How Does Mineral Sediment Buildup Affect Your Home’s Water Heater?

One of the most important parts of your home’s plumbing system is your water heater. It helps to provide enough hot water for activities like bathing, cleaning, and cooking. If you live in an area that has hard water, you may be concerned about how that excess mineral sediment will affect the performance and overall life span of your water heating equipment.
Shorter Tank Life Span
Since around three-quarters of the entire country has to deal with hard water, you likely have it in your home. Water is considered to be hard because it has a large amount of calcium and magnesium. Both these minerals are terrible for your water heater and its overall performance. Excessive minerals will cause corrosion on the metal components of your water heater’s tank.
While your tank’s anode rod will take the brunt of this corrosion, over the years, your tank will start to corrode from the inside out. This will drastically shorten the life span of your water heater as it will likely start to leak at its bottom. While the overall useful life of your water heater will be dependent on numerous factors, hard water can reduce the life expectancy of your water heater by up to two years. It’s an easy maintenance task to flush sediment and mineral build-up, but ignoring this could lead to a need for water heater repair or a premature replacement.
More Energy Usage
Another way that excessive sediment buildup can affect your water heater is through its functioning. It takes more energy for your water heater to heat hard water than soft water. All those excess minerals result in a longer run time for your equipment. This consumes more energy and leads to higher utility bills for you.
Lower Water Pressure
One other problem that you may experience with your water heater if you have excess minerals in your water is low water pressure. This is the result of the minerals eating away at the piping outlet of the device. Eventually, the inside of the piping is going to be so corroded and obstructed by sediment and debris that it will restrict the flow of hot water out of the water heater to your hot water supply lines and ultimately your plumbing fixtures. One way to verify that the issue is with your water heater is to turn on the cold water and see if you have higher water pressure.
Safety Concerns
As corrosion builds up due to the excessive mineral accumulation inside your water heater, it can begin to affect the expansion valve. Unfortunately, if the valve becomes blocked by corrosion and sediment buildup, it can cause the pressure inside your water heater to reach dangerous levels. In severe cases, this can cause an explosion of the water heater itself.
Discolored Water
Allowing sediment to build up inside your water heater will ultimately lead to internal tank corrosion. This corrosion can allow unwanted flakes of rust to break off from the tank and enter your hot water. The water will come out a reddish to brownish hue. You don’t want to drink this contaminated water.
Prevention Tactics
Now that you understand how sediment buildup can affect the overall functioning and life span of your water heater, it’s important to take some necessary preventative steps to help minimize these issues. When it comes to your water heater’s performance, having a new water softener installed in your home might just be the best option. This will remove all the excess calcium and magnesium minerals from your water before they enter your water heater. Because the water entering your water heater will then be soft, it will also be much easier to heat, and much less energy will be consumed during the process.
Another great tactic for minimizing sediment buildup is regularly flushing your water heater. A plumbing professional will completely drain your water heater, inspect its components, and refill it. Every water heater should be flushed at least once a year. If you have hard water in your home, consider flushing your water heater more often.
Reliable Water Heater Service
Jeffries Heating & Air + Plumbing offers reliable water heater service for the Somerset, KY community. We can also handle all your heating, air conditioning, plumbing, electrical, air duct cleaning, and indoor air quality needs. Simply call our friendly and competent staff today to book your next service consultation with one of our helpful professionals.
