The Internal Working of a Water Heater: A Step-by-Step Guide

As we explore the inner workings of our gas heater, it's essential to understand how this complex system functions and what maintenance is required to keep it running efficiently. Our water heater has been a faithful companion in our home for years, providing us with hot water whenever we need it.

The first component we'll examine is the outer shell. This is the part of the water heater that is exposed to the outside environment and is designed to withstand the rigors of daily use. The outer shell is typically made of steel or another durable material and is coated with a layer of insulation to reduce heat loss. In our case, the outer shell is adorned with decorative trim, which adds a touch of elegance to an otherwise utilitarian device.

As we look closer at the inner workings of the water heater, we can see that it consists of several key components. The bottom of the tank contains a mixture of sand and debris that has accumulated over time. This sediment is made up of mineral deposits, rust, and other particles that have settled to the bottom of the tank. In our case, the sediment has been disturbed due to the tank being empty for an extended period.

One of the most critical components of the water heater is the dip tube. The dip tube is a small, tube-like structure that extends from the bottom of the tank and into the heating element. Its purpose is to ensure that the cold water entering the tank is mixed with the hot water, which prevents scalding and ensures consistent temperatures throughout the system. If the dip tube becomes clogged or faulty, it can cause the water heater to malfunction.

Another essential component of the water heater is the anode rod. The anode rod is a small, zinc-based alloy that is intentionally inserted into the tank to protect it from corrosion. Over time, the anode rod corrodes and sacrifices itself to prevent the entire tank from being damaged by rust and mineral deposits. This process is crucial for maintaining the integrity of the water heater.

As we examine the inner workings of our gas heater, we can see that some areas are more prone to damage than others. The blisters and rust spots you see on the inside of the tank are a testament to the harsh conditions within which the water heater operates. These imperfections can be costly to repair if left unchecked.

In fact, one of the most common reasons for replacing a water heater is due to leaks caused by pinhole-sized holes in the tank itself. If left unaddressed, these small holes can expand and cause significant damage to the surrounding area. It's essential to inspect your water heater regularly to identify any potential issues before they become major problems.

Fortunately, many of the components within a water heater are relatively inexpensive to replace or maintain. In fact, in some cases, simply replacing the dip tube or anode rod can be sufficient to resolve any issues with the system. This is especially true for homeowners who may not feel comfortable tackling more complex repairs themselves.

As we continue to explore the inner workings of our gas heater, it's essential to note that regular maintenance is crucial for extending the life of this vital appliance. By keeping up with routine tasks such as cleaning and inspecting the tank, you can help prevent costly repairs down the line. Whether you're a seasoned DIY enthusiast or a newcomer to home improvement projects, understanding how your water heater works will empower you to make informed decisions about its maintenance.

For those interested in learning more about water heaters and other DIY topics, we recommend checking out our website at houseimprovements.com for a wealth of information, including articles, videos, and forums. By following the advice and guidance outlined on our site, you can tackle even the most complex projects with confidence and expertise.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi I'm Shannon from H improvements.com and I want to show you uh basically how a typical gas water heater works and what the different components of it are um to begin with I'm going to start at the top kind of work my way down so uh what you have at the very top here is you would typically this one isn't a uh a ventless water heater so this one would have a chimney coming out the top in the center here uh then you've got your cold side here so this is the cold water coming into the water heater and this is the hot side going out uh typically you can see here typically it'll be labeled on the housing of the of the water heater itself so here you see hot uh I don't see anything labeled for the cold but at least you know one one and the other and on the back side here is the anode rod okay so uh it could be anywhere in here but it's it sometimes is labeled but it's it should be in the top okay so then the uh the next item we have is uh as I'm working down is we've got this uh pressure relief valve so if something malfunctions and the water gets too hot inside the heater and it builds up too much pressure this valve here is designed to to release and let off some of that pressure and steam and water uh now typically what it should have is actually a iron or sometimes I've seen it in plastic rod that comes down the side of the water heater so that if hot water or steam or anything shoots out of there it isn't scalding somebody standing close by so it's directing it down towards the floor and preferably to a drain Okay so we've got that point that part there then directly down here on this one below it is the actual drain so uh they recommend draining your some water out of your water heater uh you know every year or twice twice a year sort of thing so this would be a drain on on the bottom that you can open up let some water out or if maybe had to do some maintenance or whatever sometimes you got to let some water out to do that to to release some pressure uh with this pressure relief as well they recommend that uh they actually recommend I believe it's every month or something you're supposed to flip this just give it a quick flip and uh make sure it's functioning properly uh I don't know hardly anybody that does that but that's what they recommend okay so as we work our way around down here I I'm going to uh just move to the other side now again I as I said at the beginning of the video this is a gas water heater okay so uh you're going to have a gas some sort of gas valve on it this is where you know your control is for the temperature well this is the temperature this is the pilot control uh on this one this is where the gas line would be entering um so I think what we're going to do is we're going to reposition the heater at a a little better height for the camera and uh we'll go through the the the bottom side of this water heater and show you what everything is and how it works okay so we've just brought the water heater up to a better level here to work on it or to display it uh so we already talked about the gas module which is right here so you should find a panel somewhere quite close to it with a little uh cover that comes off and then typically there'll be another some type of a door or sliding cover in there that you can uh open up to access the burner and the thermocoupler and everything else so once we get looking down in here what you're going to see is right back here you're going to see the uh burner itself that's this item right here okay so that uh once the gas or once the uh sensor says that uh there's enough gas and it's burning properly that it calls for heat on the water this this ignites the the burner ignites sorry this right here this line right here is the actual pilot line okay so once you've lit the the water heater this pilot will always be burning on this type of water heater that's always going to be burning right beside it or right between these two right back in here is uh that's the thermocoupler so basically what that is is just a sensor that uh tells the regulator the gas regulator that there is a pilot light burning and that it's okay to allow more gas in there to light the main burner which uh it's kind of hard for me to get in there but this far to the left side here there's a heavier line and it actually that's where the gas goes in and gets to the burner you can see it running underneath the burner there and it then once the thermal coupler says it's all right to ignite uh gas is released into that bigger line which then ignites the burner and that's what heats your water okay so that's the basic uh basic premise on how it works as far as the gas side of it you can see here as we rotate up under this Dome so the burner Heats this area underneath and this Dome and then the gases or the exhaust goes up through that Center pipe and that's what comes up through the top in the middle and into the chimney okay so so uh I've I've talked about this basic these components here and now some of these parts it doesn't really uh you know it's kind of hard to picture what they're what really happens inside the tank and we've kind of uh done a bit of a cutaway on this tank so that we can explain that to you so this is the inside of your typical water heater tank now the gross grungy crud that you see in here right now is actually pretty typical it's a little uh over the top on this one because this heater's been sitting empty for about six or seven months so some of the real excess rust and grime in that I think has more to do with the fact that there's been air exposed to the inside of this tank for a few months and the tank was wet and yada yada yada okay so it looks a little little worse than it typically should in a normal water heater but uh this is is uh you know I shouldn't say that there isn't going to be some grunge in there if if you were to actually open up your own okay so let's look at some of the bits and pieces in here um I guess we'll start at the top now I've turned this around so it's opposite of what you watched me show the first time right up here is the cold water inlet okay and it comes in to this white plastic thing that you see right here which is called the dip tube now these dip tubes what they do is they force that cold water all the way down here to the bottom of your water heater okay so we're we're near the bottom here and the reason it wants to do that is so that it's forcing only hot water like this is mixing now down here the cold water with the hot now the hot water is forced to the top and it goes up through this hole right here which is where the the cold the hot line comes out of the top of the tank if in a typical water heater sometimes people will say oh my water heater is going I had a shower today and within 2 minutes it was already not giving me hot water anymore uh you know that that actually isn't always true it it isn't always that your water heater is going a lot of times the culprit is this dip tube because as you can see in the water heater see this this is an old dip tube here see these little pieces down here in the bottom these are also pieces of old dip tubes you can see how chewed up and uh brittle and uh in bad shape they are what happens is over time this plastic degrades and it either falls off or it starts uh kind of disintegrating and so what happens is you might end up with your dip tube only being this long so your cold water comes in and right away it can mix in the W top end of the tank which cools off your water immediately that's going out to your shower or your tub or whatever so a lot of times all you need to do is have this dip tube replaced or replace it yourself and uh we will have a video posted as well showing you how to do that okay so this tube here typically for an average water heater might cost you 20 bucks and quite honestly most people with a little bit of knowledge can change that tube on their own okay as opposed to5 or $600 for a new water heater plus the service charge and everything to come out and change it okay so that's the dip tube it's a it's a very vital part of your water heater working correctly um this ugly looking thing that you have right here that's what's left of the anode rod a typical anode rod is going to look like this so it's a solid piece of uh well not solid but it's a big Rod of aluminum or magnesium or even a mix of it it's supposed to be in your Rod or sorry supposed to be in your water heater what it does is it's supposed to to attract any uh minerals and that sort of thing so that they eat this Rod instead of eating out your tank okay so you can see in this tank this Rod here is absolutely doing nothing it's done its job but it should have probably been replaced 6 months ago by the look of it okay so it totally gets eaten up here's a piece of either that Rod or an older one down here in the bottom just leaning in the tank and like I said this is pretty typical this is the kind of thing you would find probably in your own tank if it's a few years old this tank here is probably uh oh it's probably been going for 40 plus years maybe even 50 years so I mean uh this Tank's definitely had its time okay so uh so we talked about the dip tube the anode rod uh there wasn't too much to talk about on the hot water Outlet which is in the top um now I'm just trying to get orientated I'm going to switch to the other side again if you look past the dip tube right up here can you see in there see the end of my so right here this kind of rod thing that's sticking out right there that is that uh pressure release valve okay so that little Rod is what uh basically it's sort of like a temperature sensor and when it gets too hot it actually trips that valve to let off some pressure so that's what that is up there okay and then as we come down and over to uh right down here this piece here it's kind of you can see a hole right here okay so that is actually the drain so that's the port going through the side of the tank uh to that drain that I showed you on the outside and you can see this one's you know a third full of sediment and crud that's why it's important to drain some water from your tank every year just to drain out some of that sludge from the bottom and that sludge is just typically the minerals and things left over in your water after it's been heated and heated now over here behind this piece of dip tube is uh this is the uh temperature sensor on the end of the uh the gas control valve so as your water cools down and and needs to activate the the burner it uh this is what senses it and tells the burner to turn on so make sense that it's near the bottom of your tank where your cold water is supposed to come in and and uh then it calls for heat and heats your water up this pipe in the middle that's the flu for the gases leaving the the gas burner down below and up into the chimney okay and as we kind of work our way out um you can see here if I just turn this a little bit more cly you can see here's our inner lining this is the actual tank here then you're going to have some type of insulation and then the outer shell that's just decorated to uh you know make it look pretty uh it was a bit of a process to cut through all that as you can see it's pretty sharp and uh I wouldn't recommend doing it on your own heater for any reason but uh we did this just so give you an idea what what you should you know kind of how all this stuff ties together and how it works um now electric heater has some definitely some similar components but uh not all the same okay so so that's how our gas heater works um all this crap in the bottom that's you know it kind of looks like sand really is what it looks like but uh that's just all the stuff that settled out over your water over time and uh in this area we have actually really good water so it's not that we're using well water or anything like that that's this is uh actually very typical um so uh I think I think that this is the be was the best way to kind of give you some insight to the the internal workings of your water heater and uh maybe open your eyes a little bit to what's going on in there and why it's important to maintain it as best you can and quite honestly this is my own water heater out of my own house and I know all these things to maintain and uh you know I'm usually pretty V Vigilant about changing the anode rod and knowing when to change the dip tube uh maybe not so Vigilant about about draining it as often as it should be or working the pressure relief valve but uh so even even the fact that I have the knowledge of what needs to be done you can see what your tank can look like on the inside so just imagine somebody who's never done any maintenance on their tank and it's maybe as old as this or even half as old okay so uh hopefully this doesn't gross you out like I said some of this some of this stuff you see here is only because it has been empty for a while and you know the top wasn't plugged off so air has been able to get in there but uh some of these blisters like you're seeing here I think you know you can't really see it I don't know if you can tell right here there's kind of some blistering on here some Rust that's that's what's in your tank that's I mean it usually doesn't uh eat as quickly at this as it will the outside shell but uh eventually if you get a leak and it's not coming from one of the valves or something on the outside it's because you've got a pin hole in the in the the tank structure itself and it's it's uh worked its way to to being a leak and at that point there's no going back you're you're at the point of replacing your heater at that point so so if you can keep some of your maintenance up you can keep these babies going for a long time uh I find these older units probably you know like most things these days ran a lot longer than some of our newer ones maybe but uh uh like I said if you can keep your maintenance up it's just going to extend the life of your heater and knowing about this dip tube don't let a plumber talk you into a new water heater when maybe all you need is a $20 dip tube even if you've got to pay them to change it it's still way cheaper than a water heater you know we might as well say a th000 bucks or in that range compared to maybe $100 for them to come out and change that so okay so uh I think that's pretty much going to wrap it up uh you can uh look at some of our other we've actually got quite a few uh videos on the water heater aspect so uh uh you know we deal with most of these items that we already talked about in this one specifically on other videos showing you how to replace it or maintain it so check them out and see what you think uh hopefully you liked it if you did uh I appreciate you to click the Thumbs Up Button uh somewhere down here and uh also uh clip click the Subscribe button so you subscribe to our YouTube channel and there uh you'll get you know full access to every video we have up and going and uh believe me that'll take you some time to go through them all if you want to and uh I would encourage you to um also you can check out our website at ww. house improvements.com and there you can find the for page and other articles uh the forum's really popular so if you have any questions about water heater or uh any other topic to do with a DIY project you maybe got going on just post it up there and I'll be sure to get back to you you can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter thanks for watchinghi I'm Shannon from H improvements.com and I want to show you uh basically how a typical gas water heater works and what the different components of it are um to begin with I'm going to start at the top kind of work my way down so uh what you have at the very top here is you would typically this one isn't a uh a ventless water heater so this one would have a chimney coming out the top in the center here uh then you've got your cold side here so this is the cold water coming into the water heater and this is the hot side going out uh typically you can see here typically it'll be labeled on the housing of the of the water heater itself so here you see hot uh I don't see anything labeled for the cold but at least you know one one and the other and on the back side here is the anode rod okay so uh it could be anywhere in here but it's it sometimes is labeled but it's it should be in the top okay so then the uh the next item we have is uh as I'm working down is we've got this uh pressure relief valve so if something malfunctions and the water gets too hot inside the heater and it builds up too much pressure this valve here is designed to to release and let off some of that pressure and steam and water uh now typically what it should have is actually a iron or sometimes I've seen it in plastic rod that comes down the side of the water heater so that if hot water or steam or anything shoots out of there it isn't scalding somebody standing close by so it's directing it down towards the floor and preferably to a drain Okay so we've got that point that part there then directly down here on this one below it is the actual drain so uh they recommend draining your some water out of your water heater uh you know every year or twice twice a year sort of thing so this would be a drain on on the bottom that you can open up let some water out or if maybe had to do some maintenance or whatever sometimes you got to let some water out to do that to to release some pressure uh with this pressure relief as well they recommend that uh they actually recommend I believe it's every month or something you're supposed to flip this just give it a quick flip and uh make sure it's functioning properly uh I don't know hardly anybody that does that but that's what they recommend okay so as we work our way around down here I I'm going to uh just move to the other side now again I as I said at the beginning of the video this is a gas water heater okay so uh you're going to have a gas some sort of gas valve on it this is where you know your control is for the temperature well this is the temperature this is the pilot control uh on this one this is where the gas line would be entering um so I think what we're going to do is we're going to reposition the heater at a a little better height for the camera and uh we'll go through the the the bottom side of this water heater and show you what everything is and how it works okay so we've just brought the water heater up to a better level here to work on it or to display it uh so we already talked about the gas module which is right here so you should find a panel somewhere quite close to it with a little uh cover that comes off and then typically there'll be another some type of a door or sliding cover in there that you can uh open up to access the burner and the thermocoupler and everything else so once we get looking down in here what you're going to see is right back here you're going to see the uh burner itself that's this item right here okay so that uh once the gas or once the uh sensor says that uh there's enough gas and it's burning properly that it calls for heat on the water this this ignites the the burner ignites sorry this right here this line right here is the actual pilot line okay so once you've lit the the water heater this pilot will always be burning on this type of water heater that's always going to be burning right beside it or right between these two right back in here is uh that's the thermocoupler so basically what that is is just a sensor that uh tells the regulator the gas regulator that there is a pilot light burning and that it's okay to allow more gas in there to light the main burner which uh it's kind of hard for me to get in there but this far to the left side here there's a heavier line and it actually that's where the gas goes in and gets to the burner you can see it running underneath the burner there and it then once the thermal coupler says it's all right to ignite uh gas is released into that bigger line which then ignites the burner and that's what heats your water okay so that's the basic uh basic premise on how it works as far as the gas side of it you can see here as we rotate up under this Dome so the burner Heats this area underneath and this Dome and then the gases or the exhaust goes up through that Center pipe and that's what comes up through the top in the middle and into the chimney okay so so uh I've I've talked about this basic these components here and now some of these parts it doesn't really uh you know it's kind of hard to picture what they're what really happens inside the tank and we've kind of uh done a bit of a cutaway on this tank so that we can explain that to you so this is the inside of your typical water heater tank now the gross grungy crud that you see in here right now is actually pretty typical it's a little uh over the top on this one because this heater's been sitting empty for about six or seven months so some of the real excess rust and grime in that I think has more to do with the fact that there's been air exposed to the inside of this tank for a few months and the tank was wet and yada yada yada okay so it looks a little little worse than it typically should in a normal water heater but uh this is is uh you know I shouldn't say that there isn't going to be some grunge in there if if you were to actually open up your own okay so let's look at some of the bits and pieces in here um I guess we'll start at the top now I've turned this around so it's opposite of what you watched me show the first time right up here is the cold water inlet okay and it comes in to this white plastic thing that you see right here which is called the dip tube now these dip tubes what they do is they force that cold water all the way down here to the bottom of your water heater okay so we're we're near the bottom here and the reason it wants to do that is so that it's forcing only hot water like this is mixing now down here the cold water with the hot now the hot water is forced to the top and it goes up through this hole right here which is where the the cold the hot line comes out of the top of the tank if in a typical water heater sometimes people will say oh my water heater is going I had a shower today and within 2 minutes it was already not giving me hot water anymore uh you know that that actually isn't always true it it isn't always that your water heater is going a lot of times the culprit is this dip tube because as you can see in the water heater see this this is an old dip tube here see these little pieces down here in the bottom these are also pieces of old dip tubes you can see how chewed up and uh brittle and uh in bad shape they are what happens is over time this plastic degrades and it either falls off or it starts uh kind of disintegrating and so what happens is you might end up with your dip tube only being this long so your cold water comes in and right away it can mix in the W top end of the tank which cools off your water immediately that's going out to your shower or your tub or whatever so a lot of times all you need to do is have this dip tube replaced or replace it yourself and uh we will have a video posted as well showing you how to do that okay so this tube here typically for an average water heater might cost you 20 bucks and quite honestly most people with a little bit of knowledge can change that tube on their own okay as opposed to5 or $600 for a new water heater plus the service charge and everything to come out and change it okay so that's the dip tube it's a it's a very vital part of your water heater working correctly um this ugly looking thing that you have right here that's what's left of the anode rod a typical anode rod is going to look like this so it's a solid piece of uh well not solid but it's a big Rod of aluminum or magnesium or even a mix of it it's supposed to be in your Rod or sorry supposed to be in your water heater what it does is it's supposed to to attract any uh minerals and that sort of thing so that they eat this Rod instead of eating out your tank okay so you can see in this tank this Rod here is absolutely doing nothing it's done its job but it should have probably been replaced 6 months ago by the look of it okay so it totally gets eaten up here's a piece of either that Rod or an older one down here in the bottom just leaning in the tank and like I said this is pretty typical this is the kind of thing you would find probably in your own tank if it's a few years old this tank here is probably uh oh it's probably been going for 40 plus years maybe even 50 years so I mean uh this Tank's definitely had its time okay so uh so we talked about the dip tube the anode rod uh there wasn't too much to talk about on the hot water Outlet which is in the top um now I'm just trying to get orientated I'm going to switch to the other side again if you look past the dip tube right up here can you see in there see the end of my so right here this kind of rod thing that's sticking out right there that is that uh pressure release valve okay so that little Rod is what uh basically it's sort of like a temperature sensor and when it gets too hot it actually trips that valve to let off some pressure so that's what that is up there okay and then as we come down and over to uh right down here this piece here it's kind of you can see a hole right here okay so that is actually the drain so that's the port going through the side of the tank uh to that drain that I showed you on the outside and you can see this one's you know a third full of sediment and crud that's why it's important to drain some water from your tank every year just to drain out some of that sludge from the bottom and that sludge is just typically the minerals and things left over in your water after it's been heated and heated now over here behind this piece of dip tube is uh this is the uh temperature sensor on the end of the uh the gas control valve so as your water cools down and and needs to activate the the burner it uh this is what senses it and tells the burner to turn on so make sense that it's near the bottom of your tank where your cold water is supposed to come in and and uh then it calls for heat and heats your water up this pipe in the middle that's the flu for the gases leaving the the gas burner down below and up into the chimney okay and as we kind of work our way out um you can see here if I just turn this a little bit more cly you can see here's our inner lining this is the actual tank here then you're going to have some type of insulation and then the outer shell that's just decorated to uh you know make it look pretty uh it was a bit of a process to cut through all that as you can see it's pretty sharp and uh I wouldn't recommend doing it on your own heater for any reason but uh we did this just so give you an idea what what you should you know kind of how all this stuff ties together and how it works um now electric heater has some definitely some similar components but uh not all the same okay so so that's how our gas heater works um all this crap in the bottom that's you know it kind of looks like sand really is what it looks like but uh that's just all the stuff that settled out over your water over time and uh in this area we have actually really good water so it's not that we're using well water or anything like that that's this is uh actually very typical um so uh I think I think that this is the be was the best way to kind of give you some insight to the the internal workings of your water heater and uh maybe open your eyes a little bit to what's going on in there and why it's important to maintain it as best you can and quite honestly this is my own water heater out of my own house and I know all these things to maintain and uh you know I'm usually pretty V Vigilant about changing the anode rod and knowing when to change the dip tube uh maybe not so Vigilant about about draining it as often as it should be or working the pressure relief valve but uh so even even the fact that I have the knowledge of what needs to be done you can see what your tank can look like on the inside so just imagine somebody who's never done any maintenance on their tank and it's maybe as old as this or even half as old okay so uh hopefully this doesn't gross you out like I said some of this some of this stuff you see here is only because it has been empty for a while and you know the top wasn't plugged off so air has been able to get in there but uh some of these blisters like you're seeing here I think you know you can't really see it I don't know if you can tell right here there's kind of some blistering on here some Rust that's that's what's in your tank that's I mean it usually doesn't uh eat as quickly at this as it will the outside shell but uh eventually if you get a leak and it's not coming from one of the valves or something on the outside it's because you've got a pin hole in the in the the tank structure itself and it's it's uh worked its way to to being a leak and at that point there's no going back you're you're at the point of replacing your heater at that point so so if you can keep some of your maintenance up you can keep these babies going for a long time uh I find these older units probably you know like most things these days ran a lot longer than some of our newer ones maybe but uh uh like I said if you can keep your maintenance up it's just going to extend the life of your heater and knowing about this dip tube don't let a plumber talk you into a new water heater when maybe all you need is a $20 dip tube even if you've got to pay them to change it it's still way cheaper than a water heater you know we might as well say a th000 bucks or in that range compared to maybe $100 for them to come out and change that so okay so uh I think that's pretty much going to wrap it up uh you can uh look at some of our other we've actually got quite a few uh videos on the water heater aspect so uh uh you know we deal with most of these items that we already talked about in this one specifically on other videos showing you how to replace it or maintain it so check them out and see what you think uh hopefully you liked it if you did uh I appreciate you to click the Thumbs Up Button uh somewhere down here and uh also uh clip click the Subscribe button so you subscribe to our YouTube channel and there uh you'll get you know full access to every video we have up and going and uh believe me that'll take you some time to go through them all if you want to and uh I would encourage you to um also you can check out our website at ww. house improvements.com and there you can find the for page and other articles uh the forum's really popular so if you have any questions about water heater or uh any other topic to do with a DIY project you maybe got going on just post it up there and I'll be sure to get back to you you can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter thanks for watching\n"