- Sacrificial Anodes serve an important purpose in a Hot Water System but most people don’t even know that they are there.
- Many leave their hot water system to run its course without consideration of any form of hot water system maintenance until problems arise.
- There are plumbers or handymen that replace anodes and that’s all they do. What they don’t do is flush out the tank.
- Watch the video and learn why it’s important to complete a tank flush when replacing sacrificial anodes in your hot water system.
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Replacing Sacrificial Anodes – There’s more to it!
In today’s video, Top Dog Richard is on the mission to replace the anodes in a hot water system and shares with is what it’s all about. He also shows us and explains why simply replacing the anodes alone simply isn’t enough, especially if you haven’t performed any hot water system maintenance since you moved in or bought your hot water system.
What Are Sacrificial Anodes?
Sacrificial Anodes are anodes which are present in the hot water systems made of magnesium. Their purpose is to sacrifice themselves to the water’s impurity instead of preventing the tank from getting damaged. If you wish to prolong the tank’s life, you need to replace these anodes every 2-3 years periodically. When they break down, they settle at the bottom of the tank in the form of debris, and if left unchecked, they can harm the tank base’s quality.
The Video
In this video, Richard carries out Plumbdogs standard procedure of replacing the anodes of these tanks and also flushes out the debris settled at the bottom to demonstrate the proper method.
The Rheem Stellar hot water system has two magnesium anodes and Richard takes them to look at their condition. He shows us what new vs used anodes look like and we can clearly see the difference. The old ones have entirely broken down, and there’s no magnesium left attached to their body.
Before installing the new pair of anodes, the first thing we need to do is flush out the tank. Check out the amount of residue that comes out. The entire floor is covered in a thick blanket of residue. The dust is present in both forms of sand and solid particle waste.
This tank is as much as seven years old, and seeing the amount of debris, one can predict that this is the first time it has been flushed out. The tank was in dire need of a good service and simply only replacing the anodes wouldn’t have guaranteed good functionality and prolonged life for the hot water system.
If a tank flush is not performed, the debris can potentially stick inside the filters, pipes and even the tempering valve which can cause problems outside of the hot water unit.
If you are facing issues of not getting adequate hot water at your place, then there’s a good chance that your hot water system needs a good service.
If you suspect you have a plumbing issue, give us a whistle!
