30 Minute Secret Makes Your Water Heater Last Decades

I just discovered something absolutely fascinating that almost no one seems to know about and that is the

water

heater

, this little yellow sticker that most of us ignore. If you take it off and look at the back, it actually has a pre-programmed death. date or expiration date on

your

water

heater

is crazy so I started calling my friends and said, look at

your

s, take that thing off and see what the expiration data is on yours and for all of us it was actually Same thing, it was 3:00 a.m. on a Friday night during the Christmas holidays while your whole family stays at your house, that's when it's going to die.

I'm joking about the little expiration date here that doesn't exist, that's not real, but don't do it. you agree that water heaters only go off at the worst times, it's always in the middle of winter, it's always when things are good, you know there's a million things going on and it doesn't die quietly, it will seep underneath of your floors. It will ruin some carpets, some drywall, some baseboards, and anything else it can reach and spray everywhere. The fact is that most water heaters will

last

between 8 and 12 years, not a very long lifespan to have that. big mess that will be on your hands and in fact we are going to do a giveaway in the comments section below.

I want to hear your stories about when your water heater went out at the worst possible time or the most explosive time and Great way, if you have one of the top three stories with the most likes in your comment, we will give away some prizes of which We will talk at the end of the video. Now most water heaters will be on the shortest setting. In addition to those 8 to 12 years, if no maintenance is performed other than the quality of the water where you live, there are actually two major factors that influence how long your water heater will

last

, and they both come down to maintenance in the first place. is that you should flush your water heater every 6 to 12 months, that's the manufacturer's recommendation and probably almost no one does that and I can't really blame you, I don't do it myself.

I think almost no one actually flushes their water heater every 6 to 12 months a lot of people don't even know you're supposed to know that now. The second thing has to do with the anode rod. When I asked my viewers in a community poll I was not surprised by the answers I got about how often you change your anode rod the number one answer what the heck is an anode rod that sounds a little weird and maybe it is. This is something that most people never change because they don't know what most people do, so you are definitely not alone if you are not even familiar with an anode rod. 31% said I know what it is, I just never touch it and that's the majority of people who know what an anode rod is. we went down to the 4% who said they change it every 5 to 10 years, maybe it's a very small number and then the elite choose the Chosen Few. 7% of you now conceded that this is a subset, it's the 7% of people who are already somewhat familiar with DIY, those who subscribe to my channel, those of you who said that I actually change it every 3 to 5 years, I guess on average in the United States, at least maybe in Canada as well, we probably get one or 2% of people changing it regularly, realistically, it's mind-boggling, but it's actually the biggest factor important thing that will determine how long your water heater will last before it suffers from one of those magnificent explosions.

Most anode rods fall into one of two categories. There are several but two are by far the most popular and the first is a magnesium alloy anal wand and the second is an aluminum alloy anal wand. Now your water heater will normally come with the magnesium rod which is what comes in the water. heater that I have and most likely the one you also have now, there are quite big differences between these, but they both have a lot of similarities and the magnesium one will be much less expensive, but also all the process or work that this thing has is going to eat up faster.

Its job is to be devoured and deteriorated by the water that enters your water supply so that the water does not attack your water. heater itself because that is what will eventually cause its demise. Now to give you an example of this, I actually replaced a water heater at my friend's house and take a look at what happened next when we opened his old water heater to see the condition of the anode rod. which started out looking like this, nice and thick, it's about 1 inch thick and then ended up with absolutely nothing, down to the steel rod that supports all the alloy around it, pretty bad once it's sacrificed.

The anal wand has been eaten, there's really nothing for the water to attack at that point except the water heater itself, and that's what will cause it to fail. Now aluminum rods and rods have their own set of benefits, these are a few. it's better to get rid of that sulfur smell and that's the rotten egg smell that you sometimes find in water, but it still won't attack you at all, it will just help. The other thing with aluminum is that they tend to last a little while. They are longer, but they also tend to be more expensive from time to time.

I get to be the hero in these videos because I find really interesting products that I can present to people and I think most people don't know about this option. I know I didn't and I've worked with water heaters a lot in the past so this is what you clicked on from the thumbnail on the right, this funny looking little thing is an anode rod but not just any anode rod . an anodized rod powered by a company called Coro Protek they have now contacted me and again fully disclosed this is a sponsored video but I'm happy to post it because it's a cool product if you look at the box here. some things you're going to notice number one it says it eliminates the sulfur smell this not only reduces the rotten egg smell but it eliminates it number two it stops corrosion the lime build up that builds up at the bottom of the tank that's why it really it needs regular flushing, this eliminates it, this is basically your one stop solution for dealing with your water heater maintenance and best of all, 20 year warranty, that's crazy basically if you can put this in your water. water heater, so you just bought yourself 20 years of not having to deal with your water heater and I think that's an absolute win, so the reason this little guy works is because it's a motorized anode rod that uses electricity and, By the way, a tiny amount. of electricity to do the job that these normal aluminum-magnesium rods just can't do, this thing actually costs about $2.80 cents a year, so it's less than a quarter a month and you just don't need to touch it.

Once you have it installed, the best part is that you can take this and install it on your existing water heater. You don't need to buy a new water heater to do this, you can simply remove the old one and I. I'll give you some tips on how to do this and you'll put this one in, plug it in and you're done, at that point really the only thing you need to do is make sure the green LED is on on the power supply. and for some reason the green LED light is not subtle, there are literally no lights on in this room, it's just this little green LED, so yeah, I think you'll know if it's on and if it's working, so you're probably wondering . about the cost I know I was these guys, the regular anal rods.

I've usually found some for as little as $30 at Home Depot or Amazon and most of the time they're in the $4 to $60 or $70 range depending on the type you get. and the branding and that kind of stuff, so they're not that expensive, it's just a real hassle to maintain them now, as far as coral protection goes, there's definitely more, but it's a one-time deal, so the protection of coral here is $160 and this is for the 40 to 89 gallon range that will be most homes in the United States and put this in 20 years and in my opinion it is good, 100% worth not having to deal with it.

I know that when I put this in at the end of the day, when I have it installed, I'm done dealing with water heater problems and don't have to worry about those Christmas catastrophes for at least a couple more

decades

, as I mentioned before. You don't need to uninstall or replace the water heater to do this, so I'm going to show you some tips to make your anode rod replacement successful so you don't make that face like I have to give you tip number one. use a six sided plug do not use the 12 point plug because it is more likely to strip and once it starts to strip it is more likely to continue stripping and that is bad news and will cause many of the problems we are seeing. here I will put a link in the description of one that I recommend that has good reviews and has been well maintained.

This is a six-sided plug and only costs about 13 dollars. Tip number two is to avoid spinning, which is one of the biggest problems. with a rod when you try to remove it it just spins the whole tank which could spin the water lines which could spin the flu and which could spin anything else that is connected to it even the gas or electric lines to ensure that and make sure it doesn't spin. I recommend using some tie down straps now if you live in an area like me. I live in Utah and we have tie down straps built into the house by code, they have to be earthquake straps so we can use them to keep everything in place but if you don't have something that many of you won't just use some tie down straps. tie downs normally found on trucks and then they can prop it up like the real thing.

Buckle the tie down strap against the wall, make sure you put some protection in there so you don't scratch it and that will keep everything from twisting around while you're trying to loosen that stubborn, stubborn rod once you have that six-sided plug and you've secured it. your water heater in place to make sure it doesn't spin anymore, you're ready to replace the anode rod, so the best way to do this is to make sure you turn off the cold water supply. I actually installed a cold water supply valve right next to my water heater, but most don't have it, so you may need to turn off the main water supply to your house and then we'll do that too.

Turn off the hot water and then we're going to turn it off if you have an electric water heater that turns off the breaker to make sure it's not on and if you have a gas water heater like mine. set it to off or pilot from there we're going to hook up a hose so we can drain from the bottom drain and get maybe a couple gallons of water out and this will be really hot water. so be careful with this and then you can use a flat screwdriver to open the valve carefully and start letting some water out now if it's not coming out like it should if it looks like it's stuck that could be a problem with your valve. temperature and pressure release, this guy up here, so go ahead and release it slowly and very carefully little by little until the water starts flowing freely.

Scoop out a couple gallons and that's really all you need to do for this job we do. No need to drain or empty everything, now we grab our socket and our ratchet and I actually have a torque wrench here now, they're actually not as expensive as I thought. I bought this for another project, but it was $57 and this. It's a beast that gives you tons of leverage and, like I say, $57 on Amazon, so I'll put links to that in the description below, but this one worked perfectly for me, especially with this newer one I was replacing, so I just open that thing. up and we're moving counterclockwise to release it and then you have your new motorized anode rod ready, you can wrap it with Teflon tape, make sure you give it at least a few turns around it, twist it up and make sure it's nice and comfortable and then all you have to do from that point is plug in the terminal on the top and then we need to connect the ground to one of the screws on the outer casing of the water heater with everything connected, everything that's left.

What you need to do is plug in the power and it should turn on that super bright green LED that burns your retina and like I say, as long as you see that bright green light, you know you're in business and your water heater is protected now. In my case I have a 40 gallon water tank there are six people in my house almost all of them are adults four of us are adults I have three teenage daughters and 40 gallons just isn't enough so I chose to go ahead and change this for a water heater better water.

Turns out I got a great deal on this one, $450, so I went ahead and added that 50 gallon one and I'm not going to go over all the details of this because I have a whole heater. another video you can watch that explains how to replace your water heater in just 10 simple steps, so once I hook it up and have the new Coral Protect electric anode rod in there, I'm ready to go.begin. I've finished now. I do not do it. I have had to worry about my water heater for over 20 years and I can't tell you how happy that

makes

me now.

Cora protects if you're listening. Can you make it so that I never have to enter this room? Can you maybe go out? with an electric air filter for my heating and air conditioning system, that would be nice. I still come here regularly to change it, but that takes a

minute

or two. This thing is at least a headache. was that I'm doneNow I did mention that we have some giveaways to make for your stories in the comments, the ones that get the most likes. Coral Protect has generously offered to give away three of the motorized anod wands to the people who earn those three most liked comments.

Be sure to check it out below, like the one you like the most, or share your story if you have one too. Note that anode rods come in different Coral Protect varieties so you can get one. for your RV, you can get one for commercial use and you can get one for residential use, whatever type of anode rod you need, they have you covered now. Remember if you are interested in replacing your water heater. All in all, it's very much a do-it-yourself project, you may have to get a permit for it, make sure you do your homework, but I've broken it down into 10 easy steps that you can check out right here.

I'm Nils and I learn to do DIY. thanks for watching