Socket size for water heater

[Bill_75]

Originally Posted by MVA

Annie,

You may want to also purchase a water heater flush wand to clean out the water heater:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002XL2IBS

I'd second this recommendation.......I used one while winterizing this year, and you would not believe the amount of "stuff". calcification, it flushed out. Kind of shocking.

[Mike G]

I am trying to figure out my current "lucky" water heater. Bought this trailer in March of this year, and the previous owner told me it still had the original anode rod which was in fine condition. Having had trailers with anode rods that corroded away in just 2 years' time, I was skeptical so I pulled the rod when I got home and, sure enough, it looked almost pristine.

A couple weeks ago I winterized and pulled the anode again. Now it had a few bumps of buildup here and there on it, which mostly could be broken away and brushed off by hand, and otherwise the rod isn't eaten away at all.

I'm not complaining one bit, but I am starting to wonder if I won the water heater/anode lottery!

[WayneLipscomb]

Originally Posted by AnnieG

I believe the socket size to drain the RV heater is 27 mm or 11/16th hex is this correct?

1 1/16 is what I use.

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by Mike G

I am trying to figure out my current "lucky" water heater. Bought this trailer in March of this year, and the previous owner told me it still had the original anode rod which was in fine condition. Having had trailers with anode rods that corroded away in just 2 years' time, I was skeptical so I pulled the rod when I got home and, sure enough, it looked almost pristine.

A couple weeks ago I winterized and pulled the anode again. Now it had a few bumps of buildup here and there on it, which mostly could be broken away and brushed off by hand, and otherwise the rod isn't eaten away at all.

I'm not complaining one bit, but I am starting to wonder if I won the water heater/anode lottery!

A) it could be an aluminum rod, or B, the previous owners lived where there's very soft water. mine, using magnesium rods, last about 2 years.

[hugh]

Originally Posted by Ron in BC

Yes, that's correct.

Be sure to open a hot water tap first to relieve the back pressure.

Ron

Yep, otherwise you might get sprayed head to toe with tank sediment. Ask me how I know?

[Donna D.]

Originally Posted by hugh

Yep, otherwise you might get sprayed head to toe with tank sediment. Ask me how I know?

That's almost like a right of passage.


Too, be sure to stand to the side at the last moment you pull the anode. OR, you'll fill your shoes...

[Iowa Dave]

And your first grade teacher will ask if anyone else needs to use the restroom
Iowa Dave

[HABBERDABBER]

This is a crude description.

A water heater sacrificial anode of either magnesium or aluminium "sacrifices" itself and produces a flaking oxide of the metal and dissolving. Anodes are more "active" metals than steel. That is what protects the steel interior portion of the water heater. I've read our heaters are glass lined, so there may not be much exposed steel to corrode, but there is some, likely at water inlets, outlets and the drain fittings.

[MrLynn]

Originally Posted by Donna D.

That's almost like a right of passage.


Too, be sure to stand to the side at the last moment you pull the anode. OR, you'll fill your shoes...

Funny thing: I closed the hot-water-heater bypass valves—to bypass the heater, maybe the term is 'opened'?—then used the air compressor to blow any water out of the lines. But when I went to take out the anode, got a blast of (then) cold water. Not sure why there was still pressure in the heater, which was isolated from the system.

[alanmalk]

Originally Posted by MrLynn

Funny thing: I closed the hot-water-heater bypass valves—to bypass the heater, maybe the term is 'opened'?—then used the air compressor to blow any water out of the lines. But when I went to take out the anode, got a blast of (then) cold water. Not sure why there was still pressure in the heater, which was isolated from the system.

Every fall, as part of the ritual, I open all the inside faucets, then remove the anode on the water heater - and get blasted with water and sediments. It never fails, so I suspect there is a check valve somewhere in the system that keeps some pressure in the tank. Then, in the process of washing out remaining sediments, another face full and soaked shoes. At least I have learned to do this chore on a warm sunny day - but that is all I have learned.