Are you on a well? What is the PH of the water?

I am on city water, natural gas water heater. New elctric service with the ground attached ahead of the city water meter to copper line per code at that itme.

We have the same problem. We just moved into this house (3 years old) and immediately noticed lots of sediment in the water - especially apparent when you draw a bath. Plus we just bought a Bosch front load washing machine and kept getting errors about water flow. The house has a filter system on the cold water side & the filters were filthy when we checked them. We put in new filters & added a filter in front of the hot water heater & flushed it several times. I used a paint strainer bag to catch the debris & there was a LOT of it. I checked the rod & it's gone. We are on community well water. We have a recirculating pump too & I wondered if that just stirs things up. If we don't use the pump, it takes several minutes before we even see warm water - forget hot - so the pump is a must. I was just going to get a new rod, but after reading your post I'm wondering if I should just buy a new heater. No telling how long that rod has been gone. Do you think a softener system help this problem?

The rod is supposed to dissolve to protect the tank from corrosion. The full name is 'sacrificial anode'.
If you have galvanized steel pipe in the system with copper the anode can go faster, but trying to prevent it from working will result in more frequent tank replacement.
Most of the warranty life of a water heater is the life of the anode plus the time to corrode through after the anode is no longer working.

You should definitely have the water tested asap. Something's not right there. I wonder if you ARE getting electrolysis, but perhaps caused by an electrical fault, which would be causing a lot of discharge to ground, but why it's manifesting in the hw tank I don't know. What are your pipes in general made of?

You should, as a matter of maintenance, open the drain at the bottom of the tank and allow it to drain partly to waste, apparently having accumulated crud shortens tank life.

You may well need a filter, but putting it downstream of the hw heater is not really addressing the problem.

Have you tried talking to the manufacturers of your hw tank? Have you contacted the city to ask them about the water supply? YOu may be able to persuade their inspectors to check your place out.

Electrolosys is a result of an electro-chemical reaction between to dissimilar metals and it takes place solely at that point of contact. It does not in any way generate a current through the piping system nor is it a result of a current from another source passing through the piping system therefore adding or removing grounding wires from the piping system will have absolutely no effect on electrolosys reaction..

"Electrolosys is a result of an electro-chemical reaction between to dissimilar metals and it takes place solely at that point of contact."

Yes and no. Ions must flow in the water to carry the current. Either breaking the conductive path in the pipe (dielectric union) or in the fluid (usually impossible) will greatly slow it.
Ships use large zinc anodes, or even a low DC voltage to counteract the couple generated with the water (and the salt supplies all the ions needed). It only takes a few volts to cancel the induced couple.

"It does not in any way generate a current through the piping system nor is it a result of a current from another source passing through the piping system therefore adding or removing grounding wires from the piping system will have absolutely no effect on electrolosys reaction."

The current is usually localized, but depending on how many ions are available in the fluid and the couple you can have weak currents generated or even some pretty hefty ones, think car battery in a strong electrolyte. Acids, bases, and salts acan all make a strong electrolyte solution.
AC voltages and currents typically have very little net effect. The constant reversing of the current direction puts back what left in the previous portion of the cycle. It can make for very interesting joints though as the process is not exactly perfect.
DC voltages and currents can accelerate corrosion. Back to the ship example. Good anti-corrosion equipment adjusts the voltage until the current from the electrode is very small. This prevents either the hull or the electrode from loosing much mass, but errors should go towards eating away the electrode. And yes, when you are moving things start to change and the devices are less effective.

genr8rs,

You have several problems, first you mentioned that the recirc line is connected to the water heater drain. The correct way is to plumb the recirc line to the cold water line coming into the heater and you should have a check valve on the recirc line reassuring that the flow will be only one way in the recirc line. By plumbing the recirc line into the drain line you are continuously stirring up the sediment in the bottom of the heater, if you have that much sediment in the heater you should be opening the drain valve once a month to purge the crud out not drive it into the system to clog faucet valves. I would also call in Culligan for a free water quality analysis to determine the water condition, you don't have to buy Culligan equipment if you don't want it. You are on city water so request a water quality analysis from your city and we can help you more. A whole house water filter would be a good start to eliminate large particulates in the water. As others have stated, the Anode rod is "Sacrifical" so check it often and replace as required, Home Depot carries replacement rods.

You may need a water softener.
Andy

Do a simple coupon test in the recirc loop if you can. The trick is placing the preweighed piece of metal in the loop safely. After 3-4 months retrieve and re-weigh to determine loss. Marathon electric water heaters are fiberglass tanks with no anode and the lower element is stainless steel. The best out there, period! Not a salesman here, just passing little bits of info to you.

dan_martyn,

FYI, I was in Home Depot (Fairfax, VA store) today and they told me they do not carry anode rods for water heaters.

We had the same problem about debris in the screens of faucets, dishwasher, washing machine - everywhere. Our plumber came out and removed the sacrficial anode rod and we haven't had a problem since. It has been three years without a rod and we have a 75 gallon Bradford White water heater. Even the people at Bradford White said that there might not be a better option than just doing without the rod. I posted here once before and heard about the electrolysis possibility. I looked around and didn't find any metal touching the copper, but I sure didn't look into the walls. Good luck.

If the anode rod dissolves unusually fast, then replace it more often. Otherwise the water tank won't last as long as it could.

Also drain sediment taking a few gallons of water from the tank every few months, more often if you get a lot of sediment.

If your anode rod is aluminum, you may get more sediment than you migh texpect. See if you can get a magnesium anode instead.

No-no-no-no-no! don't go grounding the hot water tank, or pipe to the cold water pipes ( which go to earth electrical ground). If anything, check your cold water in and hot water out lines to make sure that their connection to your hot water tank has a plastic insulator to keep from having any metal contact. This will kill your anode quickly, otherwise.