Should I Be Concerned ??

[billt]

Another thing I've read, in helping to prevent any type of galvanic action in your plumbing, is to change the Anode in your hot water heater.  But this can sound like a much easier and simpler task than it actually is. I read not to even attempt it without a heavy duty, plug in electric impact gun with a good fitting impact socket. Otherwise if you try it manually, you will just drag the water around with the breaker bar, tweaking, and perhaps even breaking your plumbing connections.

Another issue is clearance, assuming you can get the thing out. I've got a 5' tall water heater with an 8' ceiling. That only leaves 3' of clearance to lift it out. Some guys say you can bend them as you're taking them out. I don't know, I've never changed one out. I know they sell segmented Anodes that have joints every few feet, in order to accommodate this type of issue. Again, I don't know because I've never done it.

Have any of you guys changed one of these out? If so what problems have you run into? My water heater is electric, and was installed in 2014. It looks to be in good shape. But looking at the outside doesn't tell you a damn thing. If it's not too bad of a task, I'd like to change it. It can't hurt. But if it's going to turn into a PITA, I'll just forget about it.

[Jim Kennedy-ar154me]

Thanks Rastus. I also read that vacation homes that sit several months out of the year unoccupied, can be more prone to this type of thing, than houses that are lived in year round. Water moving through the pipes on somewhat of a regular basis lessens the condition for this to develop. That makes some sense because my evaporator coolers are only used from around the end of April, until late October. They sit all Winter.

Maybe I should get in the habit of running them a few minutes every couple of weeks, just to get some water moving through them. It can't hurt.

Would some sort of solar powered circulation pumb that ran 24/7 help in any way? Not a heavy flow but just enough

[crusader rabbit]

Just a couple of points from my limited experience with extruded copper. 

Alf, I have a couple of rentals and got a report from a tenant that there was water on the kitchen floor.  When I searched it out, I found that a sheet rock screw that had been part of the original install 20 years before had exited the stud by a fraction of an inch--just enough to barely touch a copper tubing take off for the ice-maker.  A combination of vibration and electrolysis managed to make a pinhole in that dang tubing.

And Tab, copper extrusions are intended to be pure copper.  But, I intended to be 6'4" and only made it to 6' so intentions are only hopes and dreams.  Extruded copper doesn't need much of a more noble metal to begin electrolysis resulting in a pinhole leak.  When you have two dissimilar metals or conductors in the presence of an electrolyte you make a battery.  The less noble metal becomes sacrificial finally giving way to becoming a pinhole.  I think the most common factor is a speck of pure carbon getting into the extruded copper.  It becomes something like a common flashlight battery on a micro scale.

I witnessed this once where copper was the more noble metal.  Friend had an aluminum-hulled fishing boat.  At some point, someone had inadvertently dropped a penny into the bilge where it sat in a small amount of seawater for an unknown time period until it made a penny-sized hole in his hull.  He had to haul and repair the hole to the tune of a bucket of money.  After relaunch, every guest had to empty their pockets of change and keys into ziplock bags before boarding so he could avoid another many thousand dollar bill.

And that's why they put sacrificial zincs on boats--for the protection of shafts, props, and through-hulls.  Tougher to do that on houses and evap coolers.

FWIW,

Crusader Rabbit

[billt]

Would some sort of solar powered circulation pumb that ran 24/7 help in any way? Not a heavy flow but just enough

I have a hot water recirculation pump on my hot water heater. But I don't use it. It is plumbed into the system because my hot water heater is in the garage. And the master bath shower is clear on the other side of the house. So with it on I get hot water almost instantly. Without it I have to run it on hot for at least a minute or so before it gets hot enough to where you can't stick your hand in it.

It's not a problem out here, especially in the Summer because the water coming into the house is over 90 F on full cold. But it's nice in the colder Winter months. If I had a Winter home that was only used 6 or so months out of the year, I would definitely put some type of small recirculation pump on both the hot and the cold. Just to keep a small volume of water moving through the system.   

[MikeBjerum]

In our old house (built in 1989) we had several pin hole leaks in the water lines.  The copper was corroding on the inside.  Everything looked fine from the outside, but when you cut out the bad piece, it looked like the inside had pox.

It was confined to the area from the meter to the softener.

[Sponsor]

[Jim Kennedy-ar154me]

It was confined to the area from the meter to the softener.

I live in an area with VERY HARD water. Our house is new so we are using plastic water pipes but a water softener is a necessity in this area. This is the first time I lived in a house with a softener.

[TAB]

Water softener is a oxy moron. You are just changing one form of hardness for another.