My son mentioned putting a ball valve on but it was too late at that point. Are they always 3/4" NPT ?and install a 3/4 inch ball valve
On a related note, we tried to drain the old one in order to move it, picked debris out of the drain spigot, but never got more than a slow trickle. I messed with it again the other night, used a pick tool to pluck out little bits of calcium and eventually got splashed good by calcium-filled water before I shoved my thumb over the plug hole, forcing it to start flowing really good into the hose going to the floor drain. Other than the 1 cup (wild estimate) of calcium, the water flowing out was really clear. No signs of sediment, rust, etc.