Thanks to Roger, my trusty plumber, and the Camco hose elbow, I drained the sediment from my hot water heater for the first time today. As a new homeowner in May 2015, I thought I could forget about the water heater after I had it replaced. Then last February, I ran across a home maintenance article that said a new hot water heater should be drained every six weeks for a few months, that every six months to 1 year. Since it already been 9 months since the water heater was installed, I worried that I had damaged the hot water heater by neglecting it. Fortunately, a call to Roger solved the problem immediately. He recommended draining the hot water heater once a year, including during this early period, so I could wait until June 2016 to do it the first time (but I did it early to be safe). He gave me these instructions that were extremely easy and effective: 1. Do NOT shut off the water valves going to the hot water heater. 2. Connect a garden hose to the spout at the base of the tank, and run the other end outside where a large amount of water can drain. 3. Use a flat head screwdriver to open up the valve (90-degree turn) at the spout. 4. Let the force of the water pressure drive out the sediment for 15 minutes. 5. Close the valve at the spout using the flat head screwdriver. 6. Remove the garden hose. It was as easy as it sounds except for one detail-- the wall of the drip pan holding the water heater was high enough that the hose would have crimped over the edge. Thanks to Amazon, I found the Camco hose elbow that would give more than enough height for the hose to clear the edge of the drip pan. The Camco's connector allowed perfect positioning of the elbow vertically, and a similar connector on my Flexon 50-ft hose made the exit connection just as easy. By luck, the hose was exactly the right length to snake off my porch and reach a water drainage ditch on one side of my yard. There was zero leakage throughout the whole process, and the crystal clear water at the end showed that the flushing action was successful. I've seen quite a few variations on instructions for draining sediment, all of which were more complicated than Rogers version. Although I can't guarantee his instructions will work for everyone, they worked great for my new water heater and took MUCH less time than I anticipated.
