Drain The Bottom of Your Water Heater
On the far east side of El Paso, Texas the tap water supplied by El Paso Water Utilities comes from fairly deep wells. They pump up the very top layer of an ice age aquifer with good 
drinkable water. This can be thought of as floating on top of over a thousand feet of salty water. Since the salty water is heavier it tends to sink over the aeons, and the good drinkable water slowly rises to the top of the aquifer.
This drinking water has a fairly high total dissolved solids (TDS), which normally would mean that it is high in dissolved calcium and magnesium. When this water is heated, as in your coffee maker or water heater, some of these dissolved solids tend to precipitate out. When dealing with elevated-TDS-tap-water like this, it is important that one drains out the bottom of your water heater twice per year. Doing so will reduce the amount of natural gas that it takes to heat your water; also if you don't ever drain this stuff out, the tank of the hot water heater will fail many years sooner than it would have if you had done the regular, required maintenance.
This is a picture I took today of some of the gunk which comes out when I drain the hot water heater out the hose bib at the bottom.
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drinkable water. This can be thought of as floating on top of over a thousand feet of salty water. Since the salty water is heavier it tends to sink over the aeons, and the good drinkable water slowly rises to the top of the aquifer.This drinking water has a fairly high total dissolved solids (TDS), which normally would mean that it is high in dissolved calcium and magnesium. When this water is heated, as in your coffee maker or water heater, some of these dissolved solids tend to precipitate out. When dealing with elevated-TDS-tap-water like this, it is important that one drains out the bottom of your water heater twice per year. Doing so will reduce the amount of natural gas that it takes to heat your water; also if you don't ever drain this stuff out, the tank of the hot water heater will fail many years sooner than it would have if you had done the regular, required maintenance.
This is a picture I took today of some of the gunk which comes out when I drain the hot water heater out the hose bib at the bottom.
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