How to remove hard water and scale from a water heater

This was taken with my cell phone so turn your head to the left to view it. Sorry. This is an American Standard water heater installed March 1995. There was no maintenance done on it over that period of time. The hard water scale build up in the bottom of the tank was enough to malform the bottom element to a 90 degree angle making it very difficult to remove. The biggest pain is finding a way to remove the build up. This is the idea we had. Worked pretty well although still very tedious.

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• how
• to
• water
• heater
• remove
• scale
• hard
• deposits

[mhrresearch]

The best way to clean it is vinegar it will disolve the calcium use 1 gal. at a time pour it in let it work shop vac out. Rpeat it till it all gone it takes about 3 gal. to clean it out .

[dzanovitch]

Is this process necessary? I was under the impression that leaving water in the tank (or at least turn on the cold water inlet), opening the pressure relief valve, and opening the drain will flush the sediment. 

[shawbros]

But the inside of a water heater is lined with a thin layer of glass, to keep the metal tank from rusting.

Anything hard that taps the glass lining could make a small crack in the glass, and allow water to contact the metal, and then start the tank rusting.

That way of cleaning could easily shorten the life of the water heater, and defeat the purpose of cleaning it.

[ItsVideos]

It looks exactly like a liposuction procedure. Dude, you could make big bucks doing that in Beverly Hills.

[Huffnhustle]

Your use of the pipe length is a good one and I am grateful for the tip.