JoeWras
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2012
- Messages
- 11,817
This is likely a mystery solved. I was going to ask ya'll what's going on, but upon further deep searching, it appears I've run into lime deposits.
Situation: decided to actually flush and drain my water heater on a schedule. I've never done this. Due to drought, I caught the water in buckets and was pouring it in my rain barrel, which is empty. Out came this blue-ish gel.
I thought to myself: "Joe, is that plastics from the dip tube? Uh oh. Only two years old?" Well I forged ahead and had to finish the final drain on the driveway to get proper drop for a complete drain. More came out.
This morning I wake up to find nice white powder, and no more gel balls.
The funny thing is we ran into this gooey gel at my non-profit last summer when we had to work on a water heater. Again, at that time I thought it was the dip tube.
After seeing the powder, I did a deeper search. Sure, the top things that come up are: blown dip tube, and, rotten anode.
But after only 2 years? Come on.
Further searching reveals that lime will precipitate out of the water in these tanks. Flushing is actually a good thing before it becomes hard scale. I've worked with lime for my lawn. It was always powdery. Never this goo, almost like a silica gel goo.
So I guess I'll continue the flush. This may be a good idea.
BTW: 25 years ago our city was very deliberate in informing us that they are intentionally making the water slightly alkaline. We have naturally acid water, and it eats up the pipes. The city was mostly worried about eating solder and leaching lead. What I see here is a natural result of them adding literally truckloads of lime per day to the water supply.
Situation: decided to actually flush and drain my water heater on a schedule. I've never done this. Due to drought, I caught the water in buckets and was pouring it in my rain barrel, which is empty. Out came this blue-ish gel.
I thought to myself: "Joe, is that plastics from the dip tube? Uh oh. Only two years old?" Well I forged ahead and had to finish the final drain on the driveway to get proper drop for a complete drain. More came out.
This morning I wake up to find nice white powder, and no more gel balls.
The funny thing is we ran into this gooey gel at my non-profit last summer when we had to work on a water heater. Again, at that time I thought it was the dip tube.
After seeing the powder, I did a deeper search. Sure, the top things that come up are: blown dip tube, and, rotten anode.
But after only 2 years? Come on.
Further searching reveals that lime will precipitate out of the water in these tanks. Flushing is actually a good thing before it becomes hard scale. I've worked with lime for my lawn. It was always powdery. Never this goo, almost like a silica gel goo.
So I guess I'll continue the flush. This may be a good idea.
BTW: 25 years ago our city was very deliberate in informing us that they are intentionally making the water slightly alkaline. We have naturally acid water, and it eats up the pipes. The city was mostly worried about eating solder and leaching lead. What I see here is a natural result of them adding literally truckloads of lime per day to the water supply.