Charlie: Paul from Cinco has written to us. After taking a shower he says, “I hear popping noises likely from my water heater. It was replaced back in ’06 and it’s located in the attic and I wanted to drain the water heater, but I can’t find a place to drain it. There’s not conventional drain in the attic, obviously the closest one’s 50 feet away.” So he wants your suggestion. How does he do that?
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Tom: Don’t. He said 2006.
Charlie: Yeah.
Tom: 16, 17, it’s 12 years old. You can’t drain it. It’s got so much stuff in there so just let it go. When it quits working, call Abacus Plumbing like we just talk about.
Charlie: And you get free disposal.
Tom: You’ll get that too. It’s just too late. So don’t do it. You’ll regret the minute you try to start.
Charlie: For sake of conversation here on this with the water heater, how often should you drain it? Should you drain it?
Tom: I’ve never drained mine. I have a water softener. It’s 22 years old. It doesn’t make any popping noises. Now that I’ve said that, if you don’t have a water softener and you were gonna drain it, you start the first three months and you do it every three to four months with our hard water here ’cause our water is so hard. If you don’t keep up with it from day one it’s not worth doing at all.
Charlie: What I’m hearing you say is don’t bother. Get a water softener. That’s what I’m really hearing you say.
Tom: Yeah, or just get a new water heater every ten to thirteen years is …
Charlie: In that window.
Tom: Yeah, in that window and right now is a perfect time at Abacus Plumbing, just throwing that out there.
Charlie: It’s true actually. Just to let you know, purely by chance that question just came up.
Tom: But no, remember, popping doesn’t make it not work. It’s okay, it’s just annoying. All that noise it makes.