More Water Heaters... and Busybusybusy

Okay, my weekend? Doing a water heater anode replacement for Judy, my (and Bird's, and Grendel's) former landlady. In case you missed it the first time, here are all the geeky reasons to replace water heater anodes, so that those suckers last longer than their warranty period.

It's always fun and useful data to get feedback on how these modifications behave in service. This replacement anode was installed in July 2002, and this is how it looks seven years later. Looks kinda barnacle-sea-life-encrusted-licious, don't it?


I'm guessing that it could go for a bit more, but five to seven years is probably a good safe cycle for replacement. The bottom six inches or so of magnesium is completely gone, as is a chunk of the top. Also, Judy reported that there wasn't much sediment during flushings--sounds like the curved dip tube works!

But ample leverage and foul language (and assistance from the first floor tenant) was required to break the anode free. Man, that frakker was stuck.


"Yeah, well there's yer problem, lady!"

Also, I got to hang out with Grendel, as well as Anna, who was visiting from Pittsburgh.

Anyway, the reason I took case of this job this past weekend is because my next four weeks are going to explode into busyness. Between now and August 25th, I will be in the office 3-1/2 days. Not a problem though, a lot of it is fun, vacation, and travel.

• The tail end of this week, and upcoming weekend: heading to New York to go to a hydronic (boiler) heating class on Long Island--the same guy did the steam heat class in Western Mass. Will also see the family, and go see jazz at the Village Vanguard (!!!!)
  
• Next week: summer camp (my company's big seminar series/party; occupies three or four days of my life completely)--learning, socializing, drinking, eating, repeat.
  
• Friday of that week--off to the Bay Area, spending the weekend seeing folks--my schedule is already getting packed for the weekend.
  
• Working in the Bay Area for three days, flying back across the country
  
• And then flying out to Minneapolis (seeing psycho security guard), and then an Alaska vacation with Ouija and Drea!
  
• And then back on August 25th. Whoah.

Well, I'll try to send postcards at least while I'm running around!