Water heater anode question

Yes

The rod can be aluminum or magnesium with a steel core. The missing material didn't fall off in pieces but sort of dissolved as it "sacrificed" itself to minerals that could attack your hot water tank.

Good maintenance practice is to replace the anode at the beginning of each season regardless of its condition. It is an inexpensive preventive maintenance procedure.

We're in the middle of that right now. The manual is not for our WH specifically, so DH has to actually take a look. We used our new TT from May to Oct - darn short season with a new TT - and while it doesn't look terrible, and we could probably be perfectly fine for another season, it'll be replaced. Of course, first gotta get the model #. Amazon had some decent prices....depending on the model #.

Has anyone included the WH Rinse to their set up? There were a couple of comments on the Amazon page noting that they did a dandy job and how surprising it was to see how much crud came out. Any thoughts?? Seems like it was about a $10 or less investment. Maybe worth it, maybe not.

I replace the anode rod each year.
And yes I bought one of those rinse wands from camping world, and it helped a lot in getting the debris flushed out that was in the bottom of the tank.

dadmomh wrote:
Has anyone included the WH Rinse to their set up? There were a couple of comments on the Amazon page noting that they did a dandy job and how surprising it was to see how much crud came out. Any thoughts?? Seems like it was about a $10 or less investment. Maybe worth it, maybe not.

Or you could be a real el cheapo like I am and ride home from the campground with the plug out. You'll be amazed at all the scale that a simple trip home will toss out.

Teach

Absolutely no need to replace a perfectly good anode rod that has serviceability left.

They are designed to deteriorate......replace when the sacraficial material (aluminum or magnesium) has deteriorated at least 75% gone.



Always a good idea to drain and flush WH yearly to get rid of scale that can accumulate inside tank. A simple inexpensive flushing wand helps.

I turn off water source, relieve pressure on system, remove WH drain plug and then turn water source back on and let it power flush until I stop seeing large chunks of stuff.
Turn water source back off and use the rinsing wand. Another power flush by turning water source on.

Handy little rinsing tool.........

At the end of the season when I winterize, I use my shop vac. with a smaller piece of vinyl tubing shoved down its hose to vacuum out the bottom of the WH. I simply use my hand to seal between the vac. hose and the smaller hose.
This way I get out everything in a very fast manner without having to use water - which is less convenient for me.

Anode rods are abundant on eBay and Amazon. So cheap. Again, replace every year. They are exposed to such a variety of water and minerals. If you wait until they are badly deteriorated you get a lot of debris in you WH tank. Not good. Just do it and be done with it for the season.

Thanks for the replys
Old Biscuit's picture answerer my question.
Thanks again