Brand new Water heater elements corroded in 2 weeks?

[Savarak]

How is it possible? Sorry I have no pics, the plumber took them for warranty purposes...

but the first heating element was in tact but lots of white stuff over it

the second was corroded to the point where it was as long as my fingers, and totally encrusted with white stuff..

If these were brand new on November 2006ish(according to the heater's manufactured date), what sorts of circumstances could cause such high corrosion/disintegration?

found on google...
heres how a brand new one looks
http://img.products.howstuffworks.com/c...pr/177X150/00/01/e3/94/f8/31692024.JPG

heres how the elements above sorta looked(below is not an element, but sorta the same corrosion... and not whiteish)
http://travel.webshots.com/photo/1257249510064709164DTgvmd

 

[compnovice]

Not even fake parts would corrode that fast. You must have acid flowing in your heater

What about oher metallic parts?

 

[henryay]

You sure its not just hard water?

 

[DrPizza]

Improper installation - your plumber screwed up, will replace them, and fix the original problem.

 

[IGBT]

..may have an electrolysis problem. You may need die-electric fittings to isolate the heater.

 

[Savarak]

well i have brand new heater elements now, and everything seems to work 100% fine... they emptied the heater, took out the messed up elements, put in new elements, refilled it and voila its all good... for now....

yeah its hard water, i want to install a water softener sometime...

die-electric fillings? dont know much about that

The rest of the water heater seemed unaffected... only time will tell

 

[DrPizza]

When you connect your copper lines to the hot water tank, there's a special fitting that you're supposed to have (dielectric, if you want to google it; not die electric). Without it, you'll end up with corrosion due to galvanic action. Too bad the plumber was already there... if you had taken pictures of the top of the tank before and after, we'd be able to see if he installed this type of connector (which should have been there from the beginning.) Also, you should have a sacrificial anode rod inside the tank that would corode before your elements... I wonder what the condition of your anode is??

Did you have to pay the plumber for fixing the problem?
If it were me, I'd be worried about the anode. You may have a brand new water heater that is going to have a greatly shortened life. The plumber knows this, but is happy that you don't. He'll happily blame the brand in 3 or 4 years when you pay him to install yet another heater.

(I could be wrong, anyone have any other ideas why a heater element would corrode, especially so quickly?)

p.s. Installing a hot water tank is pretty simple; definitely a reasonable d-i-y project for a beginner.

 

[skull]

All hot water heaters i've ever seen come with die-electric fittings already installed.
When they soldered the heater to your water lines if they didn't put wet rags over the die-electric fittings they could of burned them up. If thats what happened I don't see it causing the elements to corrode in two weeks. It could just be poorly made elements. I can't see hard water causing that after two weeks.

 

[Savarak]

i'll have to ask my builder about that sacrificial anode... and to have them check if i have the dielectric fittings...

 

[Savarak]

btw it was all taken care of by my builder... its a new house and I should definitely not be forced to pay or pay to replace the stuff that should be working 100%

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Hot water in general corrodes a LOT LESS than cold water.

Why?

1) Water heaters have the sacrificial anode
2) Concentration of oxygen is VERY IMPORTANT when it comes to corrosion because you need a ReDox reaction to take place. While high temperatures induce faster reactions, the concentration of oxygen drops off after 50 deg C in water.

Hard water is always an issue, but you should know that just by looking at cold water. There will be a lot more corrosion just by looking at cold water, but if that's not an issue, then your hot water shouldn't be.

Thus, I highly suspect something is wrong with the sacrificial anode.

I love my corrosion class =)

 

[imported_Baloo]

Originally posted by: DLeRium
Hot water in general corrodes a LOT LESS than cold water.

Why?

1) Water heaters have the sacrificial anode
2) Concentration of oxygen is VERY IMPORTANT when it comes to corrosion because you need a ReDox reaction to take place. While high temperatures induce faster reactions, the concentration of oxygen drops off after 50 deg C in water.

Hard water is always an issue, but you should know that just by looking at cold water. There will be a lot more corrosion just by looking at cold water, but if that's not an issue, then your hot water shouldn't be.

Thus, I highly suspect something is wrong with the sacrificial anode.

I love my corrosion class =)

Where is the logic here? You should know hard water is an issue just by looking at cold water? Hot water corrodes less than cold water? They do so because water heaters have the sacrificial anode? Less oxygen in cold water than in hot? Some truth there, but heating it can't add oxygen in a closed environment as exists inside a water heater. Do you not know how heat increases the rate of chemical reactions? In any case, the water does not corrode.

Heat, as from a heating element, increases the rate of corrosion. However, the OP does not have a corrosion issue, he has a high mineral content issue. I suggest a whole house water filter to remove some of the minerals from the water.