House Mods HMP011 LF Brass 3/4" MNPT Water Heater Drain/Flush Valve(Full Port, Ball Valve, 3 inch Shank, 180 degree Handle W/Garden Hose Cap and Thread Tape)

this appears to be of great quality. It is a bit pricier than i was hoping but all shut off valves are expensive. was easy to install and is a great upgrade over stock hot water tank drain valves. Lots of them are plastic these days and they are the worst design ever. please upgrade to brass before filling it with water, you will thank yourself later. my Rheem actually came with a brass drain valve but i still upgraded to this since its a much bigger opening and also easier to open and close.

This drain valve is sturdy, well made, and a far better option than the cheap plastic valves that come on water heaters nowadays. If my water heater ever goes out, I’ll take this one off and replace my new water heaters stock valve with this one.I also like that it’s angled, has a rubber coating around the valve handle so you don’t have to burn your hand if the pipe has radiated any heat, and comes with rubber sealed cap which seals the valve as an extra layer of security.Changing the old valve was a breeze. I watched a very helpful video on YouTube which walked me through this and saved me hundreds of dollars in having to have someone come out and do the exact same thing.I didn’t have a drain in by basement so I had to repeatedly fill 5gal buckets and carry them upstairs and outside to drain them and this entire process took me about an hour. Would be far less with a floor drain.Added bonus that it comes with threading tape so I didn’t have to go out and buy any of that. I wasn’t sure which valve would work best so I purchased three and returned the other two. This one took the cake by a mile.

This was an excellent improvement to my water heater’s existing flush valve! The cheap plastic one it had before would barely drain out any water. But now, water flows so much faster and easier. This makes the yearly draining much better.I’ll be installing this on every new water heater I purchase from now on.

This valve is as described by other reviewers. Solidly built with good materials. Install requires draining the tank, spinning out the plastic shut off valve that came with my tank and spinning in this new valve. I got the 3” extended valve but could have used the 2” valve. In spite of the quality of this valve and ease of installation, I may remove the new valve and replace it with the original plastic valve. Why, you ask? A few weeks after installing the new valve, I wanted to drain some water out of my hot water tank. The new valve was HOT. The new metal valve is radiating the heat stored inside the tank to my cellar. I suppose I can try to insulate the new valve but it will not be as heat efficient as the clunky factory plastic valve. I never considered this heat loss when I made the decision to replace the plastic valve.

These are just great replacement drain valves for your water heater. Made of brass, so very strong and durable, unlike those plastic ones that come standard. Full bore opening allows large chunks to drain out, if necessary. Easy to install and easy to use. My only concern is someone inadvertently opening the valve and getting scalded, so those covers are a very nice addition. I took off one star only because I wanted the 2” bore, which was unavailable (either on back order or discontinued). For your typical residential water heater, 2” is more than enough and 3” is kinda overkill. But a great product none-the-less.

I installed this flush valve into an AO Smith brand gas water heater in my house to simplify and improve the drainage of the heater during annual maintenance. Note that this fitting meets the NSF standard 61 which establishes minimum criteria for evaluating the health effects of materials, components, products, and systems in contact with drinking water as established by the Safe Drinking Water Act of 2014. The first photograph is the original valve upon removal. The second picture is the House Mods valve after installation. The valve has an inside diameter of 3/4 inch (19mm) which is much larger then the minimum diameter of the valve that was installed by AO Smith. Not only does this reduce the time needed to drain the tank but also facilitates the removal of sediments. The lever handle to open the valve is simple to use and requires only a 90 degree turn of the handle. The original valve requires a slotted screw driver into rotate the valve open. Installation was straight forward and there are several good videos on YouTube that describe the necessary steps for anyone who is not familiar with the installation process. I would recommend using a pipe wrench which give better leverage than tongue and grove pliers (eg. Channel Lock pliers) to ease removal and installation. Note that both the House Mods brand valve and the factory original valve are made in China.

I have a Rheem XG40T06EN38U0 water heater and if you have the same or a similar model, the TL;DR is this is what you need to upgrade that stock, craptastic plastic drain valve. More detailed version:I called Rheem and after we troubleshot it and determined it was the plastic drain valve, the woman instructed me how to reseal it, but she screwed up massively by saying "use teflon tape *or plumber's putty*." (WARNING: DO NOT use plumber's putty on pipe threads!).After the putty failed due to her poor instructions and me blindly trusting them, I then went back to Home Depot to just upgrade to a brass valve rather than using teflon tape on the same stock plastic valve, it's better to just industrialize it now with brass, and at Home Depot, I noticed all the newer Rheem models have a sticker on the box that says "Now with Brass Valve!" so it sounds like they stopped cheaping out with plastic parts.However, Home Depot doesn't sell that brass valve separately, just the entire water heater, which brought me here. I sealed it using Oatey Teflon tape rather than the included brand with this valve as it's a name brand and thicker, but I'm not sure it matters - all I know is it's been sealed for about a week and so far, so good, no more leakage!