Oh idk if it actually drained the tank, I only did it from the taps/showers lol. I cut off the water going into the tank and just let everything run until nothing else came out. I can't get into the closet of doom well enough to actually get at the water heater but the valve was up top and easy enough to reach.Yeah, probably. If the pipe won't get hot enough to melt solder, it's not empty enough. Actually you didn't have to drain the whole tank, just turn off the cold water supply to the tank, open all the hot water taps, and drain a little water from the tank usually would do. Sorry! On the upside, you don't have to drain the sludge at the bottom of the tank for another year.


and then the sink drain itself wasn't even attached to the pipe at all.

