hkingkong

How do I de-lime gas water heater? I heard there is "mag erad". But how do I use it? Where do I pour it in?

My >10 year old 40G gas water heater is getting so loud my condo neighbors are complaining. I am pretty sure it is the minerals inside. I partially drain it every couple months but the noise will come back. Today I did a >90% drain but the drain is getting clogged by the mineral it was going very slow.


Thanks in advance.

glennjanie

Welcome H King Kong:
There is not a good way to de-lime the water heater. Whatever you put in there goes into your drinking water supply; they are conneceted.
You might try a drain-down and turn the water supply on intermittently to wash the scale out. Most of the scale is crusted up in there though and won't come out. The only fix is a new water heater, 10 years is the low-average life of it.
A whole house water filter might preserve the new one longer but you just have an extra high mineral content there and it will always be a problem.
Glenn

hkingkong

thanks. i think it is time for a new one.

majakdragon

Water heaters should be flushed out at least once a year. The drain valve is not at the very bottom of the tank so you need to use the cold water inlet valve to get the water moving off the bottom of the tank. The dip tube takes the clod water to the bottom of the tank so opening the water supply valve while flushing helps a lot. I alway drain and flush a gas heater once a year. When there is lots of water left in the tank (from just a quick flushing) the inlet pressure is not as great on the tank bottom as when the tank is emptied so more build-up will remain.

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