Limescale Buildup In Alde and Flow...and Anode Rod

manyman297

For those who do a lot of home maintenance you all know how much limescale deposits can build up in your hot water heater. It got me thinking about the Alde's tank and the Alde Flow. Has anybody had issues with buildup? I assume this would really be an issue for full-timers mostly but is this something weekend warriors need to concern themselves with?

Also, it looks like there's no anode rod in these systems. I ran across this DIY:

https://tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/14644/alde-glycol-tank-anode-rod-mod

Anyway, does anybody have insight to any of this? I figure the Alde is an expensive item and anything to keep tank corrosion at bay is worth the effort for those who use it a lot. 

bergger

It is nothing I'm overly concerned about.  I drain the tank after every trip which helps tremendously with scale build up in a water tank.  Also since the electric heating elements are not actually in the water, they are in the glycol, you have no worries of scale building up on the elements and degrading their ability to heat. Heating elements tend to collect a lot of scale since they are so hot and in direct contact with the water.  Can you get scale build up in the Alde tank itself? I'm sure you can but I think it would be minimal due to the desgn.  Also if you drain the tank on a regular basis I feel it is less susceptible than traditional hot water heaters.  We have very hard water at our house and so far I don't think we've have any issues.   Sometimes I'll filter the water at home but not always.  And I always filter it at campgrounds.  As far as the Alde Flow goes I really don't know how that is constructed and works.  I guess I'll have to look into that! 

qhumberd

My understanding of the anode rod mod was to mitigate corrosion due to galvanic currents in the glycol convectors and boiler. Not sure this was a proven problem but later a grounding recc was made by Airstream to ground the Alde case to the battery directly. I am not aware of any such corrosion in the water heater tank or Flow module other than manufacturing defects.

I agree with @bergger and just drain the hot water periodically. I understand it is stainless steel so should be more resistant than say a home water heater tank.