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Hot take: My plumber said something about my water heater that really stuck with me.
He was replacing my old unit in my Brampton semi and said, 'Most people just wait for the bang, but checking the anode rod yearly saves you a grand later.' Has anyone actually kept up with that maintenance?
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blairjackson6mo ago
Man, that's it exactly! It's the same with so many things, like changing your furnace filter or cleaning your dryer vent. We're all so busy putting out fires that we ignore the tiny, cheap tasks that stop the big disasters. Your plumber nailed it, we're trained to react to emergencies instead of preventing them. It feels like a whole life lesson hiding in a water heater tank.
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sean_foster524mo ago
The plumber's right, but the real trick is nobody thinks about the water chemistry in their area. Brampton water's got a certain mineral content that eats up anode rods faster than you'd expect. Check with your local utility, they usually have a hardness report online. If your water's soft, you might get five years out of a rod, but hard water can cook one in two. That's why some guys say it's a scam and others swear by it, depends what's coming out of your tap. Same rod, same house, different results based on what's in the pipes before they hit your tank.
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theawest6mo ago
Honestly I always thought that was just a scam to get more service calls. Then my neighbor's heater went last winter and flooded their basement. Cost them over four grand for the new unit plus the water damage. Now I check mine every October when I change the smoke alarm batteries. It takes ten minutes and the part is like thirty bucks.
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