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Old 11-03-2019, 01:33 PM
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KegRiver KegRiver is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: North of Peace River
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Having training in radio electronics come in handy some times.

A bit about electrolysis. And why some anodes never erode.

Electrolysis is what happens in your car battery to produce current.
In other words, it's a chemical action that produces electricity.

Salt water has chemicals in it that support electrolysis, some tap water does too. And some does not.

In effect, where tap water is high in minerals it can act like a battery. Chemicals (mainly salts) in the water react with some metals in the tank to create this current, in so doing they erode that metal.

This is why some water softeners erode your anodes.

Lead supports this reaction but does not erode, so does zinc which is what an anode is made of, but it does erode.

Other metals such as iron also support electrolysis and erode but zinc does it better so it erodes first. Thereby protecting other exposed metals.

I won't get into why a car battery fails except to say the culprit is not erosion.
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Last edited by KegRiver; 11-03-2019 at 01:51 PM.
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