I changed out both elements in my electrc water back in late August. Had to change the bottom one out again today.
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Another casualty of the auroral storm. Darn those cosmic rays!
This is a hard water problem
How do I change it to easy water?
Hire Phil Collins
No, a hard problem about water
I’ll take some hard water
Absolut
Yeah you will
Do fill your hot water heater with pesto / green chili salsa whatever we got there
You really need to invest in a system that softens your water.
Isn’t that exactly what a water heater does?
Chicken fried water heater?
You are technically right that the water heater softens the water a bit by precipitating the minerals around the heating element and thereby removing them from the water. But that is energy inefficient and expensive, since you normally don’t use a water heater to soften your water but rather to get warm water. So putting another system in front of the heater that softens it first is better than replacing the heat element every so often.
A water heater heats your water.
no a water heater heats the water.
a watersoftener removes dissolved minerals from water
This one definitely did both.
Or just a good filter system.
You can’t filter out ions of calcium like that. A huge reverse osmosis system for the entire home would be prohibitively expensive. I used to live in an area with very hard water and everyone had water softeners. You only need to buy the salt every few months and it’s not too bad. RO filters were only connected to a tap on the side of the sink in the kitchen - those membranes aren’t cheap.
Have you checked your sacrificial anode? If it’s gone, this will keep happening.
Anodes for the anode gods!
I have never heard of this before. Thanks for mentioning it.
The sacrificial anode is there to protect the steel tank. It lasts a long time. This is a hard water problem as everyone else is saying, and a water softener would solve the issue.
*Edit: check the very bottom of your tank since you have the elements out. It most likely has a pile of calcium and other minerals sitting on the bottom.
-a plumber
Steel tank, not copper?
Anodes protect against corrosion. They don’t do anything for hard water scale.
That’s not entirely true: sacrificial anodes attract and collect calcium and magnesium as well as preventing rust.
The prevention of rust does slow scale accumulation because rust is a rough porous surface that scale likes to stick to. But other than that (anodes also are rough porous surfaces) I’m not aware of any way they actively reduce it. Maybe the electronic ones, but that’s out of my wheelhouse (and they aren’t sacrificial).
Was hoping someone remembered what that thing was called
that is a high fantasy wizard ass sounding name for a plumbing part
I’m guessing the inside of your tank looks just like this and swapping new heating elements in isn’t going to fix that. Maybe try flushing it out first?
With vinegar or some other descaler
I’m not sure of vinegar is quite powerful enough. Somehow this seems like bigger problem
Vinegar is perfectly fine for that. With a bigger amount of minerals you just need more vinegar and time.
Yikes! Hard water?
That’s why you should have a gas water heater if you have hard water. Electric units get wrecked by scale, regardless of a water softener.
Came with the house. Changing it out would not be fun.
Maybe with that attitude. You are willing to swap a heating element but not running a gas line? It ain’t shit but playing with black pipe and dope like a white girl with daddy issues.
Those are two different skill sets, just because you think swapping a heating element is hard doesn’t mean everyone else does
But it’s a greenhouse gases contributor - electric is better. Check that anode commented below.
Heat pump would be best
Anodes protect against corrosion. They don’t do anything for hard water scale.
Looks like some types can help with hard water too
https://plumbingnav.com/water-heaters/anode-rod-by-water-type/
The active electronic ones may. I’ll admit I don’t know a lot about those.
Electric ain’t better if you have to replace it constantly. Think of the emissions to produce these parts.
The emissions to produce a single heating element off a factory line are probably a lot smaller than keeping a jug of water in your house hot by burning natural gas off and on all day every day forever
And that’s why you get an on demand unit. In either case, heating water in a jug over and over just so it might be hot hen you need it is not a great idea.
I agree. I use very little gas to heat my water for my hydronic system and the tap. I replaced an old oil hydronic heater and traditional electric water heater with a natural gas combi boiler that does both home heat and hot water. My utility bills went through the floor, and over the whole year I put a fraction of the CO2 into the atmosphere than I did in just a winter of the old oil furnace.
And so we come to the eventual argument. An electric water heater is going to keep a jug of water in your house hot by running off and on all day forever. Where did that electricity come from?
In my case, a mix of fossil fuel and renewable resources that on the whole are significantly less carbon-intensive per unit of energy than straight up burning methane in my house
I wish we had European style water heaters at the tap. But that’s not safe. You should see what I find in hospital infrastructure.
Oh I used to work at a hospital that was built in the 60s and know full well what sort of asbestos-laden Frankenstein’s monster they become over time
