It continues to corrode, I look at it yearly and replace as required, unfortunately, it doesn't take long to disappear. make sure you turn the pump off first, not a pretty sight with corroded metal all over your face, "personal experience". it's the water that corrodes, not the electricity.
Kevin.
-- Edited by Bucko on Thursday 21st of February 2013 12:02:21 PM
Chemical reaction with the salts in the water, the more water that goes through your service over a long period of time the more the anode will corrode. The hotter the water, the faster the oxidation of the salts will occur, which sounds stupid because the hotter the water, the less oxygen is retained by the water! The water sitting in the tank will use all its salt up oxidising the anode and unless the water is very salty, the anode will not be depleted on one tank. I had it all explained to me at Tech when I was a lot younger. Fact is that yearly check of anode is a must and always carry one with you, because that yearly check will always occur when you are one the road. Along with your anode, carry a bottle brush to make sure you clean all the scale out of your service. One from the home brewers shop is perfect, beer bottle cleaners. The scale is the deposited magnesium salts, unless you are using a zinc anode for very salty water.
There are videos on YouTube for doing it as well!
Edit: When you do your anode do your fire alarm!
-- Edited by Boothie on Thursday 21st of February 2013 09:28:11 PM
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Thank you Boothie,, will look into that , did not know they were available. We never drink the water if we are a area with bore water,We live off bottled water,i have two filters connected,but my wife will not use it.We only use bore water for showering and toilet.
-- Edited by herbie on Friday 22nd of February 2013 03:15:07 PM
I find it depends what state we are in , how long it is before i have to replace it.But then again we can be in on area of that state for up to 6 months. If we are on bore water that dosn't help the life of it either.
Bore water is full of salts, if you spend a lot of time in areas with water that is full of salt, try using a zinc anode instead of a magnesium anode. I do not know what the health implications are, but I know they use them in hot water services that run on bore water.
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Never growing old, just getting dusty around the edges.
A useful tip is also to drain your hot water tank when the van is not in use also when taking anode out as well as ensuring the pump is turned off pull the trigger on the pressure relief valve ( I also learnt the hard way) and prior to storage flush the tank well I then store van with tank empty.
I have found that buying anode's on ebay 2 at a time much cheaper than caravan parts stores.
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We got our new van in July last year and have been living in it full time since,in december i checked the anode and found it was nearly gone completely and had to replace it. I was told by the caravan people to check the anode every 6mths as they have been known to wear out even after 2-3mths depending on the quality of water you are using. i now carry a spare also..
