you now have “tepid” not hot water. I told her she should drain her water heater and put in a new lower element. Mike French is a retired Park Ranger and works the summer season at Castle Crags State Park, and doesn’t have a lot of extra time during the day. This is how I got involved with appliance repair or disrepair. Charlene asks me if I knew how to do the job, and I (stupidly) said sure. She and Mike have been great friends for years and I agreed to do it for steaks and beer. I had a similar issue at my house this spring and I told the French’s to get a new drain valve (hose bib style) and a new heater element.

After work I head over the French’s and the first thing that I try to do is drain out the water heater. It’s in a closet in the laundry room and is sitting on their floor instead of raised up on a platform. So that makes the drain valve almost flush with the floor. Now you have to picture this: the water heaters made in the last 10 years have this really cheesy plastic “drain valve” that a garden hose should hook up to, you open it and the closest hot water tap, and it should drain out. So, not only is the valve cheap plastic, it is way undersized for the task, especially with all the minerals that have to come out with it. You can’t take off the valve because there is no room to put a bucket under it.

O.K. so now you are seeing the excuses lining up. We take out the valve and without opening any hot water taps, we hope to quickly put in the new valve. Not a drop. Reach in with a screw driver and see that it is packed with calcium and gook. We finally get enough of the gook out of the way and put a short pipe in and then a rubber hose that we clamped onto the pipe with a “water thief.” We do this because the new hose bib valve keeps getting clogged. We manage to fill up a 50 foot garden hose and plug it, where we have to go get another one. So, let’s refigure this, we’ll put the clean hose on, and turn on the cold water coming into the tank to increase pressure to flush out the gunk. (Oh, yea, you have to turn off the water coming into the tank and turn off the electrical to the tank, which we did do). I’m on my hands and knees listening to hear if the gunk is flowing out of the garden hose. Just as I turn my head to yell at Mike “do you see anything yet?” The pressure blows the water hose off the drain pipe (which was held on with a clamp, that I swear I tightened up). Now you have to picture 50 gallons of water and gunk trying to shoot out of a ¾ inch pipe that is level with the floor and pointing right at my knees. The gunk (which looks like oatmeal and wet frosted flakes cereal) hits my knees, launches up my chest, into my face and hair, and then shoots out sideways into the kitchen and all over the laundry room. Now, saying really filthy words at a drain pipe does not activate it to close, like a clap on clap off switch. About the time the pressure was released and the hose was put back on, the French’s had about 5 gallons of gunk (Charlene will swear it was more like 10) splattered everywhere: on the ceiling, on the hardwood floors, on the cabinets, into the clean clothes, etc. At this point Mike yells from outside “it’s flowing now!”

Mike comes back in and points out how holy things are, holy this, and holy that, etc. I am holding onto the clamped hose and apologizing as best I can through calcium in my teeth, contact lenses, etc. The end result was the tank drained; we flushed out all the minerals, and put in a new element which gave them hot water. Charlene is still finding chunks of minerals in drawers and clothes and I know she was gritting her teeth when she thanked me for the hot water.

Lessons learned: plumbers get paid a lot because the job sucks and it takes a lot of training and experience. If you build a house or put in a new hot water heater have them put up it on a raised platform, even a couple of 4” x 6” boards. Before you install it throw away the cheap plastic drain valve and put in a good ¾ inch gang valve. Flush out your hot water twice a year. Don’t ask me to help you with any plumbing problems……. P.S. the steaks were great and I haven’t taken any calcium supplements in two weeks.