sacrificial anode (zinc grenade) on outside of copper pipe?

ron

not the anode rod within a water heater...
I saw from a pop up add on utube or fb, from supplyhouse, sacrifical anodes. Grenades?
It was the kind that clamp on the outside of a 3/4" copper water pipe it looked like.
It reminded me of zincs on boat prop shafts when I saw the picture in the ad on line.

I have never seen a zinc like that on a home heating system water pipe - i would remember and go hmmm being a boat person.

when/where/why use something like that on residential water pipes?

friends house that was neglected and doing repairs recently, had a corroded copper pipe off the 20 yr old burnam boiler, was the output side of the tankless coil (100 psi), where a pin hole and a drip started where I think it was on the brass part of the shut off valve valve soldered on the 1/2" copper pipe, but about a foot of copper pipe along with the valve was all green and covered in crusty yuk, looking like it had been on a boat in salt water.. That bit of pipe and valve was cut out and replaced easy enough but what would cause such corrosion at that location? If I happened to take a pic and saved it I'll upload it.

ron

I happened to find it at supplyhouse...

The Corrosion Grenade by A/C Zincs, Inc. provides a proven solution for extending the life of the air conditioning system’s aluminum fins. This deterioration is due to exposure to coastal environments. Economical and easy to install, the Corrosion Grenade sacrificial anodes are an adaptation of a marine application for fighting galvanic corrosion. This is a truly green solution to a costly problem.

https://www.supplyhouse.com/AC-Zincs-ACZ-3-8-3-8-Zinc-Corrosion-Grenade

I'm not on the coast, there is no salt air, no aluminum - what would have caused the corrosion and pin hole leak that developed that I described above? solder flux not wiped off when installed and left for 20+ years?

Jamie Hall

"I'm not on the coast, there is no salt air, no aluminum - what would have caused the corrosion and pin hole leak that developed that I described above? solder flux not wiped off when installed and left for 20+ years?"

As likely as not... The zinc anode will protect against corrosion -- on the outside of the pipe, and only up to a point. It woulld have to be solidly connected to the pipe and, perhaps more important, at least kept damp if not immeresed in the same material as the pipe it is intended to protect. The same principle is used not only in marine applications (great for propellor shafts and sometimes rudders) but also on many underground piping installations.

All that said, you really have to make sure that the corrosion causing the pinhole leaks is from the outside, not the inside, of the pipe, for anything like that to make a difference. If it's on the outside, just careful cleaning (as you say, left over flux -- sloppy) is a problem. If it's on the inside...

mattmia2

Probably was a tiny leak in the threads or a solder joint that grew. Could be an issue with stray current from any of a number of electrical problems too.

Larry Weingarten

Hi, For a sacrificial anode to work, there must be an electrolyte between the different metals. If there is no water, how is current conducted? The grenade sounds like a great idea for an underwater line. I see no benefit if it's dry.

Yours, Larry

ChrisJ

Larry Weingarten said:

Hi, For a sacrificial anode to work, there must be an electrolyte between the different metals. If there is no water, how is current conducted? The grenade sounds like a great idea for an underwater line. I see no benefit if it's dry.

Yours, Larry

It's a cool looking product that I bet many buy assuming it works.

Larry Weingarten

Hi, Looking at the link, and flyer, the purpose of this grenade is to protect aluminum. Maybe the ideas is that this thing sits out in the rain and the slowly corroding zinc is washed down onto the aluminum fins, protecting them. Maybe it's like the old trick for keeping moss off the roof by having galvanized steel flashing up on the ridge. The zinc washes down and prevents moss growth. Still, zinc isn't much less noble than aluminum on the galvanic scale. Magnesium would be a better choice if this approach really work. I'm not seeing any claim for protecting copper pipe. They specifically say that it doesn't.

Yours, Larry

ron

The Corrosion Grenade by A/C Zincs, Inc. provides a proven solution for extending the life of the air conditioning system’s aluminum fins. This deterioration is due to exposure to coastal environments.

Has anyone seen, or known about, aluminum fins of an air conditioning system deteriorating?

Matt_67

Its a big problem in ocean coastal areas and on ocean vessels. Fins deteriorate badly.

ChrisJ

ron said:

The Corrosion Grenade by A/C Zincs, Inc. provides a proven solution for extending the life of the air conditioning system’s aluminum fins. This deterioration is due to exposure to coastal environments.

Has anyone seen, or known about, aluminum fins of an air conditioning system deteriorating?

"Have you ever noticed that metal parts in water heaters rarely corrode? That’s because virtually every water heater has sacrificial anodes to protect the internal components from corrosion. "


Aside from the tanks commonly rotting out every 10 years, sure, no corrosion...........

mattmia2

If you replace the anode while there is still some left they corrode much more slowly but almost no one does.

All stainless is probably the only option for a condenser in a coastal area if you don't want it to corrode quickly.

dko

Some guy just came up with the idea to market it for use on condensers

Been around a long time as a boat shaft anode.


Funny how they use a black and white photo in all their brochures for their before/after to hide the fact the condenser fins are probably just as white.

ChrisJ

mattmia2 said:

If you replace the anode while there is still some left they corrode much more slowly but almost no one does.

All stainless is probably the only option for a condenser in a coastal area if you don't want it to corrode quickly.

I replaced mine when it was a few years old and still had plenty left.
Then I inspected it a few years later. Then the tank started leaking at 11 years old.

So.......... I lost a lot of faith in tank heaters that only have 1 anode. My understanding is the flue passage blocks half of the tank from taking advantage of it. I have no idea if that's true, but the leak was on the opposite side of the tank.

And that was a Bradford White which many tell me are supposed to be the best.

ron

ChrisJ said:

ron said:

The Corrosion Grenade by A/C Zincs, Inc. provides a proven solution for extending the life of the air conditioning system’s aluminum fins. This deterioration is due to exposure to coastal environments.

Has anyone seen, or known about, aluminum fins of an air conditioning system deteriorating?

"Have you ever noticed that metal parts in water heaters rarely corrode? That’s because virtually every water heater has sacrificial anodes to protect the internal components from corrosion. "


Aside from the tanks commonly rotting out every 10 years, sure, no corrosion...........

I have never seen galvanic corrosion on a hot water heater tank, with or without it having a sacrificial anode. I don't see the scenario happening for galvanic corrosion to occur unlike stainless + aluminum in sal water:



I was interested to see if someone here would outright state it was a marketing thing.

mattmia2

So the anode rod just evaporates?

ron

mattmia2 said:

So the anode rod just evaporates?

I'd say more like dissolves, given the movement of hot water and time, not so much from galvanic corrosion.

When I removed my 10+ year old Bock tank, it was still good. The anode in that was gone for however long. How many people replace their anodes in their hot water tank and actually know they are preventing failure? I could see if there were metals present have great separation on the galvanic chart but there isn't not copper and steel with the steel tank being glass-lined. I'm assuming the boiler water coil in the tank is copper. I'd like to see someone test and show the degree of galvanic corrosion that happens in a hot water tank.

anyone know the specific aluminum alloy used for AC condenser fins?

ChrisJ

ron said:

ChrisJ said:

ron said:

The Corrosion Grenade by A/C Zincs, Inc. provides a proven solution for extending the life of the air conditioning system’s aluminum fins. This deterioration is due to exposure to coastal environments.

Has anyone seen, or known about, aluminum fins of an air conditioning system deteriorating?

"Have you ever noticed that metal parts in water heaters rarely corrode? That’s because virtually every water heater has sacrificial anodes to protect the internal components from corrosion. "


Aside from the tanks commonly rotting out every 10 years, sure, no corrosion...........

I have never seen galvanic corrosion on a hot water heater tank, with or without it having a sacrificial anode. I don't see the scenario happening for galvanic corrosion to occur unlike stainless + aluminum in sal water:



I was interested to see if someone here would outright state it was a marketing thing.

Their advertisement says corrode.
It doesn't say galvanic corrosion.

Rust is considered a type of corrosion. Tank water heaters corrode constantly.

ron

http://corrosiongrenade.com/

Economical and easy to install, the Corrosion Grenade® sacrificial anodes are an adaptation of a marine application for fighting galvanic corrosion.

such a thing will only work regarding galvanic corrosion. It will not work for salt air corroding aluminum AC fins via oxidation or any other mechanism of corrosion.

Got to hand it to them though, every part of their statement is true.

Talk to you later, gonna go bolt an obnoxious rear spoiler on my nissan to increase hp AND save gas.