What Is An Anode Rod? How Does It Work?

What’s an anode rod? What do you assume an anode rod is? Take a guess. No, it isn’t some mysterious rod deserted by aliens and left within the desert for an excavation crew to seek out and take over the world with. Good guess although! An anode rod will not be an alien system that may take over the world, however it’s tiny however mighty and could be the fountain of youth to your water heater. However what precisely is an anode rod?

Breaking down the phrase anode; an·ode EN-US; positively charged electrode by which the electrons go away a tool. The negatively charged electrode of a tool supplying present reminiscent of a major cell. An anode rod is a rod that’s in a storage tank type water heater. The anode rod serves a crucial function to your water heater. Anode rods helps hold your water heater from rusting prematurely.

Water heater producers had been left with a puzzle to resolve. The right way to hold your water heater from rusting when the inside metallic parts meet water, warmth, and oxygen. Everyone knows what occurs when metallic and water combine, the metallic rusts, each single time. Battles aren’t all the time gained by power. Many are gained by persistence and metallic will lose to water each single time.  So will paper to scissors, rocks to paper, and scissors to a rock. That is the place some actually good ingenuity got here into play. The anode rod, is the sacrificial lamb of your water heater. Okay, I could be a bit dramatic. However your anode rod was created to die so your water heater might stay lengthy and prosper. (Oh sure, I simply put a Star Trek reference in my plumbing weblog, however lower me some slack, it isn’t all the time straightforward to make plumbing attention-grabbing).

Many anode rods are created with magnesium, or an analogous materials. It’s designed to be eaten by the water earlier than different parts of your water heater are destroyed, like the weather and the metal tank. The anode rod delivers electrons into the water that helps to create an setting that forestalls corrosion. Do you know that anode rods don’t include a guaranty, even from day considered one of set up? After all, you didn’t, that’s my job to know this stuff. As a result of anode rods are designed to die and be eaten by water, they don’t include a guaranty from the water heater producer, and sure, that’s for each single model.

Right here’s Why Anode Rods Are Vital

1. How Lengthy Does an Anode Rod Final?

   
   Anode rods can final a number of years in most water heaters, however that isn’t all the time the case. There are lots of elements in play in terms of the situation and lifespan of an anode rod. The largest issue is the standard of the water. The extra minerals and hardness within the water the faster your anode rod will die. The quicker your anode rod dies the shorter lifespan you should have along with your water heater. One other issue that most individuals don’t contemplate is a salt softening water system.

   A salt softener system will shorten the lifespan of your water heater. The salt water and metallic corrode even quicker than common laborious water. Ask anybody who lives close to an ocean. The ocean air might scent wonderful, however the salty, moist air will eat something metallic very quickly. How about the place it snows, and other people salt the roads. That salty water will eat the metal on the underside of a automobile in only a few chilly, depressing winters.

2. Indicators You Want a New Anode Rod

   One signal that your water heater might have a brand new anode rod is smelly scorching water. What does a foul anode scent like? Hell. Severely, it smells like brimstone popping out of your faucet.. Nasty! If it smells just like the satan has come to go to your home, it’s time to name Robins Plumbing to carry out an exorcism in your water heater.

   One other symptom of a foul anode rod is air in your scorching water line. It might sound superior having carbonated scorching water, it isn’t alleged to be like that. Typically it’s an indication that your water heater’s anode rod must be changed.

3. Ought to You Change Your Anode Rod Your self?

   The brief reply is NO. Completely not. Don’t do it. You possibly can watch YouTube movies if you’d like. You possibly can go for the DIY restore, however I can nearly promise you that you can be calling me after hours of swearing, busting your knuckles a number of instances and making a number of journeys the ironmongery store for extra instruments and extra recommendation simply to comprehend that I used to be proper. Changing your anode rod is a job for a licensed skilled. The idea of changing it’s easy; it ought to unthread from the highest. Let me let you know that it NEVER occurs that means. Even my strongest techs wage struggle with anode rods to take away them. They corrode into the tank of the water heater. If they’re corroded badly sufficient, they will’t be eliminated with out compromising the tank.

   Then there’s the matter of getting the brand new one in. They’re a number of ft lengthy and so they feed in from the highest of the water heater. In case you’ve checked out your water heater recently, there in all probability isn’t room. So even if you’re one of many fortunate ones that get your outdated anode rod out of your water heater, getting the brand new one in is a ache.

4. Anode Rod Upgrades

   When you will have a brand new water heater put in by a licensed contractor reminiscent of Robins Plumbing you may choose to have a second anode rod put in in your new water heater. This second anode rod extends the water heater tank guarantee 4 years and is simply legitimate if put in by a licensed contractor throughout the preliminary set up. It may be added later as an improve to your present water heater to increase the lifespan of your tank, but when put in at a later date it doesn’t lengthen the water heater tank guarantee.

5. They’re Not All Created Equal

   High quality of anode rods varies by producer and mannequin. The model and mannequin that we set up at Robins Plumbing include a premium grade anode rod offering long-lasting tank safety. Most of us simply contemplate the upfront price of a water heater. Taking a couple of minutes to ask why a water heater is cheaper can result in a discovery. You’ll study that it’s constructed with low-cost components. Water heaters constructed with low-cost components solely final half the lifespan of ones constructed with greater high quality components, like an anode rod.

Companies in Phoenix & Past

While you’ve discovered your self in want of plumbing companies within the Phoenix, Glendale, Scottsdale, or Chandler space, you may belief Robins Plumbing to offer you immediate and professional care, contact our crew as we speak! Along with our bathroom companies, we additionally provide quite a lot of residential and industrial plumbing companies, together with: drain cleansing, water heater restore and alternative, sewer digicam inspection and finding, backflow prevention, industrial and residential jetting, water remedies, and extra. Go to our opinions on-line to see what others should say about our native plumbing firm!