De-winterizing - do I need to fill HW tank after draining?

[Double J]

This is probably a dumb question, but I drained my hot water heater while winterizing and was wondering if there is anything special I need to do with it when de-winterizing given it is empty. Or do I not need to do anything but plug into the city water and it will fill itself?

Just wanted to double check.

Thanks all!

[Dennis C]

It will fill up when you connect to city water, assuming your winterizing valves weren’t closed.

[Double J]

Thanks! All I did was just drain it so valves are open.

[jeffmc306]

Double J, there's one thing you might want to do before putting the plug back in and refilling the tank.

Newer tank water heaters have what's called a mixing valve that has a screen on the tank side. It's purpose is to take very hot water from the tank and mix it with cold water so it doesn't burn you.

The walls of the tank will collect deposits that can plug the screen on the valve. Dometic recommends flushing the tank annually so now's the perfect time. Camco makes a water heater tank flushing wand that you insert in the drain and spray the inside.

I noticed low flow of hot water and removed the valve. The screen was full of junk. I ordered a new valve, flushed the tank twice before installing it. Now we've got full hot flow again. I cleaned the old valve with CLR and will keep it as a spare.

A friend on the forum pulls his drain plug after each trip and flushes. Can't hurt to keep from replacing the valve. It' part of preventive maintenance.

Good luck!

[uncle_bob]

Hi

As part of a "normal" winterizing process, you drain the hot water and then set the valves. After that you do the blow out or antifreeze.

If you did not do the valves and did not use antifreeze you may have damage elsewhere in the system. If you did not do the valves and *did* do antifreeze, you will spend a lot of time filling and flushing the hot water tank.

Bob

[jcanavera]

As part of the dewinterizing process I flush the system with fresh city water. Once done I open up the bypass valves and allow the tank to fill. I open the hot water side of the various faucets and allow water to flow through. Once that is done and the system is pressurized I check all the areas that have access to the water piping, and drain lines to verify we don't have any leakage. At that point I open gas valves and make sure all the gas appliances light and operate. Fridge, furnace and water heater. Then I flip the water heater and fridge over to electric and confirm that the systems work on that side. I continue to let the water heater completely heat up to verify that the drain plug is tight. I also sanitize the fresh water heater tank and verify that the water pump operates. I also fire up the A/C unit and verify it runs in the heat pump mode and cools.

Bottom line the point is to check all systems prior to going out on that first trip. Not filling the hot water heater and checking that it operates can leave you high and dry if you depend on filling it only when you get to your first destination.

Jack

[airmaine]

Great comments and important information. You can get frustrated easily when the hot water tank heats up but have no hot water from the taps. Solution in most cases is to clean the screen on the mixing valve, especially if you have well water, as i do. In the spring as the ground thaws and shifts, more sediment is likely to get into the well (bits of shale or other rock fragments) and the picture in one of the responses tells the story well. And I also agree that using that simple Camco wand to flush out the tank is an excellent idea.

[CruizinDux]

I don’t utilize the kit charcoal filter as we cook/dry with bottled water. However after a silty FW refill at a so cal beach CG on our maiden, I utilize the camco filters for both CW and tank refills. I pulled the mixing valve once and it was clean. I also use the wand to flush the HW tank when winterizing, summerizing ,and OTR when i think of it. For me, the faucet screen indicator is the vanity but with the camco diligence, it rarely clogs.