why is this?

Weezbo

and see if the first fitting is clean,if it isnt then , i might be inclined to belive that the lateral to the house or the pipe to the appliance managed to be installed with dirt in it....

water is always trying to get out of the pipe and unions are a great place to getaway, so couple that with some dirt in the pipe and you could very well end up with an outage or blockage of flow past the union....

Larry (from OSHA)

DHW hot outlet

this is 1 1/2 years old. why would this amount of stuff be here? the tank is supposed to have built in di-electric protection. should I use di-electric unions? or what? the city water is not terribly hard and not softened.

(re-posted with photo. oops!)
Thanks for any help.

Larry (from OSHA)

jeff_51

looks like

water scale and sediment. Put in a softner or better yet a Superior.

jeff_51

looks like

water scale and sediment. Put in a softner or better yet a Superior.

Christian Egli

Thirsty for water? Chlorination?

Is your water heavily chlorinated? That's never good for corrosion in pipes.

See, when the water in chlorinated, the pipes become clogged with rust and then the bugs can't fit through anymore. This keeps us bug free and healthy. The big bugs at least...

Was the fitting tight enough to not allow air to squeeze between?

Thanks for showing the picture.

Chris_31

thats why

> this is 1 1/2 years old. why would this amount

> of stuff be here? the tank is supposed to have

> built in di-electric protection. should I use

> di-electric unions? or what? the city water is

> not terribly hard and not softened.

>

> (re-posted

> with photo. oops!) Thanks for any help.

>

> Larry

> (from OSHA)

Chris_31

thats why

I no longer use di-electric unions!!!

Larry (from OSHA)

is it possible

that excess flux would draw stuff to this area and cause it to grow?

Larry (from OSHA)

actually

this is the fitting from the hot outlet of the water heater. i changed out the whole tank yesterday as it had sprung a leak at the heat exchanger. (bradford white was nice enough to give me a sample (pre production) of their new style powercor due on the market this fall. i think i got the very first one. but that's another story, or thread for later.)

no leaks anywhere near this fitting, but i was wondering if a overly soldered or fluxed joint could make things grow like that.

thanks

Larry

Dave Stroman

We do not use dilectric unions anymore. Use a brass nipple and a brass union and you will never have this problem again. As for the BW indirct, I have about 6 of them installed, some under the Lochinvar lable. I was warned about these before I installed them about the plastic coating peeling off the heat exchanger. But I thought that with the new PEX coating the problem was fixed. Not so. I have had my first failure. Plastic coating peeling off! Lochinvar gave me a new tank but had to pay $90 to ship it from the factory.

Dave in Denver

Jim Bennett

I had a similar problem

Once I had a domestic water service that had diminished flow. It was a 3/4" service with a galvanized brass/bronze? water meter. I shut it down and pulled the meter and found the entire meter coupling completely blocked with crusty hard corrosion. The galvanized pipe was relatively unobstructed and the meter and outlet tailpiece fully open. After cleaning it out there was no deterioration to the brass coupling.

Could the dissimilar metals, or possibly the electric service ground cause dissolved solids to drop out of solution?

hr

It looks like

an iron build up, possible some steel or old galv pipe upstream?

Have the deposit tested to see what it's make up is. Plenty of labs and universities have equipment to do this for you.

It would be wise to have your water tested before you buy a softner, or any other equipment. A softner is not always the right answer. If you have high iron, for example, this could plug up a softner quickly.

If you're not testing, your just guessing

hot rod

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Larry Weingarten

A question...

...about the connection? In your hand is a brass fitting. Was that screwed to a plastic lined galvanized nipple? If so, did the plastic lining wrap around the end of the nipple? We have some interesting waters around central California and what you have in hand is not uncommon when the old style, bare end, lined nipple and brass are mixed.

Yours, (another) Larry

Larry (from OSHA)

an answer

Hi Larry,

The fitting is actually copper and yes was attached to a plastic lined galvanized nipple. Should I conclude that I can expect the same to occur on my new installation? (see photos)
By the way, I can put an additional anode in the top t&p location. Should I?

Thanks for any insight.

Larry (from OSHA)

Larry Weingarten

If the new...

... lined nipples have plastic wrapped around the ends, you'll be OK for a much longer time. What I like to do when there is room is to come off the lined nipple with a copper flex that has a true dielectric in the end and then on to the copper plumbing. What that gives you is a dielectric union with no steel exposed to the water. It's good in agressive waters. I thinks there is no such thingy as too much anode (unless the water is quite conductive)! If there are no electric elements in the way, that central location for a magnesium anode is good.

Yours, Larry

Larry (from OSHA)

I can feel some

periodic maintenance coming on. At least the hot side has the union so it shouldn't be too much of an effort. A second anode will be in place soon.

Thanks for all your help.

Larry (from OSHA)