Advanced Tankless Water Heater Maintenance Flush
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- Опубліковано 20 січ 2023
- This is a follow-up video to my first tankless water heater maintenance flush demonstration video where I answer some common questions and show more advanced techniques for performing the flush in addition to how to check and clean the inlet filter.
My Original Rheem Tankless Water Heater Annual Maintenance Flush Video:
• Rheem Tankless Water H...
Rheem Tech Video (His description of the flushing):
• Rheem Tankless Water H...
Maintenance Valve Kit:
amzn.to/3XDzJbr - Навчання та стиль
Watch my original video if you aren't familiar with how I hooked up the flush kit, the type of pump and descaling solution to use, and how to unhook everything. ua-cam.com/video/T7rfXCLtEoM/v-deo.html
Awesome follow up! Thanks for the help!
Hi, Scotty interesting video is for those who need to do so I think many of your viewers in the USA will benefit from this video🇺🇸👍🏻🙏🏻.🇳🇴🇳🇱.Greetings.Hubertus
Good to hear from you, Hubertus! Thanks for the kind words.
I saw the other guy's comment that lead me down a youtube rabbit hole. I ended up calling tech services at Rheem and they sent me updated instructions that specifically mention the bypass valve. Here is directly from the PDF
1. The entire process can take up to an hour or more to complete.
2. Turn OFF the gas and both the hot at cold water supply to the
tankless water heater. The gas must remain OFF during the
flushing process.
3. To properly flush the heater the electronic bypass valve inside
the heater must be closed. Follow these steps to do this: At
the remote control, turn OFF the power and wait 10 seconds.
Turn ON the power at the remote control, wait 10 seconds,
and disconnect the water heater from the electrical source.
*The rest of the steps are basically the same for the flush. I could email you the PDF if you like. I'll include the rest of the steps for anyone else who is interested as I don't want to email everyone.
4. Leaving the water OFF to the heater, connect the two drain
hoses, (provided with this kit), to the hose connections on the
service valves under the tankless water heater.
5. Place the loose ends of the hose into a 5 gallon bucket.
6. Open the service port valve on each side, (hot and cold
valves), to allow the heater to drain. Connect the hose for the
cold water side to the outlet of the utility pump and place the
pump on the bottom of the bucket.
7. Pour two gallons of vinegar into the bucket, and plug the pump
into an electrical source.
8. Allow the pump to circulate the vinegar for 45 to 60 minutes.
Depending upon the mineral build up and hardness of the
water some regions may require a longer circulation time.
9. After completing the circulation time, disconnect the power to
the pump and loosen the hose from the pump. Allow the vin-
egar from the heater to drain from the heater into the bucket.
10.Close the service port on the cold water side and disconnect
the hose from the cold side service valve.
11. Remove the hot water side drain hose from the bucket and
route it to a suitable drain, use a second bucket if needed.
12.Follow the instructions in the Use and Care Manual, (supplied
with the heater), to clean the cold water inlet filter.
13.ONLY turn ON the cold water supply to the heater,
NOTE: DO NOT TURN ON THE HOT WATER SUPPLY TO
THE SYSTEM AS VINEGAR IS STILL IN THE HEATER.
Water will begin to flow through the heater, this will rinse out
any remaining vinegar from the water heater. Allow the water
to run for about 5 minutes to thoroughly out the vinegar.
14.After 5 minutes, close the hot water service port and discon-
nect the drain hose from the hot water side service valve.
15.Open a hot water fixture, such as a tub, and turn ON the
hot water supply to the system. Allow the water to flow for a
minute to ensure no air remains in the system, then turn OFF
the fixture.
16.Reconnect power to the water heater and turn ON the gas
supply. At the remote control turn on the power to the heater.
17.Run a couple of hot water fixtures to ensure the heater is
operating properly.
Thanks for this! Did they specify which Rheem models these instructions apply to? Because these instructions don't work and don't seem to be necessary for the Richmond series.
Thanks so much everyone. I’m gonna give us a try.
@@FixItScotty’m no expert but from looking at the schematics of this kind of tankless water heater , the cold water goes into the unit , up through the heat exchanger and out the hot water side. I just saw that there is a bypass valve inside the unit but not sure how that works , I have the natural gas rheem performance plus indoor 7gmp unit
Wow thanks king 👑
OMG this totally worked and fixed my issue with noting being able to flush the unit. Before I tried to flush by just turning off the power and unplag unit; but it would always close the loop. As a result the vinager would never cirulate correctly
You made it so easy thanck you .
Doh! The unit will not turn on if you have water flowing through it. So the turn off turn on stuff will not work. I hope you realize you made it worse by heating the vinegar up with your heater. Pull the cover off and you will see the inlet has a bypass. What do you think this bypass is for? The heater is trying to maintain an outlet temp. So if you heated the vinegar then sent that heated vinegar into the inlet the bypass will open and ramp down the burner because the outlet temp has been satisfied. The bypass routes water around the heat exchanger to the hot water outlet. To do this right you would open a faucet hot water, once the unit is running unplug it. Do not turn it off with the control pad. Prove it to yourself by filling a bucket of hot water then unplugging the unit, allow cold water to cool the heat exchangers. Then use your pump to pump from the bucket of hot water into the inlet and note where it gets hot in the unit. Different brands/units control their bypass valves other ways so the only way to know where the water/vinegar is actually going is to verify inside yourself. I am just a hillbilly but I hope it makes sense and may help out somebody.
Thank you for making and posting these videos! I'm still installing a Rheem Electric tankless. I watched the Rheem tech's video and will be researching more. Obviously, this is only for a gas tankless. I can't pull the plug! OK I could trip the breakers, but there is no bypass to the heat exchanger so water always flows thru the entire system. Hot vinegar does sound like a good idea, I have hard water and clean an electric kettle as well as a Kierig coffee maker using hot vinegar. The Kierig will crash if 100% vinegar is used. I'm am puzzeled by your discolored water.
Was there any debris in the bucket? I find a white slime residue after cleaning my kettle, but no particles.
If you watch at the very end of the video, I did scoop some of the vinegar out of the bucket with a clear bowl. You can see there is only a little cloudiness in the solution after the cleaning. The orange bucket really skews the coloration. I am in the north midwest with hard water sourced from a river, so the residue is dependent on where you live and the type of your municipal water source. Hope you have a long life for your electric tankless! Cheers.
Thank you Scotty, but I am having a problem with 'tricking' my heater to keep the valve open. In my manual, it strongly warns NOT to keep the gas or unit 'on' before flushing. Does your manual do the same? Am I safe to try flushing while it is on, at least in the beginning, to prevent the valve from closing?
The manual for my Richmond series unit just says to unplug the power cord and shut the gas off before doing maintenance. There is no warning or anything. But I've tried it both ways and have talked to Rheem support about it. My unit is low-end and doesn't have any built-in features like recirculation, condensate neutralizer, etc. I have never had the issue that many commenters have stated about an internal valve closing during the flush. The good news is that Rheem tech support will talk to customers like us directly. Call them and, after talking to the level 1 support person who will just say "unplug it and it will be fine", have them escalate to a field tech that knows how your particular model works. If you get an answer that is different than what I mentioned in this video, please post it back - I'd love to hear it. Thanks!
Hi Scotty, Another way your sure that your vinegar is going in the heat exchanger is by watching the level of the solution in your 5 gallons bucket.
With your pump and solution in the bucket make a mark at the level of the solution. When you start the pump the level should drop m 3/4 to an inch.
If your only pumping thru the bypass you should only notice a very slight difference on the level.
Thanks for the tip! That's a good idea.
So I just did this with my one year old unit . It didn’t turn black at all so it was relatively clean aswell as the filter was like new. I live in the bay are California. Only thing I did notice was that the vinegar turned slight blue. Does anyone noe if this is bad ? I heard it’s because of the copper lines but it should be fine right ?
Did you watch at the end when I put some of the vinegar in the clear bowl? I think what you are seeing is normal copper oxidation in the heat exchanger. But maybe someone else knows more about this.
I had not seen that part , but now that I did , yes it’s exactly the same .
I was wondering if someone can help me. I tried to flush my unit. Everything goes well with the outflow normal, but then all of a sudden the outflow starts to just trickle after about one minute
What is the Brand and Model of your water heater?
The Rheem prestige
Any answer on this?? Im having the same issue
Same thing happens to mine start strong flow into bucket then down to very small flow I’ve honestly never really noticed before
How is the inlet filter? Check your pump for a pluggage in the vent hole. There may be a small weeper hole used for venting/purging air from the pump. Why? Sometimes the vinegar is bubbly from reacting with the minerals in the heat exchanger and air is getting into your pump and without continuous venting, the pump will cavitate.