Flushing Your Tankless Water Heater — Why & When?

While the majority of Calgarians still use a hot water tank, new, high efficiency, tankless water heaters are becoming increasingly popular with homeowners. Tankless water heaters offer an endless supply of hot water — perfect for big families, and they boast a lifespan of 20-30 years with proper maintenance (over twice as long as a conventional tank). There’s a lot to love about tankless water heaters, but (like all major plumbing appliances) they do require maintenance.

Why Flush Tankless Water Heater

This is especially true in locations with hard water, where minerals are easily deposited inside the boiler of your water heater. These minerals build up into limestone deposits inside your appliance. On average, Calgary water has a concentration of calcium carbonate between 160-220mg/L, which is generally regarded as between hard and very hard. Hard water isn’t bad for your health. In fact, the minerals you drink in the hard water may even bestow some health benefits. However, it does wreak havoc on your plumbing.

As scale (limestone) is left to build up, little bits of stone can break off and begin to clog up your faucet aerators, filters, and other plumbing fixtures. The built up scale can greatly impact the lifespan of your tankless water heater and all the other plumbing appliances that receive hot water. Tankless water heaters can be nearly twice as expensive as a hot water tank. However, they’re built to last more than twice as long. Proper maintenance is integral to ensuring you get as much benefit as possible from your investment.

When to Flush Tankless Water Heater

Due to Calgary’s very hard water, we recommend to flush tankless water heater at least once a year. For couples or people living on their own, you may be able to push off maintenance to every 18 months, but for households of three people or more, every 12 months is a firm guideline.

If your tankless water heater has a flush kit installed (this looks like two hose bibs — one each on the hot and cold side), then you should be able to easily flush your boiler without the assistance of a Calgary plumber. It’s a little time consuming (about 1-1.5 hours), and requires about 3 gallons of vinegar, but it’s not at all difficult. There are many tutorials available on youtube and across the web.

If the flush kit valves are missing, you’ll have to call your friendly Calgary plumber to come install them. We can also flush your boiler while we’re there.

Whether you choose to flush your tankless water heater yourself or have our professional plumbers do it for you, we want to make sure Calgarians get the most out of their plumbing fixtures. Contact the Plumbing Paramedics today at (403) 452-2911 if you have any questions, need a flush kit installed, or just want some plumbing help!