Water Heater

[camelracer]

I was out on my annual Owens Valley camping trip last weekend when the sink faucet quit working. The pump and all seemed to be working but no water. I took off the aerater and found it was plugged with crud.

Today I flushed the water system and drained the water heater. The anode in the heater was about half eaten away and the heater tank was full of the anode material which is what I had found in the aerater. My question is how long should the anode last and should it deposit crud in the tank. This camper was delivered last October and the heater was only turned on once.

 

[erod]

post a picture...did you make sure the tank was empty/clean if you stored it for a long period of time?

 

[HERR42]

i wonder, does the water heater drain by gravity?
its on business end of a check valve (city water feed) ...and the water pump(camper water tank).
that would mean that there is no drain path except out the faucet/shower....and both of those require pressure to allow water flow.

so how would you empty it? is there no other way other than to pull the drain plug/anode out?

i would think that water from different localities could behave differently from a corrosion standpoint. here is Sacramento they inject lime to protect the the old iron piping systems. That tends to help the longevity of water heaters. does a number on glass...lots of spots. i suppose filling up from some places might not be so good...a low mineral content could really set up a "anode eating" situation.


ps: just found "Tanksaver® Universal Anode Rod Kit" at campingworld.com....it has a petcock. i am going to get one.

 

[pvstoy]

Unless you pull out the anode plug the tank will always have water. And that water will, depending on the acid etc, will eat away the rod. That is why they are there to proctect the tank. That drain in the anode plug sounds good and easy to drain.

 

[HERR42]

seems cheap....less than $20

 

[camelracer]

The heater hadn't been drained since I got the camper in Oct. I guess I'll have to change my lazy ways. I knew the anode would erode but I didn't think it would go so fast or leave so much crud. Normally the crud sits in the bottom of the tank away from the outlet but I think the washboard road I was on got it in the system and plugged the faucet. The water here in Goleta has plenty of minerals so I don't think that's the problem.

 

[pvstoy]

Last week I flushed out a brand new water heater tank and it had some stuff that came out.