28 dollars + tax bet

We were getting rust coloured water through the hot water system since we moved in. After a little research, we discovered that North America tends to use steel in their electric water heaters. To prevent them from rusting, they use a sacrificial anode. However, as the name suggests, the anode is destroyed in the process.

A new anode was $28 (+tax), and took us the best part of an hour to replace. Turns out it was pretty easy. We turned off the cold water into the hot water heater. I was a little worried that this was going to be a problem - most things in the house have been so badly maintained I didn't think I was going to be able to turn the tap at all, but it was fine. This stops the water pressure from pushing hot water round the system. Leaving the hot water taps upstairs open, we opened the draining tap at the bottom of the tank, draining a lot of the water from the tank down a hose pipe and into the street. The water was cold as we'd poured a bath before starting. The anode was surprisingly easy to take out - you can see it next to the replacement anode in the photo:

The red box highlights the old anode, the blue is the new anode all shiny and new.

After we'd replaced the new one, and filled the tank again, we ran the hot water tap - and ended up with copper coloured water. After about half an hour it was running clean.

I bet tomorrow I'll be able to take a bath in non-rust coloured water.

Oops

Well I lost the bet. I disconnected the wrong thing in the basement, so the heater was still powered when I drained the tank. This popped the heating element. We ended up getting a plumber in. Turns out the tank has two heating elements, the lower one had already failed, so it was generating enough heat to give us most of a bath of hot water. Now we've got two elements, a new anode and very very hot water - and after a couple of days it's coming through almost clear.