And so the saga continues....
Last time out intrepid dweller was replacing the handywork of Ol'Cheal-n-Dumb
in the kitchen...
Today it was onto a newish appliance I had installed....
Some of you will recall..
BIG DEAD SQUIRREL BIG DEAL SQUIRREL BIG DEAD SQUIRREL
It was time to rerun to the water heater. I had meant to replace the anode rod
in the tank last year but hadn't gotten to it. I've heard that it's in that 1st
year you want to consider it as that's when the tanks most apt to need it. I
came from a family that drilled water wells, so we were plumbers but heaters
were well down the line from where I stopped working.
If this is a new idea for you. Water haters have a rod of magnesium or zinc or
aluminum or amalgam inside them. This is in place to "sacrifice" itself to the
steel inner jacket of the tank. As corrosive forces start to eat away the metal
of your tank the elements in the rod dissolve and via electrochemical magic
deposit in where the corrosion is taking place. It's an old principal and we
used it and still do quite a lot on gas pipelines. Many bury in the ground fuel
tanks also have this and many boats have zinc plates on the rudders or propeller
shafts for the same reason.
Better living through chemistry eh?
So the AO Smith water heater has a 1-1/16" (27mm exactly) sized nut to get the
thing out. I found myself a socket and went to it. This is a large socket and
thus a large 1/2" driver is needed. Well, (following the manufactures guidance)
when I tugged on that with a bar extension to get more torque I broke the guts
out of my ratchet! The little pieced of the paws tinkled out onto my bench and
it was declared dead.
To replace the broken tool I got another cheap 1/2" drive wrench and a breaker
bar this time. This is a socket tool with a fixed head just for breaking loose a
bolt/nut and not over stressing the ratchet mechanism. Well that was a fools
errand... I snapped off a few pipes slid over the end of that breaker bar and
thought... I need impact power. Trouble is my air tools are garage gear and thus
so is my supply. I don't have a portable compressor/tank.
Off to the Harbor Freight..
Side note: A good bit of advice about cheap tools like Harbor Freight
specialize in pedaling. Ask yourself 2 questions..
a.) will I need this more than twice?
b.) will my life depend on this working?
If these are not considerations you're probably ok with a cheap tool.
Turned out Harbor Freight was getting out of Chicago Electric plug in impact
guns. I found a 1/2" anvil impact gun for $25 USD. Well looking over the rules
that worked. That made a 30 second job out of the killer bolt that caused so
much damage and I could finally get the old anode out.
Pulling the rod it was crusty like something Jacques Cousteau would have been
proud to film from the Nautilus... This is to say it could have been worse. When
you pull out a coat hanger the rod is really 100% spent. What I pulled was
probably about 30-45% gone. Less than a yard long anymore with deep fissures and
crustification. It has been doing it's job.
I taped up the replacement one of the sausage string type they sell for tight
space. I don't know that it matters all that much the form factor as much as
getting some fresh metal in there to continue the fight against corrosion.
Teflon tape on the threads and snugged back in and we were back in business.
Sometimes there's a happy ending after all!
Next will be moving on to the painting... Man I hope we don't spend the rest
of the season under a heat dome again. I sort of like the British summer we have
but I think it's soon to end...