Major household repairs never come at a good time, and a failing hot water storage system in the colder months can be not only inconvenient, but downright uncomfortable as you are forced to race in and out of the shower to avoid getting pneumonia!

Of course, prevention is always better than a cure, so what steps can you take ahead of time as a homeowner or landlord to extend the life of your hot water storage system? Well, it turns out, like most things you rely on, your hot water system requires maintenance. Some hot water system maintenance you can do yourself, but every five years, you must call in your favourite Brisbane Plumber for a full service.

The Sacrificial Anode – As Heroic as it Sounds.

Just like any system, a hot water system has a few different parts. You might not have heard of some of these before, so we’ll do a quick summary to get us all on the same page.

Anode in a water system

First of all, they have an anode, which is essentially a long rod that runs down the centre of a hot water storage cylinder/tank. The storage cylinder or storage system is where all of the “reserves” of water that have been previously heated sit and wait to be used. For activities that require large amounts of hot water, like showers, it would take too long to heat the required amount of hot water from a cold state, so a cylinder essentially preheats an amount of water and holds it, so it’s ready to be used when needed.

The Bodyguard of Your Hot Water System

Five Year Hot Water System Sacrificial Anode Service

A sacrificial anode is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: it takes the hit so the rest of your hot water storage system can stay in good health. It does this by attracting the many impurities and trace elements of metal in the water to itself. By doing this, it keeps these materials away from the walls of the storage system. The accumulation of these metals and impurities eventually causes the thing that they are attracted to corrode and rust – in this case the anode. So, if you don’t have a sacrificial anode, or the anode has already corroded, these impurities will collect on the walls of your tank instead. And eventually, that will result in rusting, possibly causing the tank to leak (most likely on the coldest morning in winter!).

Likewise, if you do have a sacrificial anode in your hot water storage system, the benefits will only last as long as that anode can continue to attract more impurities to itself. Once that anode becomes over-saturated with the metals and trace elements it is meant to attract, it eventually corrodes and stops working effectively.

Hot Water System Maintenence

The regular maintenance and replacement of the sacrificial anode in your hot water storage system can be thought of as preventative maintenance. By doing this, you greatly reduce the risk of an unplanned, not to mention expensive, failure of some part of your hot water storage system down the track – thus extend the life of your hot water, until you’re ready to replace or upgrade. It doesn’t matter if you’ve got a solar, heat pump, gas or electric hot water system, they all need maintenance.

As a homeowner, you can do an annual check to make sure the seals are in good shape – hot water storage tanks tend to be located outside, in the harsh Brisbane sun, so keeping an eye on the state of your seals makes sense.

But, not visible to the naked eye are the inner workings of your tank, and of course, the ever-heroic sacrificial anode. A good time cycle to test and check your hot water storage system is every three to five years. The savings could literally be thousands of dollars. If you’ve never checked the state of the sacrificial anode in your hot water storage system (or if you’ve never heard of them before today!), call in Salmon Plumbers Brisbane on (07) 3862 2600 to arrange an appointment.