[Shop-talk] Hot Water Heater 'Heat Trap'

[David Scheidt]

On Fri, Dec 10, 2010 at 10:58 AM, Benjamin Zwissler
<bjzwissler at gmail.com> wrote:
> A friend had this problem and the issue was the dip tube disintegrated and
> releasd small plastic particles that plugged the aerators at all the
> faucets. B Remove an aerater to see if that's the problem. B If you see
> plastic granules in there its likely the dip tube. B Apparently there was a
> time period where the dip tube material was changed and caused this problem
> on lots of water heaters.
>

the tubes were made over 15 years ago.  I doubt many of those water
heaters are still in service, even if they didn't suffer dip tube
failure.  Dip tubes do fail, even when not made of disintegrating
plastic; they can get plugged with scale, as well.  scale, rust, and
other crud can block spouts just as well as  plastic bits.  So can
sand in the water, which is a problem in some well systems.



--
David Scheidt
dmscheidt at gmail.com