Adam

Hi Matt,

My installation was one hek of a project. Finished it on Thursday night. I took your advice and got a rotary tool and cut the steel vent hood (resulting in a lot of sparking!)...then had to finish cutting it with a mini hacksaw (you can see the cut out notch in the photo). Because I installed it the standard way, i didnt need to attach the ground wire to the side of the tank nor slide the vent cap over to make room for the anode bolt - which was the main purpose of notching out that opening in the steel.

As you can see from the one photo, the anode rod definitely needed replacement. I needed to use 18" breaker bar with a 4' steel cheater bar to break the epoxy seal. An impact wrench didnt work too well for me. One of the main reasons I used a powered anode rod (after discovering it on a google search) over a sacrificial one is that I am going to spray foam insulate inside the rim joists where the vent pipe comes out of...and after doing that, I wont be able to move the pipe due to the nature of the closed cell insulation. So, if i installed a sacrificial anode rod, i would have to move that pipe every 3-4yrs to check it or whatnot...which would not be possible with that type of insulation there. So now with this new anode rod (which will probably outlive the water heater tank) i wont need to do that and move ahead with insulating the rim joist in the summer. And if i need to buy a new water heater, i'll be sure the anode rod location is completely exposed and open to gain easy access to.

One benefit (that i didnt realize at the time when i bought it) resulting from this new sensor rod (in addition to stopping corrosion on the inside of the tank) is that I have noticed softer water after washing my hands which is related to removing the minerals associated with the old anode rod (aluminum and zinc) that circulated throughout the tank and hot water supply. So im very pleased with that.

The green light has been on steady since Thursday so Im happy its still working. There were some learning curves, but not too bad...especially for a first timer doing this. Great product though, glad i bought it.

Best Regards, Adam

Editors Note: Photos of this installation can be seen at the Customer Installation area of this site.