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Subject: TWL: RE: Hot water heater story (long)
From: Keith Pleas (keithp@XXX.XXX)
Date: Wed May 01 2002 - 13:25:20 EDT
>>>>6. The use of a watermaker will dramatically shorten a water
heater's
life, though filtering the water before it enters the watermaker can
help.<<<<
>>Eeek! You can't just leave us all hanging here! HOW does the use of a
water maker dramatically shorten a water heater's life?<<
OK, here's the scoop...
REVERSE OSMOSIS watermakers (not evaporative ones, which aren't so bad)
remove enough salt for the water to be palatable, but it's not all the
salt. The resulting water is much more conductive at the voltages found
in the water heater. Water heaters are composed of several metals. The
Torrid heaters (for example) have a brass relief valve, a bronze heat
exchanger fitting, and a carbon steel shell. So Torrid fits a large
magnesium anode (the one for my 10 gallon was about 14 inches long,
about 3/4" in diameter).
The anode should typically last many years (mine was 10 years old and in
nearly perfect shape). The ones on boats with watermakers typically last
only a couple of years. They've seen examples on boats with good
electrical systems where 70% of an anode dissipated in 1 year.
Obviously, you need to check the anode at least annually if you have a
reverse osmosis watermaker.
Keith
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