Wand Washing Newbie - How to use water heater

mrflip99

I will be wand washing my boiler and have all the necessary parts to create my wand, including soldering for the first time (any tips for soldering?)
1) When using the water heater drain valve as your source of water, what steps do you follow to correctly do this? Do i need turn off the water heater and then open drain valve? Will i lose pressure when i turn off the water heater?
2) I plan on using a garden hose for the boiler drain and then lead down to my sump pump. Will this be fast enough to drain the dirty water or should i go for a cheap sump pump/tub route?

tips and pointers are appreciated!

Hap_Hazzard

Just connect the hose to the drain valve and open the valve. The water supply will keep the water heater filled. Make sure you flush the sediment from the water heater first though. You don't want to be spraying that into your boiler.

I've never done this myself, but I'd think you'd want your mud leg open while you're wanding so the muck can drain out before it has a chance to settle, so you might want to get one of those shallow plastic tubs they use for mixing mortar or concrete and put that under your mud leg. That's what I use when I do blow-downs. Then I just pick it up and pour it into a five-gallon bucket and dump it outside. (I don't have a sump.)

JUGHNE

You should use a drain port on the boiler that is larger than the small boiler drain. Bigger is better. If the floor drain is close perhaps a 2" shop vac hose or pieces of 2" PVC pipe connected to a mud leg nipple and then direct the outlet water over to the floor drain. You can find "Fernco" type rubber couplings if you want a good seal.

Use the boiler drain to drain the boiler first before opening any larger ports.

ChrisJ

Hap_Hazzard said:

Just connect the hose to the drain valve and open the valve. The water supply will keep the water heater filled. Make sure you flush the sediment from the water heater first though. You don't want to be spraying that into your boiler.

I've never done this myself, but I'd think you'd want your mud leg open while you're wanding so the muck can drain out before it has a chance to settle, so you might want to get one of those shallow plastic tubs they use for mixing mortar or concrete and put that under your mud leg. That's what I use when I do blow-downs. Then I just pick it up and pour it into a five-gallon bucket and dump it outside. (I don't have a sump.)

I don't bother flushing anything when I do it.
I'm betting the inside of the steam boiler is far nastier than the bottom of my tank water heater.

JUGHNE

Before starting the boiler project, IIWM, I would connect a hose to the WH tank drain and be certain it opens and then closes again.
Once open and flowing let some water run to clear the valve.
If all is good there then proceed to the boiler washing.

WH drain valves can turn a 30 minute job into 3 hours.

mrflip99

JUGHNE said:

Before starting the boiler project, IIWM, I would connect a hose to the WH tank drain and be certain it opens and then closes again.
Once open and flowing let some water run to clear the valve.
If all is good there then proceed to the boiler washing.

WH drain valves can turn a 30 minute job into 3 hours.

Good point! Is this because some WH drains get stuck open? Is this bc of debris/sediment?

The boiler drain was upgraded to a larger ball valve but has a garden hose reducer on it. I guess the bigger the outlet, the faster I can complete the wand washing right? (good tip on the fernco coupling with PVC).

JUGHNE

WH drain valves are notorious for sometimes being cheesy as in cheap/plastic and not functioning. If not opened on a regular basis, annually or so, they could be plugged and then if opened to pass water may not seal tightly because of debris in the sealing points.......always an adventure on an older WH.
This is why many have a hose cap installed to stop the dripping.

The larger the boiler drain point the faster flushing and also the larger sediment removes better.

Can you post pictures of your boiler piping and the water heater drain valve?

BobC

Just keep an eye on that hose. Years ago a friend woke up to an ice encrusted driveway and thought why not use hot water to get rid of the ice? He ran a hose from the hot water tank's drain valve out to the driveway.

Everything was going well till the water stopped flowing. Thinking he had a kink somewhere he went to find it only to find flooding in the basement caused by a burst hose. It turns out plastic hoses are not rated for holding pressure with hot water, the old rubber hoses were fine. Every time he shut the water off at the hose end he put pressure on that weakened hose.

Just make sure you keep and eye on that hose so you don't get a surprise.

Bob

ChrisJ

BobC said:

Just keep an eye on that hose. Years ago a friend woke up to an ice encrusted driveway and thought why not use hot water to get rid of the ice? He ran a hose from the hot water tank's drain valve out to the driveway.

Everything was going well till the water stopped flowing. Thinking he had a kink somewhere he went to find it only to find flooding in the basement caused by a burst hose. It turns out plastic hoses are not rated for holding pressure with hot water, the old rubber hoses were fine. Every time he shut the water off at the hose end he put pressure on that weakened hose.

Just make sure you keep and eye on that hose so you don't get a surprise.

Bob

I use a 10' washing machine hose with a coupler and another shorter washing machine hose.

mrflip99

@JUGHNE I attached photos of the boiler side drain (not upgraded to ball valve) and WH.

@BobC - good point, I am using a spare washer hose so hopefully it will hold up. This was the answer I was looking for when questioning why plumbers use the “black sectional” hoses vs my garden hose.

JUGHNE

That WH drain is a little shakey to use.
I have had them completely unscrew out of the tank.
Any of them I ever dealt with I replaced with a 3/4" nipple and ball valve after some grief.
Do you have another hose connection handy, maybe washer connection?

The boiler drain is quite small for water passing.

I was hoping for pictures of your return piping that might give you a larger drain out pipe.

hot_rod

most washer hoses are 1/2 or 5/8,
find a large 3/4 size if you can, a lot more flow is possible for aggressive flush.

Find them with a Google search.

Good to have 3/4 hoses with pump flush carts also.

SeanBeans

I didn’t read much of the above postings.
but when I wanded for the first time i neglected to flush the bottom of the water heater: rookie move!

The small holes on the top of your wand will get plugged up with the sediment from the bottom of the water heater.

I then had to shut everything back off and relieve the pressure from the hose/wand, which held 180 degree water! No fun!

Next time i do itI will be
1.flushing the water heater thing
2. Connecting my wand,
3. Wanting boiler.

hot_rod

I've found that a muck vac or a wet vac with a homemade nozzle works much better to remove scale and crud from tanks and boilers.

Water wand flushes tend to stir it up, move it around and not flush cleanly. Better than nothing but if you have a vac, give it a try.

mrflip99

> @JUGHNE said:
> You should use a drain port on the boiler that is larger than the small boiler drain. Bigger is better. If the floor drain is close perhaps a 2" shop vac hose or pieces of 2" PVC pipe connected to a mud leg nipple and then direct the outlet water over to the floor drain. You can find "Fernco" type rubber couplings if you want a good seal.
>
> Use the boiler drain to drain the boiler first before opening any larger ports.

How about this WH? (I have multiple units) I also attached the return side, which I will drain as well but won’t get any of the boiler sediments out.

JUGHNE

That WH drain looks more promising.
IIWM, i would drain the boiler down with existing hose bibs and then remove those two bibs and install nipples with full flow ball valves and a hose adapator.
Ideally removing that bushing from the boiler and installing a larger nipple and ball valve there would give you some volume.
That bushing might come out with an impact gun and the correct socket.

mrflip99

> @JUGHNE said:
> That WH drain looks more promising.
> IIWM, i would drain the boiler down with existing hose bibs and then remove those two bibs and install nipples with full flow ball valves and a hose adapator.
> Ideally removing that bushing from the boiler and installing a larger nipple and ball valve there would give you some volume.
> That bushing might come out with an impact gun and the correct socket.

I can see the sense in upgrading since I’m already draining the boiler. Problem is, how do I get an impact gun large enough to remove the bushing? Or what adapter do I use? I do have an impact wrench but may not have the leverage to break it open...

JUGHNE

You might want to just put the small nipple in for now.

Next spring you can probably rent an impact gun. Probably 1/2" drive will do it. Maybe rent 6 point impact sockets also. Then you need to know the boiler tapping it is either 1 1/2 or 2" pipe.