Draining the Water Heater

Some of you may remember the soaker hose incident in Missouri where Vince drained the water heater using a soaker hose . . all the way through the downstairs family room. We laugh about it now but I wasn’t laughing that day.

This house was built in 2006 and we always change water heaters and air conditioners every 10 years, except when we lived in MO and we changed the water heater every 2 years it seemed.

We drain the water heaters once a year so this morning was the day to drain the water heater. Here, the water heater is in the master bedroom closet. Why??

Vince uses the master bedroom closet and I use a different closet. I will not show you a picture of his closet but let’s just say . . I NEVER go in there!

Before he started, he jokingly said “I have to go find a soaker hose!” Haha . . it was funny but it went downhill from there. He got the water hose connected and snaked through the dining room, through the living room out the back door. Water began flowing out the hose so I went outside and was doing some things out there. A few minutes later, I walked up and he was screaming “JUDY! I NEED HELP!”

Apparently the water wasn’t coming out of the tank as quickly as he thought it should so he was turning some other valve. He turned it too far and not expecting it, the little black plug blew out of the water heater and water was going everywhere! He has so much “stuff” in that closet and it was all wet. He had a 5 gallon bucket in there with him and it was full and he had his finger over the hole. He said “Here . . put your finger over this hole while I go dump the bucket!” In the process of him removing his finger before I could get my finger over the hole, I was soaking wet and my finger wasn’t big enough to cover the entire hole so water was still spewing everywhere. He came in with some kind of hose fitting from a faucet splitter and screwed it over the hole so that stopped the water from spraying but it wasn’t something we could use with the water heater working. We had to get the right part.

The part missing was that little black thing that looks like a screw. That’s actually the child proof over that’s over the plug.

Now . . where’s that piece that blew off? Vince said “It went over my head so it has to be somewhere back there.” There’s wood floor in the closet. Doesn’t everyone put wood floor in the room with their water heater? Good grief.

He got a step stool for me and I was trying to move everything, as much as I could and see if I could find the plug. He went and got a ladder so we were both going through selves and shelves of stuff. Why do we have 40 remotes to things we probably not longer have? Why do we have 10 large insulated metal drinking containers that have never been used? Why are there 7 large jars of salsa in the closet and every time he wants salsa, I’m digging through the pantry trying to find a jar?

He began dumping boxes of stuff on the porch, looking for that little black screw thing . . I hope he has fun picking it all up! Nope, the little plug could not be found.

We couldn’t refill the water heater til we had another plug. He called the hardware store where we bought the water heater. They didn’t have one. He called the plumbing store. They didn’t have one but they had the whole assembly he could buy and put in the water heater. He called the manufacturer and they didn’t show the plug as a replacement part. She told him he should be able to find the part locally.

Then I remembered . . when we changed the water heater, they were on sale so Vince bought two. I said “Why don’t you take the part off the water heater still in the box?” He did that so we could refill the water heater and have hot water again.

He kept saying “that part has to be in there somewhere!” I was thinking . . you could spend weeks going through all that stuff and never find it but I didn’t say anything.

Then . . I walked outside with Rita and there was the part laying in the front yard on the ground. Apparently when it fell off, it didn’t go flying over his head but dropped into the bucket under the drain hole and when the bucket got full, Vince dumped it in the yard without realizing the screw was in there.

There is a reason why we should call a plumber to do things like this!

Here’s part of what came out of the water heater. I’m sure there’s more lime build up in the closet on all the stuff and some of it was poured out in the buckets he was emptying.

I don’t think I’ll ever remind him again that it’s time to drain the water heater. It can just sit there, build up deposits and when it quits working, we can call a plumber!