# Chlorination of water heater



## Plumberman (Jul 7, 2008)

I installed it back in August of 2010


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## Plumberman (Jul 7, 2008)

More


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## Plumber patt (Jan 26, 2011)

T and p valve is illegal....


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## Plumberman (Jul 7, 2008)

Plumber patt said:


> T and p valve is illegal....


Negative


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## Plumberman (Jul 7, 2008)

End product


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## Plumber patt (Jan 26, 2011)

Ya my bad, looked at it quickly, looked like it was tied into that drain tap line


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## Plumberman (Jul 7, 2008)

Plumber patt said:


> Ya my bad, looked at it quickly, looked like it was tied into that drain tap line


Funny thing is this was my day today, I don't know if you have ever chlorinated a tank and hot water main but its time consuming. So I was at the heater when I posted all these, after you posted that I was trying to figure out what you were talking about....lol


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## Plumber patt (Jan 26, 2011)

Haha sorry man, and yes I have chlorinated a tank and it sucks the big one, very time consuming


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## Plumberman (Jul 7, 2008)

Nah its cool man you kept me busy... Lol.That one was a little ole 40 gallon with about 8 fixtures on it and it took around 6 hours, I hate the big ones you have to pour 2-3 gallons in.... Forever it seems like before you finally get it cleaned up.


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## Plumber patt (Jan 26, 2011)

I have never seen water that black before, typically when we chlorinate heaters it's due to a sulfur smell or rotten egg smell, black water, that's a new one lol


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## Plumberman (Jul 7, 2008)

Thats what the original call was for. When I pulled the anode I saw all the bacteria on it and said uh oh. 

When I went to fill the mains up with the solution that is what came out of the farthest lav from the heater. The heater doesn't see much use, they only have patients there 3 days a week so the use is minimal. Also when I installed the heater I had it set on mid range on temp, around 130, someone had turned it down to past the 120 range which bacteria thrives in that environment, especially Legionnaires.


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## Plumber patt (Jan 26, 2011)

Gotcha


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## plumbtastic (Apr 27, 2011)

The expansion tank went bad last year and did the same thing to my water heater in an apartment I was renting.


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## Tommy plumber (Feb 19, 2010)

I've turned up the temp. real hot (140 F or hotter) to kill the bacteria, hydrogen sulfide I think. That way I didn't have to mess with the bleach. But if there are children in the home, I'd use the bleach and chlorinate the system.


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## ToUtahNow (Jul 19, 2008)

Do all of you guys limit yourself to 5% Sodium Hypochlorite or have you tried the 12.5%? Better yet, if you used Calcium Hypochlorite at 65% you would not have to worry about degrading. Plus it would be a much smaller volume.

Mark


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## Plumberman (Jul 7, 2008)

ToUtahNow said:


> Do all of you guys limit yourself to 5% Sodium Hypochlorite or have you tried the 12.5%? Better yet, if you used Calcium Hypochlorite at 65% you would not have to worry about degrading. Plus it would be a much smaller volume.
> 
> Mark


Never known any different. Enlighten me... I'm interested.


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## Plumberman (Jul 7, 2008)

Tommy plumber said:


> I've turned up the temp. real hot (140 F or hotter) to kill the bacteria, hydrogen sulfide I think. That way I didn't have to mess with the bleach. But if there are children in the home, I'd use the bleach and chlorinate the system.


No children but its nurses and kidney patients, I thought about that but it only take 5 seconds for adults to receive 3 degree burns at 140. Only way I know of is install tempering valve downstream of heater to regulate delivery, they don't wanna spend the money.


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## [email protected] (Apr 10, 2011)

Never performed this treatment before. Thanks for the info. Does the water turn black due to bleach reaction with the anode rod, or something else? If so, it's like a cool magic trick.


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## Plumberman (Jul 7, 2008)

[email protected] said:


> Never performed this treatment before. Thanks for the info. Does the water turn black due to bleach reaction with the anode rod, or something else? If so, it's like a cool magic trick.


That was the color of the water in the bottom 1/4 of the tank. Theoretically you will never draw that water from the bottom of the tank by just running a few lavs.

The water at the top half of heater was clear but smelled rancid.


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## 1703 (Jul 21, 2009)

Plumberman said:


> No children but its nurses and kidney patients, I thought about that but it only take 5 seconds for adults to receive 3 degree burns at 140. Only way I know of is install tempering valve downstream of heater to regulate delivery, they don't wanna spend the money.


You're not required to have a tempering valve?

We would be required to have one here.


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## ToUtahNow (Jul 19, 2008)

Plumberman said:


> Never known any different. Enlighten me... I'm interested.


Free Chlorine is 100% but it is hard to work with because it is a gas. 

Sodium Hypochlorite (bleach) is a liquid Chlorine but starts to degrade as soon as it is made. Chlorox claims their bleach leaves at 5-10% Chlorine but it drops to about 3% sitting on the shelf. Pool Chlorine is about 15% Chlorine but also degrades quickly. In my water company in Utah I use T-Chlor which is 11-15% and to slow down derogation they are stored underground. 

Calcium Hypochlorite is a solid which does not degrade. I've seen Calcium Hypochlorite at pool stores that are as high as 73% Chlorine. In other words Calcium Hypochlorite at 73% has 24 times the amount of Chlorine in it as Chlorox at 3%. So 3-gallons of Chlorox (25 pounds) has the same amount of Chlorine as about one pound of Calcium Hypochlorite.

Mark


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## Plumberman (Jul 7, 2008)

Colgar said:


> You're not required to have a tempering valve?
> 
> We would be required to have one here.


Engineer never drew it in on the building when it was first built. I downgraded from a commercial heater to the 40 because that is what they were wanting due to the lack of use. I'm un sure if there was a valve there before I installed the smaller unit, may have been but they removed it.

The other commercial heater feeds their RO system and it's stand alone. It does have tempered water to the RO tanks and pumps. 

But no we aren't required by code to deliver water through a tempered valve unless we are running at heat above 140


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## Plumberman (Jul 7, 2008)

ToUtahNow said:


> Free Chlorine is 100% but it is hard to work with because it is a gas.
> 
> Sodium Hypochlorite (bleach) is a liquid Chlorine but starts to degrade as soon as it is made. Chlorox claims their bleach leaves at 5-10% Chlorine but it drops to about 3% sitting on the shelf. Pool Chlorine is about 15% Chlorine but also degrades quickly. In my water company in Utah I use T-Chlor which is 11-15% and to slow down derogation they are stored underground.
> 
> ...


That's good info, I didn't know that it lost it's chlorine level. Makes sense though. I'll remember that when I do my next one. Thanks!


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## Plumbworker (Oct 23, 2008)

wheres the expansion tank? i see a swing check on the cold


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## plumbtastic (Apr 27, 2011)

Plumbworker said:


> wheres the expansion tank? i see a swing check on the cold


I think whats left of the expansion tank is in that 5 gal bucket Maybe it was installed on the hot side(wrong) because it sure it not on the cold.


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