On Sun, 26 Jun 2011 00:11:10 -0400, "Ed Pawlowski"
> wrote:

>
>"James Post" > wrote
>>
>> The water in my hot water heater tastes nasty. Much worse than the
>> cold water.
>
>Very common. This come sup on the home repair newsgroups often. Sometimes
>you get a sulfur type odor from a reaction with the anode. If you replace
>it with a different material anode, it goes away. It also helps to flush
>the bottom of the tank one a month or so.

I never heard that about the heating element. How would I know what
material it's made of? Does it commonly give that information on the
package it comes in? I've certainly never noticed. To flush the bottom
of my water heater out, I'd have to hook a hose to the bottom, stretch
it out my back door and drain the tank. It's a pain in the ass when I
have to do it to change the element and I'm sure not doing it once a
month. I've made the decision to go to a On Demand type electric water
heater when this tank gives out. That will eliminate the problem of
any taste difference by removing the tank from the equation.