My water stinks. Its been getting worse over the past 5 years. I have been adding a touch of laundry bleach now and then but that doesn’t last and has its own problems.

The internet says the solution is to replace the anode with an aluminum one. If that’s all it takes, why does the factory keep putting in magnesium ones? Well, I tried that and it did not make any noticable improvement.

So now im trying the more expensive money back guaranteed expensive solution.

Electrified titanium rod. Easy in and out, though never as easy as it should be. The socket hole is deep and there isn’t much room. The manufacturer didnt do us any favors either by making his product a different sized socket than the standard 1 and 1%16th inches (27mm). It’s supposed to last 20 years so I can just swap it into my next water heater too.

While I’m squirreling around with the hot water off I decide to drain the tank.

But nothing comes out. The plastic valve is clogged. Why do they (AO smith) even use plastic drain valves? Anyway, I replaced the drain with a brass ball valve. These don’t get stuck. And the ball valve hasca much larger orifice to let out debris and gunk. And if this water heater fails, I can put that valve on the next one. When the plastic valve is removed a bunch of foul gunk came out. Ugh. That’s my drinking water.

While I have it empty, I decide to raise it off the floor about 6 inches. This makes working on the drain easier since the floor won’t be in the way of the hose. And you can tell I put an extension pipe on the new valve so it isn’t a Pita to attach a drain hose.

Pecker bird came by to admire my work

Since I moved the heater up, I also took care of rerouting some Pex lines.

Cost of aluminum anode: $40

Cost of electric titanium anode: $129

Cost of valves and brass: $45

[Pictures to post later]

There is a problem with my stairs. The stairs going into the basement are L shaped with 9 steps down the main math and 3 on the short leg. Where the stairs hit the landing at the bottom, there is a squeeze from side to side and a squeeze in headroom. The fix is to move the entire stairwell by 20 inches. This will create space to make 10 steps down the main leg and pull the landing an additional 8 inches from the wall, making it wider as well as 7 inches further from the ceiling.

There is a lot of prep work required. I had to move the main HVAC trunk line, several electrical lines going back to the breaker box, all the CAT6 home network stuff was going to a junction under the stairs and had to move. The stringers for the stairs were attached to a joist that was eaten by an infestation of carpenter ants (long since dead) so that had to be replaced with new wood.

I intended to gently remove stairs and risers to maximize re-use. I failed. Once I had destroyed about 30%, It became obvious I would need all new components anyway so that they would match.

New stair treads cost about $30 each. I decided to use 2×12 pine and cut to fit to get all new matching treads for about $6 each, stained and varnished. Risers will be made from 1×8 pine for similar savings. Primed and painted.

BEFORE:

Since I was ripping everything out anyway. I didn’t need to cut the drywall around each stair. Instead I offset the stringers by the width of a 2×4 (1.5″) to create a gap outside the width of the stair treads so that drywall and stair skirt boards could just slip into the gap. Thus reducing the meticulous cutting and greatly improving the finished look. I was able to use 1″x9″x10′ pine skirt boards and only needed to cut the ends for fit instead of cutting around each stair.

AFTER:

Note the electrical outlets spaced along the side with nightlight LEDs in them all the time so no one falls down the dark stairwell.

Next some trim. Then when the rest of the basement is finished, I will prime and paint.