Little antifreeze in hot water tank a problem?

[treyster]

New to winterizing and got a little pink stuff in the hot water tank. Turned on pump before switching bypass for a few seconds. Anode rod was already out. Any long term issues or just rinse it and go next spring?

[Ron3rd]

That's the one!

[BarneyS]

Here is the one on Amazon. An indispensable tool! 🙂
Barney

[Ron3rd]

ADK Camper wrote:
I did this once too. Felt like a fool. You might want to get a tank rinser. Don't know if that's it's real name, bit it's just a tube with a little bend at one end and a standard female garden hose connector on the other. And happily it's very inexpensive. You insert it after removing the anode rod and flush out the tank. Even if you don't need to flush antifreeze it's useful to flush out crud from the tank. You'd be surprised at the mineral deposits and other stuff that collects in there.

Camco makes that little rinser; about $5 on Amazon. Invaluable when trying to rinse the tank; the little curved end really helps. I just flused my this weekend and the sediment that came out of it was incredible.

It was totally my fault; neglected the tank for about 3 years.

[poppin_fresh]

Agree. You are fine.

Might take a few rinses to get the foaming to stop, but putting a little in the HW tank is better than winterizing by putting antifreeze in the FW tank and pumping it from there. Trust me, it takes a lot longer to rinse the FW tank than it does the HW tank!

[rexlion]

If you don't rinse it out well enough, you will have sweet-smelling, slightly pink water for dishwashing and showers for a while. Annoying! Don't ask how I know...

[BB_TX]

I agree with rinse well and go. Should be diluted enough afterward to not be a concern. However if you have a clothes washer I would make sure your lines are well flushed before washing any clothes. The pink stuff can stain.

[DutchmenSport]

Won't hurt anything, just rinse real good. Even after you rinse, you may still notice a bit of foam or bubbles in your hot water. In time, it will go away. But rinse as good as you can to get it all out.

[ADK_Camper]

I did this once too. Felt like a fool. You might want to get a tank rinser. Don't know if that's it's real name, bit it's just a tube with a little bend at one end and a standard female garden hose connector on the other. And happily it's very inexpensive. You insert it after removing the anode rod and flush out the tank. Even if you don't need to flush antifreeze it's useful to flush out crud from the tank. You'd be surprised at the mineral deposits and other stuff that collects in there.

[naturist]

No problem

[cbshoestring]

Rinse and go.