How To?Hot Water Heater

[mail2us]

I am new to this stuff so here goes...

Our Suburban hot water heater is gas and/or electric. Part of the instructions says not to turn the hot water heater on until the Hot Water tank is filled.

How do I know when it is filled? Do I have to fill our water tank completely first, or if hooked to city water, then what.

Dummy er....no...

Dennis

[SlickWillie]

Open a faucet (hot water side) and bleed all the air out of the lines, while either hooked to city water or with pump on.

[stiles watson]

When you are hooked to city water supply, simply turn on the hot water faucet and push the air out of the line. When the water has a steady flow the hot water heater tank is full. If you are on your internal supply, do the same.

The thing you are concerned about is frying the electrical heating element in the heater. So don't turn on the power switch to the water heater until the tank is full.

[H. John Kohl]

The comments above are right on. Since you are new to this stuff make sure your Hot water by-pass switch is not on. That prevents cold water from getting into the hot water heater. If you are starting fresh(no water in the tank) there will be "10 Gallons" of air coming out of the hot water faucet before water does. This means it could take a couple of minutes or more. If it is short the first time then I suggest checking the hot water by-pass switch.
Good luck,

[mail2us]

"tanks" for the help. It is our first night out and here we are going thru some hoops actually using various elements.

Water lines were first purged of air and indeed water now on both hot and cold side; fired up the w/h on electric and it works!

Thanks again,
Dennis