They blame West Des Moines' water for causing corrosion to be worse than normal.
Water heater repair
- Thread starter michaelrr1
- Start date
They blame West Des Moines' water for causing corrosion to be worse than normal.
Union refrigeration pipefitter for nearly 20 years before going back to ISU.
I saw Dielectric Union open up for the Nadas at the M-Shop
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Yes and no. Minerals in water can increase corrosion but not to that extent.
If the water was the root cause, you'd be seeing pinhole leaks all over the place.
What would be the circumstances of that bad of galvanic corrosion for the OP? Just looked at my 20-year old water heater and there is no dielectric coupling yet it doesn't have a spec of corrosion, at least exterior. I knew mine was "clean" and figured to see those couplings but did not.
Dissimilar metals + (small) electrical current=galvanic corrosion.
I'm guessing not getting electrical current.
I’ve got 27 years on our water heater and it also looks nothing like that. I’d like to know for when it does need replaced.
I haven't put in a water heater in a long time but I believe they come with ship loose dielectric nipples now.
Fix it. Unless it's in a place where a leak would be bad, then replace it. It's going to leak soon.
Sounds good. I’m a DIY type of guy so I was planning on just doing it myself even though I’m way overly anxious about gas leaks. Somehow my gas/carbon monoxide detector disappeared from my sons room in the basement and I think about it daily even though I have a plain CO detector on the main level.
I just kind of assumed it was copper all around since I have copper off the tank to the rest of the house.
Damn, that's old. Did have to turn the heat up a notch recently when the winter cold water got even colder. Weak heater + really cold water + the thermo safeties on the new bathroom shower valve had the shower just luke warm. Think it's likely at the end and probably filled with sediment by now but it's just me so not a lot of hot water demand. Still, I should probably preemptively replace it soon.
Ours hasn’t missed a beat even with five people in our house. I keep telling myself to just replace it but I haven’t seen a single sign of it letting up. It was hot as ever during this last cold spell.
I haven’t drained the tank at all because (right or wrong) I don’t want to upset what’s going for it right now. I feel like if I **** with it, it’s gonna crap out.
Mine looked like that after 15 years. Replaced the whole unit because we were running out of hot water with 2 showers
I live in WDM and yes the water is corrosive but this should not happen. The installer either used incorrect materials or did something wrong.
Mine looks the same after I've been in the house 32 years and God only knows how many years prior to that the water heater was replaced. Just lots of dust, and I am afraid to dust it at the risk of jinxing this.
