Is there a better way to heat up my geyser that uses borehole water? The area I live in has no reliable water unless you drill a borehole. Every three months I change out my copper elements in my geyser. I am just asking since it is a pain in the butt
I assume that the issue is doe to hard water from the borehole - and so limescale buildup, which can quickly kill heating elements.
I look after a few systems with this issue, and have installed water softeners to deal with it. There is some info here.
Yes it is like a lime scale buildup, but also very corrosive.
I will look into the water softener solution thank you
Just chiming in, because I had never heard a water heater referred to as a “geyser” before. I was very confused about the application of an electrically heated hole in the ground.
Sorry we have weird names here in South Africa, a traffic light we call a robot, a fuel station a garage and in my example a water heater a geyser. I apologise I did not know no one calls the water heater a geyser apart from us.
NGL, at first I was kind of concerned that you had a “geyser” so close to your house until I realized it was probably another term for what my American brain calls a “water heater”.
Someone else suggested a water softener which would help a lot. Aside from that, does your geyser have a sacrificial anode? If so, when was the last time you replaced it?
Sorry we have weird names here in South Africa, a traffic light we call a robot, a fuel station a garage and in my example a water heater a geyser. I apologise I did not know no one calls the water heater a geyser apart from us.
I will look into the softener idea a bit, but yeah my anode is usually replaced on a nine month to yearly basis as well. But yeah the anode is usually almost completely dissolved or corroded away by then.
You have to replace it when it still has some magnesium on it, it stops working otherwise
why do you change it, is there lime scale buildup? you can remove it with citric acid esp if it’s just calcium/magnesium (white limescale) if it’s rusty orange (contains iron or manganese) you might want to check if it’s potable at all
Yeah the lime scale buildup, or as we call it calc buildup the white calcium one basically. It is not so much cleaning the element that is my problem, it actually gets corroded away, why I have to use the copper elements, that way I usually get about three months of usage out of it. I will try the water softening system other users have recommended.
But thank you for the citric acid trick, will use the trick on my tap heads
this shouldn’t happen, have you sent a sample to lab to make sure it’s potable?
I have been drinking the water for at least 5 years, it is drinkable. But I looked at my neighbours lab results 3 years ago, water is potable, magnesium was just outside the recommended level, but the calcium was off the charts.
so what corrodes your heater? i thought it might be acidic
Water softener won’t remove acid (there are types that do, but these come with 2 different ion exchange resins and require regenerating with acid and base. this gives deionised water)
Not sure I fully understand the question, but does your water heater have (or can you add) a sacrificial anode?
Yes it does, the anode is usually dissolved/corroded away after almost a year. I also replace them when they are really rough. But some of the users suggested I use a water softening system so I think I am going that route. Thank you for your help
