Drain valve

[Gary Schering, II]

Can you replace the washer in the drain valve for a hot water tank? I would think it works like any other water shut off valve. The only difference would be that you would have to drain the tank?

[David P. Valley]

The simple solution is to drain the water heater and remove the plastic valve then replace it with a brass "3/4" Boiler stop valve".


Some of the high efficiency water heaters have a thicker insulation blanket so it is sometimes difficult to install a common boiler **** valve. In this case there are two simple solutions...


1)You can install a short 3/4" pipe nipple into the tank, then install a female "boiler **** valve" of they also make a "long shank boiler ****" that has a longer male pipe end on the input side of the valve.


2) The replacement valves can be purchased at any local hardware or home supply store for about $8 to $10. You will also need either some pipe dope or Yellow Triple Density PTFE (Teflon) tape" to put on the threads before installing the valve.

The stars you see are there because the system won't allow me to spell C-O-C-K.