Water Heaters - Strange flushing problem

Hello,
I installed a 40 gal. GE gas water heater from Home Depot last February and all has been great. But now when I open the valve to flush sediment, I hear a loud click and water stops flowing out the valve. I can only get water to trickle out the drain valve if I open it slowly and only a little bit...opening it too much and too fast causes the click, and then water stops completely. Any ideas? The first time I did this back around the beginning of summer, water came rushing out the valve into my bucket. Thank you for your help.

Sounds like the valve handle (which is probably plastic) is stripped or brokem. Try getting the handle off and turning the stem with pliers. Good luck and post back.

It could be some piece of foreign substance in the tank. Not necessarily from another country, but something that found its way into your tank. The best way to clear it out would be to turn off the heater and wait an hour for the water to begin to cool. Or run some cold water through it after turning off the gas valve. Then turn off the cold water inlet valve and the hot water outlet valve. Open the drain valve to get the object stuck against it and remove the drain valve from the tank. You will not get a giant gush of water but a glug-glug. Plug it up with a rag and see if the offending piece is stuck inside the valve. I assume it will be. Then clear it out, put some teflon tape on the valve and put it back in. Sounds easy. It should be. If the valve is plastic, be careful to not ruin it, or have another one on hand to replace the plastic one if it cracks. Good Luck.

Ken

When I installed the water heater, I used heat-saver dielectric fittings, you know, the ones with the metal balls to prevent standing heat loss. These are what is making the click noise when the water stops flowing out of the drain/flush valve. Could atmospheric air pressure be preventing the water from flowing out? I tried it with the hot water running at a nearby sink and it does the same thing. The drain/flush valve will still flow some and shut off completely with no drips.. so I just let it drain for 5min and closed the valve. The dip tube is molded with a swirl on the end to stir up sediment thus eliminating the need to flush periodically...GE calls it self cleaning. Should I just forget about all of this then? Thank you for taking the time to reply.

The balls are causing the tank to pull a vacuum which is why water stops flowing. New innovations are great but I think once a year I would disconnect the union and flush to see if it's doing the job. Good luck.