Water Heater Question

[rp2813]

A rare good word about Ward's

My parents replaced their water heater in 1973 with what I'm guessing was a TOL Ward's model.  Nice wood grain trim with a snap-on cover for the controls that gave it a clean look.  Probably designed for a location where it was in plain view, but it lived in their basement where it was rarely seen.

 

The house was built in 1927 and has original galvanized pipe that is constantly leaving little rusty bits in aerators at every faucet and in every toilet tank.  No doubt the WH tank built up a thick layer of sediment.

 

They did not do one bit of maintenance to that heater and it lasted over 30 years until it developed a leak at the bottom of the tank.

 

If there's no problem with the WH itself, just replace the bad section of pipe and save yourself the larger expense until the WH fails.

 

[sudsmaster]

If it's copper pipe then I think it's quite likely that a patch would soon fail because the copper itself has corroded from the inside. Internal corrosion of copper water pipe is not uncommon with neutral to acidic water, and it is accelerated wherever there is a bend in the pipe, as this tends to concentrate the water flow on one side of the piping.

I will second the "rare good word" about old Montgomery Ward water heaters. This house has a 50 gallon "Ward 700" that is now in its 35th year and going strong. I've replaced the anode rod twice in the past 12 years.