Heater Al. Anode: health problem
I ordered new A.O. Smith 75 water heater. I checked the specs and noticed, that it is equipped with the aluminum anode. But intake aluminum will deposit this aluminum in my brain. Should I replace the anode to magnesium right away? Also I have the 15 y/o A.O. Smith heater and I tried to unscrew…
I ordered new A.O. Smith 75 water heater. I checked the specs and noticed, that it is equipped with the aluminum anode. But intake aluminum will deposit this aluminum in my brain. Should I replace the anode to magnesium right away? Also I have the 15 y/o A.O. Smith heater and I tried to unscrew anode there. It was welded in place. Can I do something on the new water heater right now to simplify the procedure of anode change in the future. e.g. can I put some car anti seize compound on the anode threads?
This is a good site about water heaters
http://www.waterheaterrescue.com
Thanks CMU. I think I’ll just replace my water heaters whenever they rust out.
The Serval water heater I found in my house when I bought it in 1974 had been installed in 1950 (according to the paper hang tag that was attached). It had a monel metal tank and didn’t leak until 1980.Too bad they don’t use that material any more. [Of course when i replaced it with my first A.O. Smith, my gas bill dropped by a few hundred $$s a year, so that old Serval didn’t have much going for it other than the imperviousness of it’s tank 🙂 ].
Further, there no external indication when the anode is gone, so the tank looks “ok”.
BM, the point seems to be that the anode prevents rusting by sacrificing itself. When the anode is gone, the tank begins to rust. NOw every 4-5 years if you change the anode ($25-30) is should keep doing its thing, and the tank supposedly can last 20-25 years instead of 12-15. Now I don’t know ANYONE who’s actually done this, but its in the literature everywhere, and it makes sense to me as an engineer.
I’m on my 4th water heater, since buying my house in’74. They’ve all started leaking before anything else went wrong.
Replacement rods are available as jointed, so putting in the new is no problem. Of course, you could cut off part of the old (even if it fall into the tank) to remove it.
btw, does anyone else EVER change the anode in their tank? supposedly it’s a cheap way to extend the life of the heater.
I do not plan to put much of the antiseaze. And you correct as well – I do not plan to drink heated water. The Ceiling is 90″ high. The heater top is 57″ from the ground. I am not sure how much space will be wasted by the bricks or some other base of the heater. So I can get 33″ of the clearance. Is it enough? I also can make window in tin ceiling between beams. It should give another 12″.
You planning on drinking hot water or else how do you ingest the trace AL in it? Not a worry, I think.
The anti-seize is a good idea, just don’t slather it beyond the threads.
Incidentally, do you have enough clearance atop your heater to remove the rod when it corrodes? I know replacing the rod increases the life of the heater by 2x, but in most applications there is not enough vertical clearance.
Also, have heard tell than magnesim lasts longer. Think you can replace the new one if so.
You’re worried about ingesting aluminum but not NeverSeez?