Maintaining your storage tank water heater increases its efficiency, prolongs its life and maximizes your investment. But the very water it heats also promotes an environment that’s conducive to forming rust. As a result, corrosion is the primary reason that storage water heaters fail or are short-lived.
Try these three tips to eliminate or minimize corrosion and improve your water heater’s performance:
- Install galvanized joints. Electrical heating elements in water heaters are often made of copper-coated steel. The combination of two different metals immersed in water causes corrosion, which continues to form over time. Excessive corrosion may cause the heating element to stop working. Have your contractor install galvanized unions that have plastic nipples to prevent corrosion.
- Use plastic pipe nipple lining. Typically, the pipes inside a water heater are made of brass and copper, which are corrosive-resistant. However, the heater is usually lined with steel, which can rust where it makes contact with the other metals. Plastic pipe nipples fit over the brass and copper parts where they touch the steel and stop the corrosion.
- Schedule annual inspections. Your water heater’s age is typically proportional to its performance. Scheduling annual inspections helps you identify potential problems, including corrosion, before they escalate to critical states. A skilled technician should check the vent pipes, the anode rods and combustion chambers, which are additional areas of potential corrosion.
The life span of tankless water heaters is usually longer than that of storage water heaters. Also called demand, or instantaneous, water heaters, tankless heaters heat water only when it’s needed instead of keeping it hot in a large storage tank. Corrosion is kept to a minimum because water is not continuously held in a conventional reservoir.
In the Lorain area, the trained professionals at Energy 1 Heating & Air Conditioning can answer all your water-heater questions and discuss the benefits of installing a tankless water heater. Call us to schedule an inspection of your water heater so we can give it a check-up and help you assess its condition.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Lorain, Ohio about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about water heaters and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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Energy 1 Heating & Air Conditioning
1 (440) 246-5440
Serving the Lorain, OH Area