At least today I was. (Not really sure what a "bucket filler" is - I hope it isn't something bad!) My friend had to replace his water heater and during his research, he found that about twice a year, we are supposed to drain and flush our hot water heater. We have been here about 19 years so I guess I am 38 flushes behind... It was a dreary and rainy day today so I figured I would give it a shot. It is pretty simple - turn off the power to the heater, shut off the water feed, drain, re-fill, re-power, shampoo, rinse, repeat. The problem is, the water heater is in the basement and the drain spigot is right at the bottom of the tank. No way I could run a garden hose up the stairs to drain it that way (not enough pressure) and my pool pump doesn't have the right inlet to help. So I just attached a garden hose to the spigot and put the other end in my 5 gallon wet/dry vacuum tank that I brought down. I figured with a 65 gallon tank, I would only have to lug up 5 gallons 13 times... Of course the hose was at least 75 feet all coiled up so it took forever for the bucket to fill. Had to be a better way. Out to the shed I went and sure enough, I had kept the old washer machine hoses. Perfect! Hooked one up and I was doing the bucket brigade pretty quickly. Overall, it was a pretty uneventful experience. I didn't spill a bucket down the stairs, the tank re-filled (and didn't leak), and my shower afterward was nice and warm. My only fear is some of the sediment might have been holding the thing together and now it will fall apart. Time will tell I guess.
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