Hot water drain

[Pig-Smoker]

I have the hot water plug with a drain cock in it like a car radiator has , if I leave the plug in and just open the drain cock is that good enough for the winter? I prefer not to use the pink stuff in the water heater.

[wrvond]

Leaving it open is "safe". However, leaving the petcock or the entire plug out runs the risk of critters moving in to live inside your water heater tank. I always drain, then close the plug for that reason.

[Pig-Smoker]

skipnchar wrote:
Unless you have a by pass installed on your heater you will automatically fill the hot water tank when you pump antifreeze through the rest of your water lines. If you do have a bypass installed then you should always want to drain water from hot water tank before you bypass it. What you're saying does not compute.

I don't use the pink stuff in my water lines at all. I blow them out and leave the faucets open. I use the pink stuff in my sink and tub traps and in my holding tanks. I blow the water heater out also. What I was asking was , if leaving the petcock open was safe or do I need to remove the WHOLE DRAIN PLUG.

[wrvond]

My old TT had the same kind of drain petcock. It is factory installed, and works just fine. Yes, you'll want to bypass the water heater so that you don't spend money pumping 6 gallons of antifreeze into the water heater tank. Simply opening the petcock will allow enough water to drain out to avoid freeze damage. I found that opening the pressure relief valve allows the drain to work more efficiently.
I also tried to remove the "plug" that the petcock was installed in with no success. Part of the problem is that the "wings" of the petcock are wider than the mounting bolt, so the only kind of wrench you can get on it is a crescent wrench, which just doesn't have enough grip to break that thing loose.
Not to worry too much, though. My Atwood water heater was 26 years old and still working fine when I got rid of the TT, and all I ever did was drain it through the petcock.

[path1]

That's what I do.

[Old-Biscuit]

Bypass the WH
Open your drain pet-cock (something I take you have installed)
Open WH PRV and water will drain out of tank and with it bypassed nothing will go into tank if you pump pink stuff thru lines.

The drain pet-cock is a good way of drain water out of tank BUT it is a very small drain hole so any stuff in the tank will not get flushed out.
Atwood drain holes are only 1/2"....at least Suburban has a 3/4" drain hole.
I suspect you have an Atwood.....because of the drain pet-cock being installed (no anode rod) so your drain hole is only 1/4".

Occasional draining thru that little hole is OK.....just remove it a couple times a year and give that tank a good flushing. And make sure you use several wraps of teflon tape on the plug so that steel or brass plug and those aluminum threads don't become fused and those aluminum threads strip out.

[skipnchar]

Unless you have a by pass installed on your heater you will automatically fill the hot water tank when you pump antifreeze through the rest of your water lines. If you do have a bypass installed then you should always want to drain water from hot water tank before you bypass it. What you're saying does not compute.

[2oldman]

Yes, it's good enough.

[old_guy]

no, not all the water will come out plus you have mineral deposits in there that need to be flushed out or they will harden and decrease the water heating abilities.

[Trackrig]

It should be good enough. But, if you're using pink stuff and not air, won't you get some pink stuff in the tank when you put pink stuff into both the input and output lines on the hot water heater? I use the pink stuff and don't worry about some of it in the water heater.

Bill