Kitchen Large Electric Appliances - water heater

i know my hot water heater is filling up with calcium deposits due to the water quality here. it is about 5 year sold and my hot water capacity is less and less. my nieghbor recently cleand his out and got at least a 5 gal bucket worth out of his. it took him about four hours. is there an easier way to do it? our heaters are inside the home in their own closet in the laundry room.

Heaters?... as in more than one? Sounds like you have more than one in the closet?

Calcium deposits are like liquid limestone that resolidifies as a solid on stuff. This does not usually "come out", as it settles and bonds to stuff. Sure your friend did not flush out plain old sediment? 5 gallons??? Maybe he counted the entire brackish content of a 5 gallon pail that was mostly water.

All you should have to do is shut off the cold water valve to the water heater, open up a hot water faucet upstairs, then catch the water that comes out the drain valve on the bottom of the water heater. All you have to do is bleed off some.

Then I would test the function of the water heater. Is it gas or electric?

If the dip tube inside fails it could blend the cold and hot water and make cold water come out with the hot upon opening a hot water faucet. Do you ever recollect having plastic plug up faucet aerators or showerheads?

If your water heater is electric, yo could have a failure of one of the elements or thermostats. Most electric water heaters have 2 of each of these.

It's possible I supposed that the elements are caking over with calcium deposits also.