It’s hard to imagine living in a home that doesn’t have hot water on demand. As a homeowner, you probably already know that your tankless water heater is what lets you keep hot water running through your pipes. It’s a perk of modern-day living that you likely can’t imagine living without, but it’s also an appliance whose regular maintenance can be easy to overlook.
Think about it: your tankless water heater is out of sight and often out of mind. That doesn’t mean, though, that you can avoid its regular upkeep: tankless water heaters need maintenance lest you find yourself unexpectedly rinsing your hands or taking a shower with cold water.
The plumbing installation and repair professionals at Integrity Home Solutions know that Tampa homeowners like yourself may not know about the most important ins and outs when it comes to water heater maintenance. That’s why we’ve put together this article to quickly run you through some can’t-miss tankless water heater maintenance tasks.
Read on to see how you can best care for your tankless water heater to keep it operating at peak efficiency and even prolong its lifespan!
#1: Flush Your Water Heater at Least Once a Year
Even though you may have owned your tankless water heater for some time, you may not know how often you should be cleaning it. Generally speaking, most water heater manufacturers recommend that you flush out your water heater at least once every year.
With that said, the area in which you live may have a higher-than-average amount of hard water. If that’s the case, then you’ll want to flush out your tankless water heater more than once a year. If you’re not sure what the quality of water looks like in your area, you can contact your local government officials, or – better yet – a trusted team of professional plumbers like those at Integrity Home Solutions.
At Integrity Home Solutions, we can inspect your unit to quickly help you figure out how often you need to be flushing out your heater. We can also help you decide how best to clean the outside of your tankless water heater, which we’ll cover next.
#2: Don’t Skip on Exterior Maintenance
Taking care of your tankless water heater’s exterior maintenance is a doable DIY task for most homeowners. It’s not something that demands a great deal of your time, and the supplies you need to take care of exterior maintenance are minimal.
You’ll want to tackle this task by first wiping down your water heater’s cover. It’s best to use a cleaner that’s not abrasive together with a cloth that’s clean and soft. Using these supplies will ensure that your heater remains dust-free and is protected against rust development.
We suggest that you then inspect your pipes for cracks or splits in their insulation, after which you’ll want to test your tankless water heater’s relief valve. Not sure whether your unit has a pressure relief valve? The team at Integrity Home Solutions can help you determine whether your unit comes with this feature.
#3: Descale Your Tankless Water Heater
Descaling your tankless water heater is another DIY task that many homeowners can take on themselves. The team at Integrity Home Solutions recommends that you first disconnect your unit’s electricity before working on it, after which you’ll need to find your isolation valve and make sure it’s shut.
Once that’s taken care of, you can go ahead and close your hot and cold water shut-off valves to ensure that no water is running to your water heater while you descale it. Locate your flush kit and connect its hoses to your hot and cold-water heater service valves. Grab your submersible pump, connect your cold-water hose to it, and place one end of your hose in the bucket you’re working with.
At this point, you can pour approximately four gallons of descaler that comes with your flush kit into your bucket. Finally, open your service ports and then turn on your pump. Allow your scaling solution to circulate through your unit for an hour, turn off your pump, and then throw out the rest of your descaling solution.
#4: Final Steps to Descale Your Tankless Water Heater
The final steps of cleaning your tankless water heater start with your cold-water service port. You’ll want to close this port and then open your cold water shut-off valve to get rid of any remaining descaling solution you’ve used. Once you’ve followed this step, close your cold water shut-off valve and allow any lingering water to fully drain.
It’s now time to close your hot water port; if you have a cold-water inlet filter as part of your unit, take it off as well as your hot water in-line filter. You’ll need to flush both of these in your sink to get rid of sediment.
Schedule a Tankless Water Heater Maintenance Appointment with Integrity Home Solutions
Integrity Home Solutions recommends that Tampa homeowners keep up with their tankless water heater maintenance tasks at least once per year. If the area in which you’ve installed your unit collects a lot of dust, we suggest that you take care of tasks such as your exterior unit maintenance more often.
Although nothing is stopping you from taking care of basic water heater maintenance tasks by yourself, why not let a team of professional plumbers like ours help? We’d be thrilled to schedule a routine descaling and annual service appointment at a time that works best for you — give us a call at (813) 590-7821 or visit our website to schedule an appointment today!
