On Sun, 16 Mar 2008 16:05:47 -0700, Donna Ohl wrote:
On 16 Mar 2008 19:05:38 GMT, Allodoxaphobia wrote:

Or, all too often, there's no response at all. Then none of the
advisors know how it turned out, and the archives offer nothing for the
next feller that comes along with the same or nearly identical problem.

Hi Jonesy,

You just wait! A coworker of mine said he was gonna fill his welding tanks
with oxyaceteline and cut apart my old water heater so we could see exactly
what it looked like inside!

I can't wait to snap the pictures.

Yes. Massive lime/calcium deposits, I'd hazard to guess.
Or, are you on a well? I don't remember that comment up-thread.
In that case it probably would be sand.

You might want to install a water softener ahead of the H/W heater --
_just_ to serve the H/W side of the system.

I did that in the previous house for use with a solar H/W system that
was in-line ahead of the existing domestic gas H/W heater. Both the
(then) existing 50 gal. gas H/W heater and the 80 gal. solar H/W tank
lasted over 25 years -- and they may still be going strong, FAIK.

(Of course the gas H/W heater did not run much, so it's tank did
not get 'cooked' that often by the gas flame.)

Jonesy
--
Marvin L Jones | jonz | W3DHJ | linux
38.24N 104.55W | @ config.com | Jonesy | OS/2
*** Killfiling google posts: http://jonz.net/ng.htm