Hello - I have an electric hot water heater that has a drain pan underneath it (to catch any water leakage) and has a drain pipe attached to discharge water. I would like to flush the water heater to remove old sediment and I would like to hook a garden hose up directly to the faucet (spigot) at the bottom of the tank, however with the drain pan underneath, I do not have enough clearance to connect the male end of the garden hose to the faucet. I have been looking for some type of flexible male connector that may fit given the tight space I have to work with but haven't come across anything that will work.
I realize the drain pan may seem like the obvious choice to use to discharge the water given that it has a discharge pipe, but I wanted to try to avoid getting any water in the drain pan that may seep under the water heater and eventually cause corrosion, the drain is about 1.5 inches higher than the bottom of the pan, so the pan would need to hold water until it reached that point.
I purchased a 90 degree elbow hose connector to make it easier to connect a hose to the spigot, do you suggest running a small hose over to the drain connected to the pan to discharge the water? I would rather run the garden hose out of the house through a window however then the hose would be elevated upward through a window and wouldn't flow out. I see there are manual siphon pumps (http://api.viglink.com/api/click?format=go&jsonp=vglnk_14357522753058&key=a8b3db45c5a4f36e59ba21e41d544c09&libId=ibkpmblv0100zhv3000DA1g6qxw2f7uwvw&subId=66&loc=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.doityourself.com%2Fforum%2Fwater-heaters%2F530456-flushing-hot-water-heater-drain-pan-no-clearance-spigot-connection.html%23post2432044&v=1&out=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.simplygoodstuff.com%2Fslide_n_pump.html&title=Flushing%20Hot%20Water%20Heater%20with%20drain%20pan%20-%20No%20clearance%20for%20spigot%20connection%20-%20DoItYourself.com%20Community%20Forums&txt=Slide%20N%20Pump%20-%20Manual%20Water%20Siphon but not sure how well it would work in this situation, or if there is a better solution...
Any recommendations on either a pump that would work well in this situation or another approach to draining the water heater would be appreciated!
I realize the drain pan may seem like the obvious choice to use to discharge the water given that it has a discharge pipe, but I wanted to try to avoid getting any water in the drain pan that may seep under the water heater and eventually cause corrosion, the drain is about 1.5 inches higher than the bottom of the pan, so the pan would need to hold water until it reached that point.
I purchased a 90 degree elbow hose connector to make it easier to connect a hose to the spigot, do you suggest running a small hose over to the drain connected to the pan to discharge the water? I would rather run the garden hose out of the house through a window however then the hose would be elevated upward through a window and wouldn't flow out. I see there are manual siphon pumps (http://api.viglink.com/api/click?format=go&jsonp=vglnk_14357522753058&key=a8b3db45c5a4f36e59ba21e41d544c09&libId=ibkpmblv0100zhv3000DA1g6qxw2f7uwvw&subId=66&loc=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.doityourself.com%2Fforum%2Fwater-heaters%2F530456-flushing-hot-water-heater-drain-pan-no-clearance-spigot-connection.html%23post2432044&v=1&out=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.simplygoodstuff.com%2Fslide_n_pump.html&title=Flushing%20Hot%20Water%20Heater%20with%20drain%20pan%20-%20No%20clearance%20for%20spigot%20connection%20-%20DoItYourself.com%20Community%20Forums&txt=Slide%20N%20Pump%20-%20Manual%20Water%20Siphon but not sure how well it would work in this situation, or if there is a better solution...
Any recommendations on either a pump that would work well in this situation or another approach to draining the water heater would be appreciated!