![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() For more updates, you can subscribe to our newsletter and follow him on LinkedIn. He has a doctorate in physics and is the author of a popular book on building science. Bailes III, PhD is a speaker, writer, building science consultant, and the founder of Energy Vanguard in Decatur, Georgia. I highly recommend Larry Weingarten’s new book.* It’s titled “The Philosopher’s Wrench” and is practical, philosophical, and a bit whimsical.Īllison A. As the White Queen in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass said to Alice, “”Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” It just takes practice! See Larry Weingarten’s comment below.įor those of you who haven’t had breakfast yet today, I hope I’ve helped you believe at least one “impossible” thing. Be careful about trying to extend the life with a water softener, though. If you have hard water, which has a higher mineral content, your anode rod will corrode faster. The frequency that you’ll have to change the anode rod and flush the tank will depend on the quality of the water you put in the water heater. Believing impossible things before breakfastĭo those two things and your water heater can last decades. It must be because the water heater that I replaced was twenty years old, and I’m sure it had little or no maintenance in its lifetime. Our water supply here in the Atlanta area is pretty good. You can see in the photo above that I got a little bit of sediment out of the tank. I’ve drained mine once and need to do so again this year. Sediment from the first time I drained my water heater tank All you have to do is hook up a hose to the drain on the bottom and let it drain to the outdoors or to a nearby drain. Where do you think that stuff from the anode rod goes as it corrodes? Draining a water heater regularly helps keep it free of tank-killing sedimentĭraining the tank is easy. Some of it comes in with the supply water. Over time, sediment builds up in the bottom. The second big thing you can do to make your water heater last decades is to drain and refill the tank regularly. So, check and change the anode rod regularly. All that’s left then will be a straight piece of metal not much thicker than a metal coat hanger. If you never change the anode rod, all the material you see on that old one will disappear, too. The photo above shows a partially depleted anode rod next to a new one. That’s why it’s sometimes called a sacrificial anode rod. If you do no maintenance, that process will kill the tank in about 9 to 12 years.īut if you put a magnesium or aluminum anode rod in the tank, it attracts the corrosive particles to spare the tank. Those minerals can eat away at the glass lining and then the steel tank. The water that comes into the tank contains dissolved minerals. New vs partially depleted anode rods Storage water heaters come with a steel tank lined on the inside with glass. The first is checking and changing the anode rode. ![]() In a quick search, I found articles with 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 13 tips for making your water heater last longer. You can go online and find tons of information about how to extend the life of your water heater. If I do, I’ll be 109! But I’m not sure my anode rod will last that long. The only problem for me with making it last fifty years is also making myself last that long. I definitely don’t want to replace it because the tank goes kaput while the heat pump still has life in it. Especially since I spent a bunch of money on a nice heat pump water heater, I want my investment to last as long as possible. But what if a water heater could last decades?Īs it turns out, water heaters really can last decades? Larry Weingarten, one of the nicest and most knowledgeable hot water experts in the world, wrote this in his new book*: “The average life of tank-type water heaters is nine to twelve years, but with periodic maintenance I’ve gotten fifty years from them!” Where did this idea come from? Well, it’s nothing more than an assumption based on how often water heaters get replaced. Go out and ask a hundred people how long a water heater can last, and the majority probably will say it’s in the range of 10 to 15 years. We’ve been trained to believe something that’s just not true. ![]()
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