Danger Danger!  Did you buy a Silconsolar solar hot water storage tank?

 

I bought two 80 gallon storage tanks in 2007.  The first tank failed within a year and the second tank failed a couple days ago.  In both cases the bottom drain plug corroded and blew out, flooding my garage thru the wide open holes with not only the 80 gallons of hot water in the tank, but sustained as well with the full support of my water main.

 

My theory is that these failures were due to the electroanode being mounted on an insulator.  This prevented the electroanode from sacreficing itself and instead the drain plugs and heaters sacreficed themselves.  Plus the plug material appears to be galvanically active against the stainless steel.  These are both basic design errors, and no amount of good luck is going to prevent them from failing prematurely on every tank similarly manufactured.

 

My system is operating at 70 psi so may fail earlier than systems running at lower pressures.  When I purchased my system the 58 psi pressure rating had not been published.  In fact I had to install a pressure regulator to knock down my water main pressure since my 80 psi supply line popped one of the two tank’s 80 psi relief valves on the very first fill.

 

My first tank’s drain plug failed catastrophically about 4 days after starting to leak. 

 

The second tank started leaking not too long later and I was expecting the worst.  Luckily I happened across a ¾ NPT aluminum electroanode in an RV store on unrelated business and replaced the insulated one provided by siliconsolar with this one from the RV store.  Miraculously the drain plug leak rate slowed over the next couple weeks till it was barely noticable and the tank actually lasted most of this year before finally failing last week without warning.

 

I also had one of the two tank’s electrical heaters fail at the seam between the heating element tubing and the mounting plug.  I believe this was galvanic corrosion same as the drain plug blowouts.  The ensuing spray popped of the heater’s non-removable electrical cap and the water was spraying across the newly exposed live electrical connections.  That was the end of that second heater.

 

The first tank’s heater didn’t last long enough to corrode.  It’s wiring melted the plastic cap covering the heater hole.  Some weeks after that one of this heater’s electrical connections burnt at it’s crimp connection to the heating element, ending its short usefull life.

 

Finally I’m curious if any of you had trouble getting the tank fittings not to leak?  I started with schedule 80 pvc unions that would not make a leak free joint.  Then switched to brass unions which with thin teflon tape, then  thick teflon tape, then teflon pipe joint compound, and finally to a very sticky yellow pipe dope that would just barely make a leak free joint.  Any single instance of that could’ve been me, but the several instances with a variety of fittings and sealants make me think that the threading on those nipples isn’t quite right…

 

I’m looking for people who have a similar experience (failed or leaking heaters or drain plugs) so we can all get together and apply some pressure as a group to siliconsolar.  They seem resistant to resolving issues with individual customers. 

 

I also suggest telling your story to the consumer product safety commission as there’s a danger factor due to the initial scalding hotness of the solar heated water when the drain plug fails, or the hazard of electric shock that results when a heater fails with water blowing across it’s electrical connections.  I think there’s a threshold number of incidents that triggers the CPSC’s alarm and my report alone hasn’t done it.  Plus imagine if siliconsolar had to proactively replace all these ticking water bombs before they failed – you’d have a replacement you could get installed to minimize your time without hot water.  Otherwise after it fails you need to wait for them to ship a replacement tank.  With any reputable company that’d be within a couple days and a couple more days for shipping.  This would be a long time to be without hot water.  But this is no reputable company.  I’m getting well over a year now and they still have not replaced my first failed tank.  If I hadn’t bought two tanks this would’ve been a lot of time without hot water.   Since this second tank failed I’ve (at least temporarily) abandoned solar hot water and returned to good old reliable propane.  Meantime I’m shifting my focus from getting replacement tanks to getting my money back.  With their new to me advertised 58 psi rating these tanks are obviously not compatable with my municipality’s water system.

 

Also before I decided to buy my system from Siliconsolar I was verbally told by Rebecca that the warrantee was 10 years. While trying to get the first tank replaced that warrantee reduced to 5 years.  Now I finally see the first written warrantee and it is 3 years.  What are your warrantee recollections?

 

Erik Barnum 24 Feb 2009

ecbarnum@antelecom.net

A Siliconsolar victim