Cole’s Corner #3: WHAT IN THE WORLD IS AN ANODE ROD?!
Welcome to Cole’s Corner! Join us for new episodes on Fridays! In this episode, Cole and Troy discuss anode rods: what they are, why they’re important and how you can replace them! Do you have any plumbing questions for Cole? Leave a comment below or email us at socialmedia@championplumbing.net Visit us online at : https://www.championplumbing.net/ Interested in our MVP program? Check it out here: https://www.championplumbing.net/mvp-… Music: bensound.com #anoderod #championplumbing #champion #plumbing #rodanode #championplumbinganoderod https://www.championplumbing.net/
Watch our Video and You’ll Learn:
- You Will Know How Anode Rod Works.
- Learn What Anode Rod Is.
- How To Use Anode Rod.
Enjoy this transcript below!
Cole: Hey everyone. Welcome back to Cole’s corner at Champion Plumbing. We’re going to talk about anode rods today on episode three. I’ve got Troy with me today. As you can see, there’s a couple up here. We’ve got a couple of new ones here, aluminum one and the magnesium one. This is a old one, it’s actually only three years old, they took out a water heater last week. So basically all that water coming in, instead of it eating into this metal, came here and eating your tank away to make it leak, it eats at this first and wears this out. As you could see, in this water heater, there’s not much left. Once there’s none left, it’s going to eat away at your metal tank and your water heater is not going to last as long. You’re also going to get a lot of sediment in your water heater like this one right here.
Cole: We don’t want any of that in there, so you should drain your heater once a year, inspect your anode rod. Every three to five years, you should replace your anode rod. Like I said, there’s aluminum and the magnesium. Sometimes, our wells with the sulfur in the water and magnesium, you’re going to get an egg smell. So basically what we do is, we take the magnesium one out, we put the aluminum one in, and that gets away from the egg smell. You put a socket on the top of these and you just pull them out. You obviously want to shut your water off, drain the water heater before you do that. We carry them on hand, we can come out and take care of you with that.
Cole: I was draining a water heater last week and this is their anode rod right here, just a few chunks left. Really old heater, it actually wasn’t leaking yet, but I got this, and probably two gallons worth of sediment at the bottom of it. So it’s a good idea if you haven’t changed your anode rod in a few years, to have us come out and take a look at it, see what we can do.
Troy: Again, these videos are to save you money. Do you think a homeowner can change this himself or herself?
Cole: Yes, you could.
Troy: Shut the water off. On top of the water heater, take this out, drop in the new one and your water heater is basically brand new on the inside, as long as you flush it at the same time. If we were to come out and change it, how much would it cost?
Cole: We’re probably going to be around 325-ish. I mean, It all depends. Some of them are a little bit bigger anode rod. You say, “Yeah, I could pull my inner rod out. What if I hit my ceiling?” They do make some that are like a sausage link going down, where you can actually bend them to get down into your tank and they do have those at local stores and stuff you can get it too. I did have to actually buy a sausage link one at Home Depot last week, so I know they have them.
Troy: How often should they change their anode rod?
Cole: Three to five years. And like I said, every year you should drain it and take that off and inspect it.
Troy: The manufacturers say once there’s a section four inches that’s missing, then the electrolysis in the water will start to pick away at your tank as well as the rest of the anode rod.
Cole: We do this with our inspection of MVP. We go throughout the house, check if there’s any leaks or any valves leaking, and we do drain the heater and pop the anode rod off to see if it’s in good shape. And we will actually show you the anode rod, and you can dictate if you want to replace it or not, at the time we’re being in there.
Troy: We offer free MVP service to all police, firefighters, first responders of any kind. So let the dispatch team know when you call in and we’ll come out and do it for free.
Cole: All right. Other than that, thanks for watching Cole’s corner, episode three on anode rods. Just remember that cheap work isn’t skilled, and skilled work isn’t cheap. See you next time.
Troy: Thank you.
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