Element rust no more!

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gunner65 said:
My ULWD Camco rusted after the first use only. Never saw anymore I cannot imagine that a sacrificial will do anything over this short of a use the element base is still going to rust even with the sacrificial installed. They are designed for water heaters with water stored long term. The question on my mind is: what are the effects (if any) of such a small amount of iron in your wort?
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There is likely no ill effect. Iron is needed for the body. My concern was with having a rust/metallic taste in light beers.

As for the anode not doing anything, you are completely wrong. My element base does not rust at all after installing it. Did you even read my original post? Before installing it, I had rust running down the side of my keggle it was rusting so bad.
 
Not arguing that your problem went away just do not know if it was the sacrificial element or that the element just stopped rusting as much after the first few times of use. Like when I said my element bled rust down my keggle the first time but never again.
 
I think it has a lot to do with water chemistry and equipment. I have relatively high pH water(8.5) from the tap. So I imagine that makes the rust problem more severe in my case. People with more normal water or slightly acidic water probably don't notice it as much.

In my case, no matter what I did, I kept getting more rust streaks. If I didn't take BKF to the streak, it just got longer and longer each time I used the kettle. Since adding the anode, my element base looks like new still. No rust at all. Just my experience.
 
I think it's water hardness but I'm not a chemist. My water's very soft (alkalinity or CaC03 ppm of only 32) but the pH is high (over 9). No rust here.

Kal
 
abarnett said:
I wonder how many of the people without the rust problem are using aluminum pots? Wouldn't the aluminum do the same thing as the magnesium since it's almost as good of an anode?
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bbognerks said:
An aluminum pot probably works due to the sheer surface area of it and less electrical resistance from connections and dissimilar metals. I can definitely say an aluminum anode doesn't work in a SS converted keg with my water.
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The problem here is if you've seasoned your aluminum pot properly, you've built up a serious oxide layer on the surface and have thus passivated the aluminum available to the solution which will stop its protecting the iron in the element!
 
Curious, then...what is the solution for aluminum pot users if they start to experience rust at the base of their element? I'm converting to electric soon and would like to know.
 
Not sure if my experience is anecdotal or what...but I had pretty bad rust on my element bases after my first few wet tests.


While ordering the anode, I decided to use a 1/2 drop of olive oil on a paper towel to wipe the base plates after cleaning. I did this maybe 3-4 times and haven't had rust or needed to install the anode, I've brewed about 8 batches on it and haven't needed to reapply oil.

Not sure what happened but when I worked in restaurants we'd put a thin film of oil over freshly cleaned griddles and this kept them from oxidzing. YMMV, but I am going to test this a bit further when I build a few more electric keggles in a few weeks.
 
I am considering doing this with my next HLT. However I can't get this voice out of my head that keeps saying to me "who cares if a little rust is present". I hasn't impacted any brews (flavor wise), anything that falls out will likely not make it to the fermenter since I leave behind some hot break and hops in the BK. Not to mention that it will definitely fall into the trub and never make it into your glass.

Am I crazy here? Just wondering if I really should be drilling another hole in the pot for a weldless fitting type set up.

My water pretty much matches up with the dublin style from my well, so it is quite hard and loaded with calcium.
 
CidahMastah said:
I am considering doing this with my next HLT. However I can't get this voice out of my head that keeps saying to me "who cares if a little rust is present". I hasn't impacted any brews (flavor wise), anything that falls out will likely not make it to the fermenter since I leave behind some hot break and hops in the BK. Not to mention that it will definitely fall into the trub and never make it into your glass.

Am I crazy here? Just wondering if I really should be drilling another hole in the pot for a weldless fitting type set up.

My water pretty much matches up with the dublin style from my well, so it is quite hard and loaded with calcium.
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I basically echo your feelings.

One thing you could try is just dabbing a bit of cooking oil on the element face after you clean it. it has basically stopped the rust from re-occuring for me.
 
will a 9/16" greenleee punch work for adding a hole with weldless fittings for this magnesium anode? I have one laying around from the RTD installation. what size hole needs to be created for this with weldless fittings?
 
shroomzofdoom said:
Not sure if my experience is anecdotal or what...but I had pretty bad rust on my element bases after my first few wet tests.


While ordering the anode, I decided to use a 1/2 drop of olive oil on a paper towel to wipe the base plates after cleaning. I did this maybe 3-4 times and haven't had rust or needed to install the anode, I've brewed about 8 batches on it and haven't needed to reapply oil.

Not sure what happened but when I worked in restaurants we'd put a thin film of oil over freshly cleaned griddles and this kept them from oxidzing. YMMV, but I am going to test this a bit further when I build a few more electric keggles in a few weeks.
Click to expand...

My first thought was will the oil impact head retention, but I suppose a drop or two on a paper towel and then exposed to 10-15 gallons of water/wort will not have that much impact.
 
jtkratzer said:
My first thought was will the oil impact head retention, but I suppose a drop or two on a paper towel and then exposed to 10-15 gallons of water/wort will not have that much impact.
Click to expand...

There are certain schools of thought that olive oil in very minute amounts can be good for yeast. Thus far, no probs with head retention for me.
 
sethhobrin said:
will a 9/16" greenleee punch work for adding a hole with weldless fittings for this magnesium anode? I have one laying around from the RTD installation. what size hole needs to be created for this with weldless fittings?
Click to expand...

You'll want to use a 13/16" punch for all 1/2" threads.
 

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