Water heater anode rod replacement. I know you're supposed to, but do you?

[Terry Wawro]

There are some maintenance things we should do and I think most of us do regularly. Change the oil in our vehicles, change the air filters in our HVAC, etc.

Then there are the other things that we might should do, but probably don't. Things like brush after every meal, change our wiper blades regularly, clean your gutters quarterly and replace the anode rod in our hot water heaters.

I'm good at the first list, not so much the second. I can honestly say in all the years I've done maintenance around our houses, I've never replaced an anode rod. I'm just curious, how many here actually change theirs on a regular basis?

[Tom M King]

I asked my old standard Plumbing Supply house if they had anode rods. The answer was, "We sell the water heaters". My trouble is not only do ours require segmented ones, to be able to change them, but too much other stuff to do.

[Stan Calow]

Maybe thats a regional-water quality thing. Here, I've never heard of anybody recommending or doing that. My WH lasted 20 years which I think is pretty good.

[Christopher Herzog]

I am not on your level in terms of what all parts are called. If this is the magnesium rod, we pull them out and cut them off in my area. Town water does not get along with them and so it is removed at install with a hacksaw.

Red neck Illinois perspective....

[Ron Citerone]

I am not on your level in terms of what all parts are called. If this is the magnesium rod, we pull them out and cut them off in my area. Town water does not get along with them and so it is removed at install with a hacksaw.

Red neck Illinois perspective....

Chris, you got my curiosity going. When you say "Town water does not get along with them," what exactly happens when you leave them in?

[George Bokros]

Where we lived in 1988 they caused a rotten eg smell in our drinking glasses. We had well water and the plumbing supply told me to eliminate the rotten egg smell remove the anode rod. The rotten egg smell was common with anode rod and well water in our area.

[Ron Citerone]

Where we lived in 1988 they caused a rotten eg smell in our drinking glasses. We had well water and the plumbing supply told me to eliminate the rotten egg smell remove the anode rod. The rotten egg smell was common with anode rod and well water in our area.

Good to know, never heard of it here where we have public water and no problems lke that. At my cottage we have well water and while I don't have that problem, my brother nearby has had some foul smelling hot water. I bet that is what was going on.

[Bill Dufour]

location? pure snow melt into granite gravel is not much problem with water picking up chemicals.
Bill D

[eugene thomas]

in my first house put in new water heater and water had weard smell. company sent me different rod. smell went away.

[Bruce King]

I changed one years ago, took about 150ftlbs of force to loosen it. Then I read that they last the life of the unit in most cases. A poor ground going to the water heater will cause it to self destruct with some water types. Whenever a house is going to be unoccupied for a week or longer it should be turned off or the rotten egg smell will begin.

[Ole Anderson]

I'm on a municipal well, and my water is fine. My neighbor lives down the street and is on a private well and has odor problems. Both gas fired. His anode rod was totally eaten up after 5 years. Replaced it with a new aluminum rod and still had an odor even in the cold water. Had the well chlorinated and the smell went away.

[Jim Koepke]

Hmmmm, been meaning to replace mine for the last decade.

After reading this, guess it can likely wait another decade.

jtk

[Ron Selzer]

at my first house on well water had the rotten egg smell issue , removed the anode and it went away
havn't touched an anode in any house since
Ron

[Terry Wawro]

According to the powers that be, you're supposed to change them every 3-5 years. I'm temped to try, just to see how bad the original one looks after 15 years. That's if the original one can even be removed after all these years.

[Tom M King]

The first one I tried to change, I had a big enough wrench to go on the anode hex, but not a big enough one to keep the water heater from turning.

[Christopher Herzog]

It is the rotten egg as noted after your comment. No rod is our way to go.

[Kev Williams]

I changed one years ago, took about 150ftlbs of force to loosen it. Then I read that they last the life of the unit in most cases. A poor ground going to the water heater will cause it to self destruct with some water types. Whenever a house is going to be unoccupied for a week or longer it should be turned off or the rotten egg smell will begin.

Just read up on powered anodes, company called Corro-Protect makes them, Amazon sells them (of course ;) ) - If they work, they're likely worth the $129 they cost (also guaranteed for 20 years)

Another option is replace your magnesium rod with an aluminum rod. The aluminum doesn't create the smell-producing bacteria when deteriorating that magnesium does (supposedly)... The trade-off -as I understand it- is that aluminum doesn't fully dissolve which means grit buildup in the bottom of the tank.

But-- Anodes are there to keep the water heater from rusting away. Without some sort of anode to take the brunt of the inevitable corrosion, the water tank corrodes instead. Remove at your own risk :)

[Alex Zeller]

If you like replacing your tank then remove it. The fact is that they work. They are used on ships as well. The ones I deal with at work have a small hole partially drilled in the center and screw into the tank. When they reach end of life they start leaking out the hole. The one on my boiler's domestic water tank at home wasn't grounded correctly and the glazed coating on the inside of the tank eventually started to rust. Since it's after the filter the rust made it's way to every hot water faucet. Eventually the internal pipe carrying the heated water from the boiler rusted causing the house water to over pressurize the boiler. That caused the pressure relief valve to vent every time the well pump turned on. Remove it if you want but understand that you are shortening the life of the tank.

[Tom M King]

You only need the aluminum ones if your water has Sulfur in it. Here, ours doesn't. Going to try to figure out how to order a couple of segmented magnesium ones today, for our two. Thanks for starting this thread. I hadn't thought about them for years. Ours are in a crawl space, and there is not enough clearance overhead to get a one piece one in either of them. The segmented ones are made for that type of application.

[Peter Kelly]

If you like replacing your tank then remove it. The fact is that they work. They are used on ships as well. The ones I deal with at work have a small hole partially drilled in the center and screw into the tank. When they reach end of life they start leaking out the hole. The one on my boiler's domestic water tank at home wasn't grounded correctly and the glazed coating on the inside of the tank eventually started to rust. Since it's after the filter the rust made it's way to every hot water faucet. Eventually the internal pipe carrying the heated water from the boiler rusted causing the house water to over pressurize the boiler. That caused the pressure relief valve to vent every time the well pump turned on. Remove it if you want but understand that you are shortening the life of the tank.Agreed, the rod is there for a reason and the tank will decay rapidly without a magnesium or aluminium one in place. The only way to safely avoid dealing with anode rods is to switch to a tankless water heater.

[George Yetka]

It really depends on you're water. I am on well in a high iron area, we also have Manganese as well as Hydrogen sulfide. I actually replaced my water treatment stuff yesterday for the second time in 5 years.

My water heater I bought with an electronic anode knowing if I didnt I would be replacing the anode yearly.
The point of them is to protect the tank of the water heater. The corrosion that happens on them is what would be attacking your tank if they weren't there.

You can pull it and if it looks good and its been 5 years put it back in and most likely it will outlast the heater. if theres nothing connected, you have corrosive water and the tank wont be lasting that long

[Lee DeRaud]

Hmmmm, been meaning to replace mine for the last decade.

After reading this, guess it can likely wait another decade.What he said. I get about 16-18 years from a water heater, which means the current one has decent odds of outliving me. And getting the old anode out would involve more labor than putting in a new water heater.

Is this an east coast thing?

[Terry Wawro]

Decided that since the anode was less than $20. I'd give it a try. The hardest part was getting the old one out. I had to use a breaker bar with a cheater pipe on the end to get it free. Thought I would post some pics. Here's the new rod and the one that came out. 455373455372

[Stephen Rosenthal]

Then there are the other things that we might should do, but probably don't. Things like brush after every meal, change our wiper blades regularly, clean your gutters quarterly and replace the anode rod in our hot water heaters.

I cleaned the gutters twice a year until I decided to invest in and install the gutter guards Costco puts on sale every few months. Cost about $400 to do the whole house, shop and 2 outbuildings. We have clay tile roofs so it was somewhat labor intensive to install, but they work great and I haven’t had to do the odious task since.

[Lee DeRaud]

Decided that since the anode was less than $20. I'd give it a try. The hardest part was getting the old one out. I had to use a breaker bar with a cheater pipe on the end to get it free. Thought I would post some pics. Here's the new rod and the one that came out. 455373455372So it's maybe 1/3 gone after 15 years?

I don't know what other people consider "lifetime" for a water heater, but I doubt that original anode rod would have been the first thing to fail.

[Ron Citerone]

Is this an east coast thing?

Living in suburban Philadelpia, if you consider that east coast, with public water I would say I never knew anyone who changed theirs out. A lot of PA uses well water and there are various water problems out there. I remember in an Architectural Class I had it was discussed, but until this thread I never knew people who changed it out. We seem to get around 15 years from water heaters here. I don't know anyone on the public water system that I am on who have water softeners either although they are fairly common in other parts of PA.

[Kev Williams]

I pulled the anode out of our at-the-time 20 year old motorhome's water heater. Originally about 8" long, it came out about 3" long and not much thicker than a toothpick... the tank was still in great shape, the anode did it's job :)