Four Water Heater Tanks Cut Open - Lessons to Learn

going rogue on you today we're back at more supply where we cut open these water heater tanks a few weeks ago to see the nasty stuff inside now on today's episode we're gonna take a deep dive a closer look and see what lessons we can learn [Applause] [Music] alright guys so we're back at the water heater supplier and we cut these open a couple weeks ago but you know after we did that I've had a chance to kind of mull over the results and think about what we could learn from these so let's actually take a closer look at all four of these tanks and see what lessons we can learn so let's start with the first one this is the one that was the thumbnail and the other one where I said it was totally gross on the inside this is the 2000 model this is an electric one and you can see the electric coils right here but look at the amount of scale in the bottom of this thing absolutely gross now of course this isn't harmful to our health it's not really gross in that we're gonna be harmed by drinking water maybe that came out of this but think about how terribly inefficient this was there was probably more scale even than this in here and look at these a node rods here they were probably totally covered in scale how efficient you think this tank was I bet this thing probably used twice as much electricity as when it was brand-new and clean in this state gosh look at it's getting all over me the other interesting thing about this one is not you can see what kind of insulation is being used on the tank we've got a steel tank on the inside steel tank on the outside it looks like it's maybe I don't know somewhere between 1/8 and 1/16 thick here and then there's a spray foam insulation in the tank you'll also notice has a lot of this rusty color on the bottom and in fact before I stood it up I saw some parts on this metal tank that looked pretty rusty now what's preventing that rust on the inside of a tank it's this right here this is the anode rod it looks to me like this might have been the original rod we've got the bare wire showing and a new rod is gonna look like this over here here's a brand new rod so it went from this a brand-new rod this happens to be aluminum to this over the course of time and my guess is this tank was never maintained obviously it was never flushed and that Anna rod never came out now it lasts a long time 17 years typically you think of a lifespan for a water your tank is about 15 years so this one fit right in that but I think had this tank been flushed had this been used in a softened water softening system boy could have gotten maybe more life out of it and of course it will do our it's way more efficiently okay next tank we're moving actually from the oldest to the newest now this model is a 2016 so this one's only two years old I have no idea why they've got why this one got replaced if you look on the inside of this tank the metal looks like it's in fantastic condition I mean it looks like it's in real good shape and in fact I wonder what this got coated with it looks to me like it's almost a baked on finish on top of this metal so manufacturer did a real nice job preventing rust now we did have a little bit of scale in the bottom of this tank if you saw the other video most of it's gone now I think I may have gotten rolled over but very little scale if this one would have been flushed I think we would have been in good shape but the anode rod look at this see if you can zoom in here I'm gonna use my flashlight and where the anode rod screws in on the top let's see if you can focus in on that the anode rod down here looks good but at the top where it connects it looks like it would actually possibly fall off look at that it's just hanging on with just a little bit I don't know I think that this anode rod probably needs to get replaced on a water heater tank about every probably five to seven years if your tank at your house is seven years old or so I would replace the rod put a new rod in there the one problem though with replacing rods these just screw on the top in fact you'll see a bolt head like this on the top of your water heater is you got to pull that thing all the way out and look at the head - you would need on top of your water heater if your water heaters in a closet there's no way you're gonna get that kind of head height so you want to actually use one of these it looks like a set of nunchucks but what you've got here is one that's segmented so you could drop it in in segments and stand that up now this one too is instead of aluminum I believe this is magnesium and they call these a flexible anode I'll put a link to two of these in the description so you know what I'm talking about my understanding is these will actually last longer and do a better job as well they are a little bit more expensive in the flexible variety the other thing that was interesting about this tank was look at the wall thickness here this wall thickness is quite a bit less thick than the last tank let's see if we can actually measure it it's just shy of an inch and a half it's probably a inch and a quarter maybe in an insulation thickness now I looked up the specs on this this one's pretty new this is a point 5 6 EF rating if you can scroll around look at the energy guide in the back here and it's gonna be a little hard to see but check out the energy got here the most interesting thing forget the numbers this is a propane tank I'm not necessarily interested in the exact numbers of how much it costs per year but the energy guides do have a scale from least amount of energy used to most amount and this tank falls in the upper half I have the feeling that that's a combination of insulation and burner efficiency now keep that in mind we're gonna look at another tank in a second here let's go to the next tank which is also a gas tank this one happens to be natural gas not propane but look at this immediate difference we're seeing wall thickness the other 1 inch and a quarter this one's two and a half so double the thickness of the last tank now I looked up the EF rating on this one this is a much older tank this is a 2000 model 2000 model-year so quite a bit older than that one but this EF rating is 0.65 so you know 10% more efficient I have a feeling it's that insulation is that's making a better efficiency rating now the scale is different come on over here and check out the scale because you know these scales are gonna change and it's based on water heaters of its time but among water heaters sold in its day look where that arrow is you know it's in it's in the the first third of using least energy I have a feeling that that's that's vital when you're buying a water heater get one that's in the first third of the efficiency because you're gonna get this thicker wall and as far as I can tell looking at the specs on the manufacturers pages none of them showed the insulation value or thickness or any of that and it's not like you can cut your water heater open at the store before you buy it so that's a pretty interesting result the other interesting thing about this one you know two years old look at the scale on this one we had some scale on the walls on this one if you saw the other video when we first cut it open and in fact there's some here on the flue you can see it right here dulling my knife as I do this but I wanted to show you how thick it was I think that if we were to descale this once a year or on a hose to it once a year really scale it down and then also check out the anode rod on this one still kicking although pretty corroded and again this one's pretty old now it's hard to tell if this is the original anode rod or a replacement but you know my guess is this is probably the original based on this tank having a fair amount of scale on it replace that anti rod maybe five to seven years flush that tank once a year I think you're gonna get a lot more life than the kind of 15-year standard out there okay last tank let's look at electric is the last model and again look at the thickness on the insulation let's check this one out here we've got inch in inch and 3/4 something like that and not that much scale on this one the both the burner elements are in good shape just a little bit of scale on the bottom there's no rust in the tank which is interesting the sacrificial anode rod has been pretty degraded but it's doing its job and this one is a 2,000 what is this 2005 yeah 2005 electric it's just a 13 year old tank pretty old tank I think that if this anode rod was replaced again every 7 years or so 5 to 7 years you might be able to get over 20 years from a tank like this maybe even as much as 30 years I'm not entirely certain why these are replaced again this is just the boneyard I'm here at more supply where I buy my water heaters and it was kind of them to let me cut these open in dramatic form but here's the take away is replace your anode rod flush your tank look at those EF ratings and get one that's got a higher EF rating most of these kind of standard tanks are going to be somewhere between 0.5 some two maybe as much as point seven and the higher rating the better of course I'm a big fan of the really high efficiency units stay tuned for some future videos on those but it's really interesting to cut these open and see how much scale and I'd be willing to bet that 99% of the water heaters out in the world never get maintained so if you're watching this video maintain your unit drain it at least once a year and replace that anti rod you're gonna get way more life out of them than what standard 15 years should be thanks guys we'll see you next time

Channel: Matt Risinger

Views: 1,836,091

Keywords: water heater, tankless water heater, water heater tank, replacing a water heater, water heater replacement, how much is a water heater, hot water at home, buildshow, matt risinger, moore supply

Id: yF_dLlQ6RIo

Length: 9min 44sec (584 seconds)

Published: Tue May 01 2018