In an effort to simplify cleaning in my garage brewery, I had someone come out and give me a quote on having a utility sink installed. Unfortunately, due to the difficulty of installing a drain that won't be anything I could execute anytime soon.
In the meantime, I'm able to reuse and/or recapture a lot of my chilling water output for cleaning. However, I still usually end up needing to take my 10 gallon cooler mash tun back into the house, run hot water from the bathtub (closest to the hot water heater in the loop), and then schlep it through the house and back outside (trying not to wake anyone since I brew in the middle of the night).
My hot water heater happens to be in a closet out in the garage. I was curious if anyone has used the drain valve on your water heater to pull pre-heated water for cleaning, etc? I know I should periodically flush my hot water heater through this thing (though I never have). Given my experience with cheap toilet/sink valves, I'd want to make sure the valve itself is of decent quality (or replace it with a better one) before deciding to use it with any frequency. That said, I'm curious if anyone has done this or has other ideas about cheaply getting a hot water source given my proximity to the hot water heater.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.