In 16 years, I never drained or flushed my hot water tank. I do not have any problems. There is no leak. Should I attempt a flush? Should I leave well enough alone and not flush it? Should I change the rod?

Yes you should flush it and don't bother with the rod unless you inspect it and find its shot. You may also inspect the dip tube because there were some faulty dip tubes in the market place back then. To flush your heater attach a garden hose to the drain spigot, direct the hose outside or to a floor drain or sump pump pit. Open the drain spigot valve and let it flush for a few minutes or until you see no more specs of junk.

Hi all:

16 year old water heater.. If so, then I say leave it alone! Definitely don't touch the anode rod!

If you had flushed this regularly and changed the rod once or twice then I would say that it was a good idea to continue maintaining it, but since you have never touched it I'm pretty sure you would just be opening up Pandora's box.

In terms of flushing it at this point... if the drain actually opens and can drain water then it can't really hurt anything, but be aware that the sediment layer in the bottom of this unit will probably clog up the drain and cause issues when you go to shut the drain. In this case, purchase a brass boiler drain cap with washer and plug the drain if needed.

Finally, you would power flush the unit by leaving the water supply on full and then opening the drain and allowing water/sediment to flow for some time... turn water on and off to fluctuate the water supply and help disturb the sediment layer. When finished, open the hot water side of a TWO HANDLE faucet with the AERATOR removed and purge water through that faucet until it runs completely clear... then open all other faucets to clear all lines.

Lastly, in my experience, water heaters rarely last 16 years... I would actually recommend putting all your energy into installing a new water heater at this time, maintain regularly and perhaps even install an automatic water heater shutoff valve so that if the heater leaks in the future the shutoff sensor will sense it and shut off water flow to the heater. In this way, you won't need to guess when the heater will go in the future... just FYI. Let me know if you want more info. On this...

MARK