I’m no expert and I'm not accountable for loss of life, limb or property. That said we do this every year.
• Shut off your water main. It’s probably within 2 feet of your cold water intake tank.
• Shut off the power to your hot water heater at the switch box.
You MUST do these two things before thinking about anything else. When I think "water and electric" I think turn it off.
• Go to the kitchen sink and open the hot water tap -- this will create a vacuum that will suck out water when you’re ready. You can use a closer sink tap. Mine is the kitchen.
• Get enough length of garden hose to attach to your hot water heater and run well-outside. Make certain that you place the exiting end in a good place to do that. Don’t dump tens of gallons of water to run right back inside. Also, it'll be hot coming out (unless you take steps to prevent that and you don’t want to bother) so make sure you’re not going to kill anything by dumping hot water on it.
• Additionally/ optionally: if you don't wish to wait for over an hour for it to drain or if your exit area would dump the
water “uphill,” buy a pump to push the water out quicker and with more force to pour out in an acceptable area. We don’t use a pump but I think I'd prefer it just for brevity since we do this every year.• Attach the garden hose to your hot water heater securely at the coupler at the bottom. When you’re ready to go (remember no electric and no water on), grab the part of the coupling closest to the hot water heater and open it. Have a friend make sure the water is coming out (and making sure it’s not drowning anything or coming back into the house).
• If something isn’t working the way you like, shut it off at the coupler -- don’t unhook the hose until you do so. I know you know that but you’d be surprised what steps you forget when thinking, “Ach, my prize roses!”
• Allow to drain completely.
• Remove the pressure-hatch to get into the bottom of your tank. It will have an outside cover, some insulation and then the real deal. It’s going to be held (probably) with a nut and bolt. You may prefer to use a ratcheting wrench over a normal one (it's hard enough). When it’s loosened, don’t be surprised when it drops backward into the tank. It should be an oval and you can remove completely by angling it out.
• Now you’re in the bottom of the tank. You’ll want a friend holding a light source and running for tools.
• Assess: see what nonsense is in there. For us, it’s several inches of lime scale that can be wet-vacuumed out. For those with rust, you may be able to sludge it out. Try to get out all that you can there. Use old towels for any splashes or drops. The wet vac does an amazing job for us. You may want to flush it in some other way but this is our way.
• After you’ve removed the bulk of whatever you can, an additional step we occasionally do is using an entire bottle of "lime-away" ("CLR" is another brand) to further clean the bottom of the tank. Squirt it in there and of COURSE be careful of your eyes, breathing and skin. Let it work for a bit and if you like, use a wire brush to scrub anything you can loosen further and wet vac out.
• Finished cleaning? Make sure the coupler next to the tank is OFF -- you don’t want the water to come out yet.
• Close up the pressure “access” hatch you used to reach inside the tank. Make sure it is WELL-SEALED. If not, you’ll have water spewing out it in a moment and there'll be gallons of water all over before you can say, "Turn off the water, Schmitty!"
• Shut off the kitchen sink tap.
• When you’re sure it’s all closed up and tight, have a friend turn on the water main. Water should come very quickly into the hot water tank (still no electric since you’re working right there on it -- be safe).
• If water starts spewing out, have them shut down the main and start cleaning up. It happens.
• Water didn't spew out? Good on you! Have them shut off the water main when you feel there's enough water in there to rinse out the bottom of any chemicals you used or sludge you loosened and couldn't get out with the wet vac.
• Open the kitchen sink tap.
• Open the coupler so the water that just filled it rinses out through your trusty garden hose as you did earlier (if you used a pump, use it again).
Again, keep in mind that you don’t want to poison yourself with any chemical product. Flush well. One option would be to let the whole tank fill -- that would definitely give it a good flush but you may prefer to let it only fill half a tank to conserve on water. Use your own discretion.
• When you feel it is flushed, shut down the coupler at the hot water tank and remove the garden hose. I suggest doing this with an empty tank although it shouldn't matter.
• Turn on the water main.
• Close the kitchen sink tap when it starts gurgling.
• Turn back on the power at the switch box.
• Let the hot water heater warm. If you used chemicals, you may be paranoid and draw some of the heated water up into the tub and sniff it to make sure you smell no more chemicals. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean you didn't almost poison yourself.
Now, if you were changing the elements, you'd have to drain the tank first. That's another story but basically it all drains and fills the same with the extra steps of removing old elements and installing new ones. My only tip on them is keeping the board the new one came on so you never pick out the wrong one. Our heater uses two elements and we always keep two on hand "just in case." We live far away from shops so that may not be necessary for you. It's a thought.
Any corrections or additional info you'd like to make? Leave a comment, please. : )
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