Dear Joe. If your water heater is more than say.. 10 yrs old, draining and refilling may cause a lot of water deposits and or calcium build up to be distributed into your pluming system when you "recharge" your heater. That just means that you will get "chunky stuff in your faucets and shower valves/heads. nothing you cant fix, but can be a pest. locate the shut off valve for your water heater. turn it off. DO NOT DRAIN YET. locate your water heaters breaker on the panel, and flip it off. your water heater may have a seperate electric disconnect, if so, its not necessary to flip off at panel, just remove the breaker in the disconnect box. now that electricity is off, hook a hose to the "spigot thingy" at the bottom of the water heater. open that spigot thingy (called a boiler drain) and then open a hot side of a faucet inside to allow air to enter and water to drain.after all water has come out, open the water valve and allow some water to flow through the now empty water heater, this will "flush out" the heater as much as is possible to do so. flsuh out till water runs clear.. shut off the water, (replace elements at this step) take off the hose, shut off boiler drain, fill with water completly BEFORE YOU TURN ON THE ELECTRICITY MAKE SURE YOU HAVE TOTALLY FILLED THE HEATER WITH WATER AND REMOVED ALL THE AIR BY LETTING A FAUCET STAY ON UNITL IT STOPS POPPING hot side of course.(take out areator if possible) when all that is done, turn on electricity. IF you decide to "test" the elements by turning on electricity, you will wreck them unless they are surrounded in a tank that is totally full of water
john the plumber, March 2008
