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sammyg2 sammyg2 is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2000
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Water heaters have a zinc annode that prevents the rest of the unit from rusting out. the annode gets eaten away instead. It's usually screrwed into the top of the tank.

As long as some of it is still there the tank is protected but after 20 years it's probbably gone.
You COULD just replace the annode and get more life out of it if you wanted, they're reasonably cheap on evil-bay, round $30 to $40 IIRC.
Old 12-19-2013, 08:27 AM
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