Water Heater Cleaning Tool, Improves Hot Water Supply, Removes Hard Water Sediment, Flushes Gas & Electric Tanks, Pro-Grade DIY Solution

This is a great little tool, which does what it claims to do and seems to be pretty durably made. I have just used it, and my experience leaves me with a warning I should submit for others.If you're using this for regular maintenance, this tool definitely does the job. Be ready for some water to flow out while you're swapping the valve for this tool; as long as the valve at the top is closed not much should come out, but you'll definitely need an old towel and a shop vac or carpet cleaner vacuum isn't a bad idea for pulling up water. Go slow with the drill, and I found it helpful to start in reverse at first, and switch rotation directions from time to time, going forward most of the time to bring in debris a little faster. I had the hose going outside at ground level, with the end in a location where the sediment wouldn't be a problem.This is probably going to be a workout for your drill, if you've got a significant build-up of sediment. It was a good 45 minutes of running my older 18V Ryobi brushed drill in 1st gear -- didn't take more than a quarter of the battery to do the job, but the drill got quite warm. Most of the job was at a partial squeeze of the trigger. I ended up using a 90 degree chuck adapter (one that maintains the same output speed, 1:1 gear ratio) and that made the job more comfortable, but wasn't necessary.The warning is for those using this as I did, in a situation where the water heater had not been properly maintained. In this case sediment had built up significantly. I needed to drain the tank to replace the lower element which had failed, and the sediment was complicating that process (and may have contributed to the failure) so I purchased this tool to help. When I finally got the tank cleaned and drained, I pulled the heater element only to find that what I removed was just the base of it, with two severed stumps of the element sticking out. The corroded and weakened element had been completely ripped off the base by the tool while I was cleaning the tank, and that discovery started a frustrating hour-long adventure with a borescope and grabber tool, to fish for the mangled element and pull it out of the hole.Overall I'm pretty impressed with the idea and execution of this tool. It's clearly manufactured to a cost and it feels like something that will last a few jobs and will then need to be replaced. And even so I'd call that a great deal at this price. Apparently this tool was manufactured from ABS until recently, when they switched to polycarbonate, and I think that was a fantastic choice. Polycarbonate is an extremely tough material, and it appears they did not skimp on it for the dimensions and thicknesses of the tool. It did jam a few times during operation as it attempted (and mostly failed) to injest very large chunks of what looked like anode rod material (I need to replace that too), which I dealt with by reversing the tool briefly. That said when I removed the tool after the job was done, a couple of these chunks were still lodged in the inlet where the agitator spring emerges and had been grinding away at the tool for an unknown time. Perhaps the designed shape of the water passage through the tool will evolve over time to make these jams less likely.No idea if the manufacturing would be feasible, but I'd easily pay 3-4 times as much for an improved "pro" model made from stainless steel, with clear polycarbonate windows in appropriate locations.

This product actually works. And if you use on a regular basis it does even better. Not complicated to use but you will get wet. This product saved my 80gallon tank more than once. You can take it apart and clean it if needed. Made of plastic and metal.

UPDATE...Updating my review after the seller sent a new product that we have now been able to use multiple times. Original review is below. Changed rating from 2 stars to 4 stars. The product is amazing and works exactly as advertised. Has been a huge time saver on cleaning water heaters. However, I still couldn't give it 5 stars simply for the packaging and the materials used in manufacturing. Packaging was still way too flimsy for shipping something that can easily break. Also still wish the entire body was brass or something more sturdy and durable than plastic. I understand why using clear plastic is a good idea so that you can see the scale and sediment leaving and know when to finish. But just changing the one tail piece by the hose to clear plastic would be sufficient. I know that would drive up the cost, but I'd happily pay for it. Either way, I'll be buying more of these for our plumbing business in the future. Best product I've seen for this by far."Product seemed like it would work great. however, item shipped with no protection at all. came in a plastic envelope. terrible idea for a brittle plastic product. item was broken right out of the box but of course we didn't see that until we had it hooked up to water and then noticed it spraying water everywhere through the body. would be way better if the only plastic on the entire tool was the piece that connects to the hose. if it is going to remain plastic however, highly recommend using way better packaging for shipments."

Never cleaned a WH tank before. It worked surprisingly well. Easy to use. I changed my valve to a ball valve at the same time.

After watching the video I was skeptical if this tool would be that much more effective. So I tried it on 2 gas powered hot waters heaters that I have installed and no service was done to them in the past 9 years. I tried one heater first using no tool, simple gravity, at first just to see how much of the build up comes out. I tried this tool on the second heater and the difference was night and day. This tool does an amazing job. Follow the instructions carefully. make sure to lubricate it after each use. It is made out of translucent hard plastic so the build up is visible as it comes out, therefor, be careful not to over tighten it to avoid breaking. They have a useful video on how to use it on their website. Don't bother going the air pump route , it is not as effective as this tool. I was able to also change the Anode rod along the way.