Originally Posted by
bullet777
You won't need to flush your tank if you have soft water, so it's only necessary if your water is hard (calcium & magnesium build-up).
If you DO have soft water, simply REMOVE the anode rod and cut it off at the nut, then replace the nut.
This will void your warranty but triple the life of the tank.
Just so you know I'm not talking through my hat, I am a Certified Water Technician.
These kind of answers make me want to throw up my hands and quit even trying to help! At least I know now not to trust certification any more (as if this is the first time HAHA :rolleyes: ). And don't trust me either, you don't know if I've ever touched a pipe because I'm not 'certified'. (You mean water runs DOWNHILL?? ) However I'm not
certifiably wrong like the above quote.
Most water heaters are made of steel, which is mostly iron (Fe). Even distilled water will oxidize any iron that it comes in contact with. The sacrificial anode is there to slow that process down. Following bullet's logic, the anode rod is the problem. Once the anode rod is gone, the tank should stop deteriorating. Even in soft water I have never seen that. If you remove the anode rod in your hot water heater you are setting yourself up for problems. The water heater manufacturers know what they are doing. They wouldn't put them in if they didn't have to. They cost money.
I cannot easily explain the physics of the process. Read this for an understandable explanation of sacrificial anodes.
Sacrificial anode - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Here is another.
Sacrificial Anodes: What keeps water heaters from rusting out. If you still aren't convinced, do an internet search for "water heater sacrificial anode" and read some more.
Please people, if you are posting a question, do some farther research if you don't understand WHY an answer that you get is right or wrong. I have gotten corrected here when I was flat out wrong (breaker trip points), I researched the correction and found I was wrong. I disagree with some answers given here even by long time posters (outdated practices), but I usually withhold criticism unless they rise to a level of possible damage like the above post. This forum is best used to give clarification on details and some troubleshooting expertise, not to give anyone the go-ahead to do something that they really aren't qualified to do.
Speedball,
I wasn't thinking of you when I wrote that about longtime posters. If I see you have replied to a thread, I usually don't add my $.02 except when I think clarification might help. The other thing that enters into this is location. Things are done differently in different areas. Remember that thread on well piping?
Thanks for your work trying to keep bad advice from propagating on this forum.
EPM