heating elements on a hot water tank.

[tomO]

I'm draining and cleaning out the water tank , Lime scale is crusted on the element, does anyone know if you can clean the element off and reuse it or is it toasted. Thx in advance.

[diggyj]

I would recoomend just buying a new one. They are like $15 dollars and at least you know it will work and heat up your water. I have never cleaned mine because they were so corroded, rusted and mangled it wasn't salvagable.

 

Dirk

[jimmer]

Put a new one in for the low cost. It's a pain to drain the tank again, so you might as well do it while it's open.

However, if it's just a crust, try soaking it in CLR over night. You will be able to tell after that if it's good to use it again.

[aplumma]

Flush out the sediment as able then replace the element. The element that is covered in scale has generated hotspots and will fail soon. If you try to clean it then you will knock off the scale and corrosion and the porcelain casing will be compromised. You also can look into a water softener to stop the scale build up and all of the other benefits it provides.

 

Art the plumber

[Whitespinnerbait]

Tip of the day right here ...

 

 

REMEMBER TO FILL THE TANK BEFORE TURNING THE '' POWER '' BACK ON ...if not bye bye new element..

[tomO]

Ok thx to all of you. I hadn't cleaned it out for a couple years and I wont do that again I bet I sucked out 25 or 30 lbs of scale with the shop vac and some homemade specialty conections to get as far into it and around the sides as I could. Once again thx.