Anudder DIY question

[MaryAnn]

Please excuse the perhaps dumb questions, but I have had a disabling illness since last July and am not hitting on all cylinders. So my minus-one-cylinder question this time is about my water heater. It is on the older side from what I've been told, and electric. It has suddenly started delivering much less hot water before it runs cold. I would just replace it but for the fact that it now has about 1000 pounds of floor tile stacked in front of it waiting for installation in the house, which is only now under contract and not likely to occur for a month or six weeks. I cannot lift even one box, much less however many I would have to have moved. So those of you who have read this far and have the patience to reply, is this likely a buildup inside it making the water-holding volume less? that is the only thing I can think of. I just don't want it to blow up. And no, I have never drained it and suspect that has never been done since it was new. Would be very hard to get at now, even to just drain it. TY, TNFJ.
Oh, the water here is exceptionally hard. Makes clinking sounds when it comes out of the faucets and hits the sink.

[PMeuph]

It's hard to tell behind a forum. What size is the unit 20, 40, 60 Gallons?

The exploding things would be caused by a non-functioning relief valve. (That's the valve on the side a 3/4 of the way up with a piece of pipe dangling down form it)if you open that valves and water flows down (put a bucket underneath first) then your heater shouldn't explode.

Clinking noise could be just the pipes, or is there a sudden change in the noise?

Electric is pretty much the standard in most of canada, and they are usually changed every 10 years because of insurance policies (companies usually recommend a lifespan of 15 years for their heater.

[Donn]

My guess: you have two elements, a top one and a bottom one. This is pretty easy to verify - should be an access port for each, so it has only one access port, I guess you can ignore the rest.

Each element has its own thermostat. Hot water rises, so the bottom element does all the work. It's dead. The top element is heating up the top half of the tank, and then it stops because that's all it sees. You now have 1/2 tank of hot water before the cold water starts coming out. You should be able to feel the difference - the tank is exposed in the access port, and you can feel that it's warm at the upper port and cold at the lower.

To replace it, you need a special tool kind of like a big spark plug wrench, which they'll have at the hardware store. Then most people would start by draining the tank, which is sort of a good thing to do once in a while anyway. I think as it fills up with sediment, that probably shortens the life of the lower element (already short these days.) Shut off power to the water heater, at the circuit breaker. Extract the failed element and take it to the hardware store to find a replacement. Some think you ought to replace the thermostat at the same time, since it's a little hard to tell which failed. Though not impossible.

[MaryAnn]

Thanks. I'll go feel up the water heater next time I know it's running. That won't solve the access problem but I'll worry less about why I run out so quickly now. I "Navy showered" for years living in the travel trailer with a 6 gallon hot water tank, and can do it again until the tile is out of the way.

The clinking noise was a joke, about the hardness of the water. Water that comes from the Rio Grande down a long open manmade conduit, and half of the already hard water evaporates before it even gets here. They recharge it before they bring it out of the wells, making the natural ground water even worse than it was, but it is still exceptionally hard water when they bring it back up. So deposits build up a whole lot faster than with softer water.

[Donn]

The warm part will be the tank itself, inside the insulated case. If it has two elements, I guarantee that's what has happened, even if that cool/warm diagnostic is not positive. Mineral deposits are most of the reason the tank needs to be drained periodically.

[Three Valves]

... they are usually changed every 10 years because of insurance policies.

That's new.

You may have differing forms up there.

But the water heater should be changed every ten years or so because when it fails and floods your basement ot is no longer an inconvenience but a REAL PITA!!

[MaryAnn]

Yeah I'm likely to change it but have to wait about six weeks until the tile is out of the way. Maybe I can find a way to drain it, but I'm pretty much disabled for doing anything more physical than typing. Did find a good plumber recently though....maybe I will query him. Once I get this place finished with its cosmetic rehab, I'm out of here and never again want to own a home. I love the privacy but maintenance, even under healthy circumstances, is not my strong suit.