my water heater sits in the corner, and clothes washer and dryer block direct access to the drain valve... I have a short section of garden hose if I need to tap that source of water, but don't think everyone does... it occurred to me that the supply lines to my washing machine has a 90 degree fitting on one end, and are just about the correct length... seems like a ready made solution

... if the fittings work. I think the hoses might have different ends.

I'm not sure I understand your setup, so let me assume it is like mine. At the bottom of the water heater is a drain valve with a hose fitting; you need a silcock wrench to open it, and when you do, water will drain out by gravity, even if the main water supply from the County is turned off.

The hot water supply comes out of the top of the heater to supply the house. Pressure from the incoming cold water propels the hot water around the house and upstairs.

So, if the main water supply to the house is out (County water is off), I can access water from the heater from the drain valve at the bottom because it is gravity fed. But no water is available elsewhere because there is no pressure to propel it out of the top of the heater.

If your setup is like mine, the water from the heater that you want to access at the washing machine may not flow by gravity; the water may need the incoming water pressure to reach the washing machine. As with many such situations, the devil is in the details of the setup.

the intent was to use the washing machine supply hose as a ready made short section of hose that already has a standard hose bib thread...my water heater drain is not easily accessed because of its location... remove the supply hose from supply faucet and from the washing machine... attach it to the drain faucet (mine has a hand valve)on the hot water tank... open a water spigot in the house to relieve any vacuum in the hot water tank... this presupposes that you occasionally flush your hot water tank to remove sand that builds up in the bottom

Les, even if you don't drain the sand (assuming it's truly sand and not just crud), just let the water sit in a 5-gal bucket for a few hours. Most of the particles should settle, then you can use/filter the remaining water.

Ahh! Now I understand... Our washer is nearly impossible to get to if you want to remove a hose, while the hot water heater is in a nice open space in the basement----just the opposite of your set up it sounds like. On my heater, you can just put a teapot or other small container under the bottom spigot and take what you need...

A ready made solution to what problem? What are you trying to accomplish? (I'm missing a few of the pieces to your puzzle even after reading your 2nd response.)



My water heater sits in the basement. House is a tri-level.
If city water pressure goes to zero, the water heater drain is the lowest water access point in the house. I can collect water from all the piping above the heater, both "hot" and "cold" and then the volume from the heater thru the heater drain.

My water heater has a plastic valve with garden hose/ washer hose threaded outlet.
I have an old washing machine hose (you DO change your washing machine supply hoses periodically, don't you?) next to it for periodic draining/flushing of the heater to the basement floor drain 2 feet away.

Once that's empty, then we access the toilet tank water (If they haven't been flushed). And then the water barrel.

(Knowing how the plumbing works is second nature to submariners :-)

May go without saying but this is a valuable skill to try before you actually need to access the water. I drain my water heater once a year at day light's savings for maintenance on the heater. I use the water hose that's connected outside the back door, and drain the heater into the yard.

The gas furnace guys who come in February for annual maintenance on that thing offered to flush my water heater sitting next to it, no charge. I told them I'd done it in November and showed them the mark on the side of the heater. But a nice customer friendly service. Always remember to power down (turn off heater) and stop the incoming flow before draining.

Also FWIW - keep an old supply hose or keep your next supply hose handy in the event the connected supply hose springs a leak. I buy them in advance of what I need (one new pair in stock ready to go), and rotate them out after 5 years. Mark the new pair with the date you want to install them. I've heard that the braided steel type can last much longer but they only come with a 5 year warranty, ymmv. I gave my last pair - which looked terrific - to my Mom+sister to keep as spares.

Truly helps to have tried things out to know you really can do them when needed.

But I don't see the need to actually drain (if you mean to empty)the tank.
The drain valve is the low point so running 5 gallons out from the low point should get the sediment out. In the boiler/steam generator world this is known as a "bottom blow" and is a periodic maintenance item for powerplants and ship boilers. (yes, really)

I wouldn't give my old hoses away because some folks would just think of them as 'like-new' and would install them and blame me when the hoses failed later.

Also check that if you don't have any kind of anti drain back valve in the main line. I started hearing this funny noise one evening and turns out it was the suction from the water flowing back from my house into the line to the street because a main had broken somewhere. My water shutoff valve is only a couple feet off the floor so it could have drained the whole water heater. I shut off the valve coming into the house to keep the lines from emptying.
Water heater silcocks come in a 45 degree angle model and with a 90 degree turn valve. While expensive they are handy to buy a couple to screw into aquatainers instead of the plastic valve they come with. You can then attach an old washer hose to your new aquatainer valve and sit it on top of the toilet tank with the hose going into the air vent at the top of the tank so those in the house can just flush and then open the valve to refill the tank for the next person.

Unimogbert... I made my hot water drain hose by chopping off the end of the garden hose, and adding a repair kit for the coupling...the location of the drain on the water heater makes it difficult to connect the hose in a direct line...the washing machine supply hose has a built in 90, which makes the installation in my situation much easier... I was just passing on an observation that there was a premade solution to my problem...I know everyone's situation is different... I was just offering a suggestion...

Les- if the drain valve is hard to get to, did you figure out how to operate it? Where are you running the hose section to? (is that location higher or lower than the drain?)

the drain has a hand valve on the tank, and all I need to do is attach a hose... my house is an old frame structure 2' off the ground on pilings... the hose was originally made to flush the sand from the bottom of the tank, and drain out the door, which is a short distance, so I have the ability to completely drain the tank if necessary... the tank holds 50 gallons, so there should be a usable volume of water above the level of the valve even if I could not drain it completely ...I have stored water and an on site shallow well and filtering capacity...I don't ever perceive a need to use the heater as a source, but just wanted to throw out the idea incase anyone else might not have thought of it...regards

Maybe so - but I'm the #1 maintainer of my mom's and sister's water supplies, so for instance I know to buy new hoses in 2015 for their washer. Giving them my old hoses is only meant to address sudden leaks or a 3am gusher. they'll hold for a few days until I stop by and get them new hoses.

I'm not figuring to draw water from my heater but you never know - I have over 360 gallons stored in 3 places around my home and property, if I need water from the heater at least I know it will have been recently flushed. Cedar River watershed water is notorious for its lack of sediment though.

I'm still lost but maybe I'm starting to fill in the missing pieces. (Sorry, I'm an Engineer. I have to go step by step or I get lost.)

You say you can't access the valve in the first post. But then you say you can drain the tank using a washer hose in the next two posts.

From this I infer that you can't put a hose straight on to the fitting because of tight clearance between the valve and the washing machine so a 90 degree bend connector solves the clearance problem and there's enough access to do that and there's enough access to operate the valve.

The point of the thread was to inform others that there are options in washing machine hoses that can be used for water heater drain hoses?


Am I getting close?

exactly correct.... I am concrete sequential also...

These posts could be a reason to retain a conventional hot water tank since this is a potential emergency source of water.

An alternative sometimes proposed is an on demand water heater, these have their merits but have the decided drawback that they are not a standby store of water.

The argument for on demand heaters is, IIRC, that no energy is wasted keeping 40 gallons of water hot during the 23 hours and 45 minutes per day that it is not needed. You could install the on demand device, and a plumb a holding tank into the cold water supply line before the heater. It would be a constantly renewed back up supply in case of loss of water service. You could pressurize the holding tank with an air compressor and preserve water pressure, too. And probably run the on demand heater on propane, to avoid NG installation expense.

The argument for on demand heaters is, IIRC, that no energy is wasted keeping 40 gallons of water hot during the 23 hours and 45 minutes per day that it is not needed. You could install the on demand device, and a plumb a holding tank into the cold water supply line before the heater. It would be a constantly renewed back up supply in case of loss of water service. You could pressurize the holding tank with an air compressor and preserve water pressure, too. And probably run the on demand heater on propane, to avoid NG installation expense.
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The water coming into our house is so cold t that a pre warming tank is needed for an on demand tank.

re: on demand....you can always add a timer, and break one leg of the 220v circuit...

I got to looking at my washing machine and thought a couple of elbows might be good to take some strain off the hoses when it's pushed against the wall.

ACE Hardware-

Camco Brass 90 Degrees RV Water Hose Elbow (22505)

Buy any washing machine hoses and use these to turn the corners. Haven't seen hoses with elbows on any shelves but once you have these, you can use any hoses you want to.

Threads are really sharp. One of mine was dinged up which made the thread edges almost dangerous and would give troubles with mating threads. Some dressing with a triangle file smoothed it out fine.