Originally Posted by
Ramsker
Resurrecting my semi-old thread to post an update. The AO Smith water heater just FAILED . . . was in the utility room yesterday working on getting the sprinklers going for the first time this year. Went to turn on the water at the shut-off in there and noticed water in the water heater pan. Stuck my finger in and it was warm. Sucked that out with the Shop Vac and it filled right up again--was not coming from the pressure relief or the top of the tank. I go in that utility room fairly often just to check things, so I think tha tank started to leak pretty recently. I got lucky and caught it before I had a huge & expensive mess on my hands.
Plumber who installed the water heater was back out today with a replacement under warranty. Once we got the "old" heater outside, we removed the anode rod . . . and it was completely gone. Only had the steel wire attached to the hex head. Seems all I read/heard when I was reseraching water softeners was that they extended water heater life by reducing scale. Now that I search more specifically on anode rods and water heaters, it seems water softeners increase the conductivity of the water in the tank and accelerate the anode rod eating away??
Not sure if my water softener needs a little adjustment, but it was set based on the hardness tests I did. At any rate, I wanted to post this to see if any of the plumbing experts had thoughts on the subject and also in the hopes that I can save someone else a little money and potential misery. If you have a water softener . . . you might want to check the anode rod(s) when you do a drain/maintenance. Out side of that, the Fleck 5600 has worked really well.
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