Like most of the major appliances in your home, the hot water heater requires annual maintenance too. Most homes have a storage tank hot water heater that varies from ten gallons to eighty gallons or more of hot water storage capacity. The hot water heater consists of a storage tank and heating element to heat the water. These hot water heaters should be flushed once a year to remove the sediment that builds up in the bottom of them.

The sediment comes from the minerals that are in the water supply. If your water supply is city or town water, it may have fewer minerals than well water. If you do not flush the water heater, the minerals will cause corrosion of the heating elements as well as the storage tank. The heating elements are replaceable, but if the water heater rusts out the entire water heater it will have to be replaced.

View the “Flushing a Hot Water Heater” video to learn how to flush your hot water heater.

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