Water Heater Maintenance,
Smelly Hot Water Solutions,
Troubleshooting and
Anodes
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This site comprises 450 pages of information on water heater maintenance, safety and troubleshooting, and it's been around for more than 20 years. Key sections comprise:
- Water Heaters 101 -- Learn all about how water heaters are made and work, and water heater anodes, dip tubes, drain valves, T&P valves, pipe nipples, safety, tankless, choosing a heater, and emergency preparedness
- Water Heater Maintenance -- Learn how to prefit/retrofit a heater for longest life, what tools you need, and what things you need to do to make it easy to service a tank going forward
- Water Heaters in Apartments -- Residential and commercial tanks and recirculation systems. Maintenance here can save money, water damage and grief
- Troubleshooting -- A glossary of water heater terms, questions often asked in The Tank, indexed, and The Tank itself -- a Q&A troubleshooting forum with nearly 5,000 topics and 20,000 posts
- Smelly Hot Water -- We know as much or more as anybody in North America about this problem. We know what works in which situations and what doesn't work at all
- Anodes -- Some are sacrificial anodes, some are powered anodes, some are for maintenance, some are for odor. All are important. We also sell products to expel water heater sediment, and Larry Weingarten's Water Heater Workbook and DVDs
- News About Water Heaters -- Mostly recalls of products
- The Future of Water Heating -- Presentations of interest from the ACEEE's annual Hot Water Forum
- Fun Stuff -- How can anything about water heaters be fun? You'll see.....
There is a lot of free information here, but we also offer economical consultations that can save you time, money and grief. Our focus is solving problems, not merchandising. It might be something you buy, but it also might be something you do.
One more thing: we provide detailed instructions with our products, but also, we provide customer service. If you run into issues, e-mail us, and we'll probably have answers that will solve your problem.
Water Heaters 101
This used to be called Water Heater Basics and that's how we often think of it. It's a giant section, so we won't describe it all right here, but key topics include:
- Water Heater Sediment or Scale
- Sacrificial Anodes
- Powered Anodes
- Safety
- Tankless Heaters
- What Kills Water Heaters
- Choosing a Water Heater
Water Heater Maintenance
Now an offshoot of WH 101, these topics are:
- Know-How, a step-by-step guide to prefitting/retrofitting a water heater
- Preventive Maintenance Tasks, which includes additional chores to make it easy service a heater
- Tools, telling you just which ones you need
Water Heaters in Apartments
If you can save money maintaining ONE water heater, think how much you save maintaining a thousand! Or commercial tanks that cost thousands of dollars. Includes pages on:
- Optimal setup of commercial and residential tanks
- Inspections
- Optimal setup of recirc pumps. If those are plumbed improperly, they'll airlock and burn out.
- How to service a commercial water heater
Troubleshooting
This section has a link to The Tank, which for various reasons, is actually at another web address. It also has:
- Tanklets, an indexed assembly of common questions asked in the Tank -- and the answers
- Not Enough Hot Water -- A common complaint with several causes
- Quick -- Quick tips, fixes and caveats
- Lingo -- Our glossary of water heater terms
- Smelly Hot Water -- We know its several causes and fixes
- Consulting -- Read anything on the site for free, but if you need to ask, you need this
- Peroxide Fix -- A cheap but temporary solution to smelly hot water
We ARE a business, so we sell solid and flexible magnesium sacrificial water heater anodes for replacement when your factory anode is consumed so that you don't find yourself with a leaking water heater. Also, we are one of the very few who sell curved dip tubes for sediment (also known as scale) control; sediment buildup contributes to water heater failure and electric element failure, and sometimes contributes to odor issues.
And we have solid and flexible aluminum/zinc anodes and powered anodes (impressed-current) to use in smelly water heaters. And other stuff, too, such as sediment flush kits and Larry Weingarten's books and DVDs.
Modest French translation here. Medium Spanish translation here.
Random Musings
What Our Customers Say About Us
After I ordered and paid, Randy contacted me to suggest lowering the payment because I had ordered the same item 2x and didn't need 2 manuals, then he refunded me extra money. Who does THAT? While installing the parts, I contacted him a couple more times with questions, he was always helpful and responsive. In short, it's great to do business with someone who simply cares about quality and customer service. -- Elizabeth, Yelm, WA
I ended up using one of the sizing tools you recommended. It suggested around 50 gallons. I was able to find a 30 gallon that would fit so I went with two of them. It was actually smaller than the electric options I looked at so everything worked out well. The $30 for your consultation is far and away the best $30 I have ever spent. In no time, you had me comfortable with the direction to take and you suggested options that my plumbers never thought of after two visits and many days of “research.”
After two plumber visits, their only advice was that they were unable to find a water heater that would fit the space, told me not to waste time maintaining my water heater in the future because water heaters only last ten or so years anyway and they have now stopped returning my calls. This is after they came out on a second visit with a water heater that wouldn’t fit the space. After that visit, their plan was to come out with a 22” diameter water heater which would be about 26” with the controls, even though the space is only 22” deep. They were going to “squeeze it in somehow.” It is so refreshing to get advice from someone that provides the truth. It makes me realize how rare this is these days. Thanks for the superb advice and for taking the time to create such a great site. -- Doug, Lake Bluff, IL
