Hot water heater drain plug rusted

[tomduncan]

The drain plug was left out of the heater and when I went to replace noticed the female part is rusted and has a white material on it. Can't seam to clean well enough to get new plug back in. any advice

[OldCoot]

Originally Posted by tomduncan

The drain plug was left out of the heater and when I went to replace noticed the female part is rusted and has a white material on it. Can't seam to clean well enough to get new plug back in. any advice

See if you can borrow a 1/2" pipe tap if not, get a 6" long 1/2" pipe nipple and take a Dremel tool with a cutoff wheel and cut 4 equally spaced 1/8" wide grooves in it across the threads and make a redneck tap. Insert and slowly turn in & out to clean the threads.

[Great Horned Owl]

That white stuff is probably pipe dope that was applied to keep the plug from leaking. The least drastic approach to cleaning it is a wire brush made for cleaning female copper pipe fittings prior to soldering. They are not very expensive and can be found in any hardware store.

Is your plug the type with an attached sacrificial anode? Yes if suburban, no if Atwood. If so, the problem may be that they are a little difficult to put in straight. Usually they want to tilt down. I have to hold mine with a large channel lock plier in order to get it started.

Joel