As houses start to get old, there are certain maintenance issues that need to be attended to. Examples include air conditioning, window seals breaking, garden maintenance with weeds that keep growing and more. Very often people ignore maintenance on their hot water system. This can result in replacement of the system every few years

There is a great solution to extend the life of your hot water system. By replacing the anode every two years you could almost double the life span of the system. The best part of all this is that you do not need a plumber to replace an anode valve. You can do it yourself. I know what you are thinking… what is an anode valve? An anode is the long metal rod that runs from the top of the how water system to the bottom.

There are massive savings to be made by replacing the anode valve every two – three years. To put this into a simple equation, if we say that on average a hot water heater is replaced every five years and we can double that to ten years by replacing the anode valve every two or three years:

–       anodes cost about $50

–       4 anodes will cost about $200

–       approx cost to install a hot water system $500

Using this method, you will save about $300 plus the cost of a new hot water system every ten years plus a whole lot of headache. Not bad!

To replace an anode valve is no big job. Anodes are available to purchase from most hardware stores. Follow the steps below to replace your hot water systems anode:

1. Turn off the water going into the tank and also turn off the power supply leading from the tank.
2. You need to drain approx twelve to sixteen liters of water from the tank
3. Use a socket wrench to remove the existing anode valve.
4. Install the new anode valve. Its recommended to wrap Teflon tape around the threads of the new anode. Be sure to tighten it with a good socket wrench.

In four easy steps, you have just saved yourself hundreds of dollars for not much fuss. Be sure to tell your friends and family about this little trick so they too can save lots ofmoney!

For more information and other articles, please look at the Geelong 24 Hour Plumbing Handy Hints