{"id":1274,"date":"2022-03-28T11:00:17","date_gmt":"2022-03-28T15:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.relianceplumbing.com\/blog\/?p=1274"},"modified":"2022-03-29T13:33:54","modified_gmt":"2022-03-29T17:33:54","slug":"what-need-know-about-water-heater-tank-flushes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.relianceplumbing.com\/blog\/water-heater-service\/what-need-know-about-water-heater-tank-flushes\/","title":{"rendered":"What You Need to Know About Water Heater Tank Flushes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-647\" src=\"https:\/\/www.relianceplumbing.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Water-Heater-Scaling-Should-You-Be-Concerned-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"tank water heater\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.relianceplumbing.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Water-Heater-Scaling-Should-You-Be-Concerned-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.relianceplumbing.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Water-Heater-Scaling-Should-You-Be-Concerned-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.relianceplumbing.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Water-Heater-Scaling-Should-You-Be-Concerned.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>The water heater in your house can account for around 17% of the energy used in your home each year. That makes it the appliance that consumes the most power of any single indoor appliance in the household. Unlike a gas-powered furnace, you rely on your water heater almost every day, so it\u2019s especially important to have it well taken care of. Without regular maintenance, a water heater can quickly become a huge energy drain and will wear down far faster.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The water heater tank flush is one of the key parts of regular maintenance that keeps a water heater running at higher energy efficiency and helps ensure a long service life. We\u2019ll answer some important questions about tank flushes in this post.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h3><b>Why do water heaters need tank flushes?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The water entering the tank of a water heater contains some amount of sediment in it\u2014even with the best water filtration for the house\u2014that will settle along the bottom of the tank. This layer of sediment will accumulate over time until it starts to restrict the water heater\u2019s performance and lowers efficiency. A flush removes this sediment and gives the water heater a \u201creset.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>What problems do tank flushes help avoid?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First, they prevent a significant plunge in energy efficiency from the water heater. The layer of sediment at the tank bottom makes it harder for the heating element to apply heat to the water in the tank. The sediment can also lead to the tank overheating because of reduced volume (you may notice this as a rumbling or popping sound from the tank). Regular flushing also helps stop several major repair problems and can significantly elongate the life expectancy of the water heater.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>How often does the tank need to be flushed?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For homes that don\u2019t have issues with hard water, their water heater\u2019s tank may need flushing every 2 to 3 years. However, we strongly recommend you arrange for regular maintenance for your water heater every year. During maintenance, our technicians can determine if the water heater needs to be flushed and will perform it as necessary. As long as you\u2019re scheduling maintenance each year, you\u2019ll have your water heater flushed on the right schedule.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Can I flush the water heater tank myself?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can find \u201chow-to\u201d guides for just about any household job somewhere online, and flushing a water heater tank is no exception. We advise against it\u2014this is a complex job that will require you to purchase several pieces of specialized equipment just to get it done once, and you won\u2019t even know if you\u2019ve done it right. It\u2019s much better to schedule full maintenance service for the water heater so you can have tank flushing done correctly as part of it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When it comes to <\/span><a href=\"\/service-areas\/wilmette-il-plumbing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">water heaters in Wilmette, IL<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Reliance Plumbing is the contractor to trust for complete service\u2014from new unit installation to repairs to maintenance. We work with a range of water heater types, including tankless and hybrid models.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>Reliance Plumbing Sewer &amp; Drainage, Inc. serves the Northshore and Northwest Chicagoland Area. <\/b><a href=\"\/contact\/schedule-service\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>Call us for all your water heater needs.<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We\u2019ll answer some important questions about tank flushes in this post.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[86],"tags":[163,103],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.relianceplumbing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1274"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.relianceplumbing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.relianceplumbing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.relianceplumbing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.relianceplumbing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1274"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.relianceplumbing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1276,"href":"https:\/\/www.relianceplumbing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1274\/revisions\/1276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.relianceplumbing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.relianceplumbing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.relianceplumbing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}