Water Heater Tank Autopsy: You won’t believe what’s inside!

Have you ever wondered what the inside of a Water Heater Tank looked like? Matt and Jordan cut open 4 older tanks to find out in this special edition of The Build Show!
Now that you know you need to Flush your Tank annually. Watch the Bonus Video for more insights about Anode Rods. Here's a link to three replacement options (Amazon Affiliate Links FYI)

[ericvaneck]

I was a compliance officer with a State Public Dinking Water Agency for twenty years and inspected drinking water public systems for most of them. Water systems add calcium for a reason, first when they treat surface water with alum to remove sediment the water becomes corrosive, then they have to restablize it with lime/calcium it so it won't leach copper and lead from the pipes and fixtures. For well water, they also check for stability in the water once they remove the iron and manganese by oxidation, then add lime if needed.

Those water heaters most likely came from different water sources. I would guess the ones that had tons of buildup came from people who had well water or came from a public system that over fed the calcium to make the water softer. The black mixed in with the calcium build up is oxidized manganese and the light red color is oxidized iron, neither is harmful to anyone, just a little ascetically unpleasant. Water lines get looking just like this, but not really a problem except reducing the size of the piping.

If someone installs water softeners (or reverse osmosis units) to reduce the mineral build up, please add a bypass so you can blend some of the harder water with the soften water!!! If you don't the water becomes corrosive and will leach out the lead and copper in your water lines or plumbing fixtures. I think everyone would rather have a little calcium in the water than lead or copper!!!! If you have a water softener, just don't drink the first draw in the morning that sat in the lines all night. Letting that water drain from the pipes will remove that lead/copper build up.

Lime build up in the tanks most likely built up in the lower flow areas of those tanks.

[doctorwork]

The reason you see so much buildup of solids is that CaCO3, the primary component of scale, is less soluble in hot water than in cold water, which is unusual for most salts. The reason it may not adhere as well to the electric element is that the element flexes as it heats up and cools down, whereas the mineral deposits are brittle and tend to flake off.

[peterfixit]

you really should look at your audio levels while editing, the music parts are far too loud

[Bear-cmvl]

Although not a plumber, I work for a multidisciplinary contractor and deal with gas and electric water heaters on a fairly regular basis in an area with some natural salt and fairly heavy mineral levels in the ground water. We get an average of 10-12 years tank life from units without regular maintenance (dip tube inspection, sacrificial anode inspection and tank flushing) and I find that the condition of the dip tube, especially on commercial tanks, seems to make a huge difference in the amount of buildup. The manufacturers have told me that the water jet from the dip tube tends to keep the minerals in suspension, rather than letting them settle and harden into what you see here.

[theroboticscodedepot]

Can you show us how to flush a tank and replace the anode then cut it open to see how well the flushing worked.

[obsoletepowercorrupts]

For those who take issue with his volume levels, you are correct for the most part. There is an industry standard Audio volume range which everybody is "supposed to" use and it is called "normalisation". It is used for Audio CDs, DVD and video editing software such as in KDEN-Live or Sony-Vegas. You set your volumes to about 80% unless they suffering "clipping" (a sort of distorted sound i.e. turn it down to say 75%) and then click "normalise".

[Kenjiro]

This is a timely video for me. My gas water heater failed and started to leak at the bottom drain valve two days ago. The heater has a manufacturing date of 9/71, as in Sept, 1971!

[psbolide]

Thats why you open and clean it every 2-5 years. Take a look in the manual! And don't forget to change the sacrificial anode aswell.

[kjpmi]

I'm sure someone has already explained it but there are two processes going on...you need to remember that hot water is able to actually hold more dissolved mineral salts BUT the hotter it gets it's able to hold LESS dissolved gasses.
So a few things happen depending on what's dissolved in your water supply: Sulfur loving bacteria thrive in warm water and they start to digest the dissolved sulfur containing minerals and then release hydrogen sulfide gas. That's actually where the rotten egg smell comes from in some hard water. It's the hydrogen sulfide gas made by the bacteria. When the tank heats up that gas can't stay fully dissolved in the water any longer, so it rises and then interacts with any exposed metal. It'll form zinc sulfide, aluminum sulfide, iron sulfide. Any place where the water in the tank is a bit cooler (so on the walls, even the top it's always just slightly cooler since that's where the heat escapes) those dissolved minerals which were happy in their hot water get ever so slightly nudged out of solution in the relatively cooler water. It takes a long time since it's a slow process but more and more get deposited in these areas. Since new water that comes in already has dissolved solids in it the equilibrium is ever so slightly tipped towards the side of forming more deposits in stead of those deposits dissolving back into the new water. And there are other minerals that get deposited as well which don't contain sulfur but may contain calcium or sodium or potassium. Sometimes they just need a nucleation site and some dissolved minerals actually are LESS SOLUBLE in hot water which is not common but calcium carbonate is one of the most common which makes up a large part of the scale.

[TheUniquePlumberman]

Replacing a water heater every 10 - 15 years is more cost effective than taking 10 minutes to flush your tank seems to be the consensus I find. My company installs a 3/4" full port ball valve with 3/4" hose threads on every heater we install and educate every customer on it's use. Rarely do they use it or conveniently forget that it needs to be done. I hate to say it but, "job security".
Great informative video guys.

[richardedwardpay]

Volume of water and quality of water is more relevant than age.

[jkbrown]

Why is it gross? All that was dissolved in any cold water you drank.

[wxfield]

My plumber (who is now retired after 45 years working) had a 35 year old water heater in his basement before it was replaced. If memory serves, he had a whole-house water filter on the supply side, flushed through a full-throat valve every year and replaced his anode rod every few years. I never did any of that. I had catch-pans as per code under mine with water sensors that shutoff the water supply to the tank. I routinely could get 13-15 years from my heaters. Which coincided with about the same cycle for rehabbing the tenants kitchens and baths.

[ameliabedila]

Thanks for being Awesome Matt Risinger

[fairweatherfoundry]

Oh my god. The tank in my basement is 30 years old.... I can't even imagine!

[Weegie]

A year or so ago I got a new-to-me 40 gallon electric DWH. Since it had been previously used (in NYC) I circulated a diluted CLR solution through it for ~10 hours. After thoroughly rinsing the tank and installing new heating elements, anode rod, and dip tube, it was ready for action... so I thought. We smelled CLR for another couple months with every shower we took.
Seeing this video, it makes sense that the chemical had absorbed into so many nooks and crannies of the (quite likely) scale buildup that it took months to disspate that odor. Yikes!

[marco]

I’ve gone through two water heaters in less than 10 years, and it’s because I have a water softener. The soft water will eat your anode rod at an accelerated rate, far quicker than hard water will. Learned a hard and expensive lesson to replace the anode rod often.

[jblazenj]

I've been a boiler, water heater installer since 1998. The differences can of course be maintenance as explained or could be as simple or complex of if the tank contained city water or well water. Let's just say for arguements sake that all 4 tanks contained city water! Ok? Now let's consider elevation and location! The further and higher in elevation, and location tank will have way more sediment than a tank that was in water authority's wash room. I love and enjoy your videos. I'm from new york long island and I can talk to you about extreme differences in units from the north and south shore on long island which perspectivally is quite small in comparison to other towns and cities.

[sysierius]

to show the power of flex tape, i saw this water heater in half!

[TheCookster]

About three years ago we replaced our 1985 propane fueled hot water heater. Not because it didn't work but because of water quality. We live in the Northeast and are truly blessed with soft water. There is a silt issue I discovered when we replaced it so I need a filter system. I figured there was a LOT of years of build up in it so I should replace it. The new one won't last half as long.