water heater drain mod
Visited my son this past weekend and he was watching me fight with the water heater drain plug. He is a mechanical engineer and always tinkering with something... so he said "DON'T have to do that ...
Forum Discussion
coolmom42 wrote:mobeewan wrote:
She said her son was a mechanical engineer so he should very well knowledgeable about dissimilar metals. As long as the valve has a plastic or brass body she is ok. Steel or stainless would be a huge problem since there would be way more galvanic reactivity. Aluminum and brass are way lower reactivity. Even a plastic valve that could take the heat would be fine.
I did similar with an Atwood WH. Replaced the plug with a brass nipple and brass ball valve. Never had any problem. I could unscrew them if I needed to flush the tank.
I screwed the nipple in and screwed the valve onto the nipple. I had to remove the valve handle for clearance so I could turn the valve to tighten everything. Kept the valve handle in the silverware drawer so I didn't loose it and could find it when needed. I even had about a foot of clear tubing with a plastic hose barb i could thread into the ball valve I kept inside the water heater access door to let the WH drain onto the ground instead of running down the inside of the door.
LOL I have a M.S. in Chemistry and would never put 2 dissimilar metals together without lots of teflon tape.
We flushed the tank thoroughly before putting this fitting in so it's good for a while.
I don't mind taking this out for an annual flush but this makes for a really fast way to drain, which I expect to do 3-4 times a year given my location and travel plans.
A lot of people mistakenly think that teflon tape isolates dissimilar metals from touching each other when used in pipe joints. It is completely crushed between the threads to the point of metal to metal contact and only filling in the voids between the threads so that water doesn't leak from the joint.
