Blowout adaptor at Walmart, RV section. About three bucks. Screw that into the female end of a washing machine hose. Inflate.
The WH I've worked on, the inlet goes into a dip tube with a tiny hole in it. So, you won't get a heck of a lot by siphon. If you regularly drain the tank, you can hook a hose to the drain. Be sure to shut off the electric or gas, until the tank is fully refilled. You might burn out your tank, if you don't.
Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus
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While building a new house some 10 years ago and seeing a long pipe run between the kitchen and bathroom, I installed two 50 gallon highly-insulated water heaters at the two water-using locations to keep the hot water runs short. One is upstairs.
If the city water fails, I have 100 gallons of drinkable water just by shutting off the main house valve and opening an upstairs sink valve so that air and gravity can do their thing. I've been thinking about adding a tire valve fitting to the tank upstairs so that I could use a hand tire pump to add some pressure to the system. Fortunately, there's been only one water failure since installation, but that was enough to show that the system worked.
Tomsic