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Re: [Shop-talk] the air saga continues

To: Jack Brooks <jibjib@att.net>, shop-talk@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [Shop-talk] the air saga continues
From: old dirtbeard <dirtbeard@pacbell.net>
Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2011 10:46:19 -0700 (PDT)
>You do change out your hot water heater tank anode every 3-5 years and flush
>the tank every year or so, if it's bottom gas fired, right?>
>
>Jack


Yes, I do, anyway. I pulled the anode out of my 75 gallon tank when it was five 
years old and it only had a few inches of magnesium left at the bottom of the 
rod. Since it is in a closet, I got a segmented rode that you can "fold" so you 
can put in a full length rod even though you do not have sufficient clearance. 
The basic wisdom is that a rod will last about five years without a water 
softener and only three years with a softener.

I also put a 3/4" ball valve on the drain so that it can really flush the tank 
with some "gusto" (the original small drain valve really would not flow enough 
water to suck up the large decayed rod sediment off from the bottom of the 
tank. 
The hose on the ball valve now will shoot water and sediment 30 feet into the 
air). :-)

I know the standard information says in order to flush, just drain a few 
gallons 
out of the tank. What I found works the best is to completely drain the tank by 
flushing it out the 3/4" ball valve, then open the cold water inlet just enough 
to pressurize the tank and put a few inches of water on the bottom of the tank, 
then open the ball valve to flush the few gallons of fresh water off the bottom 
of the tank. By repeating this process multiple times, it removed a great deal 
of sediment off the bottom of the tank that normal draining did not remove (I 
was amazed how much sediment remained in the tank after "normal flushing").

The tank also is much quieter now (no knocking/thudding) when the burner is 
running.

best,

doug
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