Water Heater Questions

Travelover · Dec 3, 2009

My current gas water heater is 20 years old and I can see the handwriting on the wall, so I bought a new heater. Since 20 years have gone by, I have a few questions about installing it.

First question: My old water heater has the rotten egg smell problem associated with well water, so I took the anode out and tossed it. The instructions for the new heater say to use a different kind of anode as opposed to just removing it. Anyone have experience there? Obviously I'd prefer to just remove this one and the tank life seems to be OK with out it.

Second question: I have the old heater plumbed with a hot water return line from the far end of the house to the drain valve. This allows water to circulate from convection, giving me hot water fast anywhere in the house. It has worked great for 20 years. Do these new conventional water heaters have some internal valving to prevent me from plumbing the new heater the same way?

2manyrocks · Dec 3, 2009

The sacrificial anode rod is there to be eaten up by the stuff in your water that would otherwise eat your tank. If you live in an area with unusually pure water, maybe you don't need it.

Usually there are no valves inside the water heater. There may be an inlet dip tube that is intended to stir the tank sediment with the inflow of fresh water, and there may be antisiphon devices on the top of the tank to prevent the migration of heat flow. There should be installation instructions and some kind of description of what you have with your water heater. Those instructions should also cover the rotten egg odor, too.

Travelover · Dec 3, 2009

2manyrocks said:
The sacrificial anode rod is there to be eaten up by the stuff in your water that would otherwise eat your tank. If you live in an area with unusually pure water, maybe you don't need it.

Usually there are no valves inside the water heater. There may be an inlet dip tube that is intended to stir the tank sediment with the inflow of fresh water, and there may be antisiphon devices on the top of the tank to prevent the migration of heat flow. There should be installation instructions and some kind of description of what you have with your water heater. Those instructions should also cover the rotten egg odor, too.

Thanks. The manual is very general and states that "Some models may contain energy saving heat traps to prevent the circulation of hot water within the pipes." I think I would like this circulation occur, at least to the extent that I have hot water quickly to the far faucets. Any idea what these heat traps look like and where they are located?

kenmac · Dec 3, 2009

You can make an anode out of copper.. Only problem will be. It will deterioate faster than the magnesium type anode

2manyrocks · Dec 3, 2009

The only heat traps I know of are these silver looking devices that screw into the inlet and outlets of the water heater. They only consist of a ball type device intended to keep the water from thermosiphoning up the pipe and wasting heat.

Anytime you have a hot water line running some distance, the water is going to cool when it is standing. When you open your faucet, the first water to come out is this water that has cooled before you get hot water from your heater. Removing the heat traps from the system won't help this a bit.

Now it is possible to plumb in a return circulation line using a pump to continiously circulate hot water in the system