Magnesium Flexible Water Heater Anode Rod- Magnesium Anode Rod for Rheem, Reliance, Richmond, Kenmore, GE, 44 Inch Long, 0.8 Inch Diameter, 3/4 Npt Thread, 1-1/16 Inch Hex Socket Tool and Teflon Tape

This is the best deal, everything included - anode rod, thread tape, and a socket -- included is 27mm equivalent to 1 1/16" six (6) point socket which would surely not slip.

While waiting for the new anode I applied to the old anode three times over one week penetrating oil. It took a 24 inch long wrench to remove even after soaking the old anode bolt head with penetrating oil.The collapsible anode made installation easy after removing the old anode.

This was my 2nd order of this product and it is excellent. My gas water heater sits in a closet and there is not enough room to pull out a long, 48" rod. However this collapsible magnesium rod works very excellently. When I first purchased a new, expensive water heater from the famous big box store down the street.. it included an Aluminum rod. DO NOT USE ALUMINUM RODS! All of these anode rods will break down and corrode after about 2 years. However aluminum is HARMFUL to the body. Magnesium is BENEFICIAL to the body. So several years ago when I purchased the new water heater the 1st thing I did was order THIS Magnesium anode rod and I pulled out the 48" aluminum rod and threw it away. About 2.5 years later this Magnesium anode rod needed to be changed. I purchased this one again and inserted it. On certain brands of water heaters you may find it hard to locate the anode rod top to remove it.. just do a search on your particular brand and model and you'll find the location. I highly recommend this anode rod and will change it again in about 2 years.

Lots of reviews made it clear the 27mm socket simply can't do the job right, so I bought Craftsman 1 1/16" extended socket , thinking I'd be alright.Oh boy, how wrong I was. The shiny Craftsman socket failed me Big time when I used it to remove the old anode rod from my hot water heater. When I use it on a 30" breaker bar, it just slipped, no grips at all. I went to Home Depot and got a 450 ft-lb corded impact wrench. Again, the Craftsman simply slipped again. Out of my frustration, I put on the 27mm socket from the new anode rod package, and instantly it performed the job of removing the old anode rod beautifully. Can't recommend this enough.

This can be a little tricky. The fact that they included the right socket was great, saved time and worked perfect. You will need to bar to get leverage. Make sure you have someone hold the tank because you will spin it.

The segmented design make it much easier to change out the rod without completely uninstalling the water heater to get at it. Included in the package is a decent quality socket wrench (1/2 in. drive 27mm socket) to be used with your air or electric impact wrench. It may be very hard to loosen the old part without an impact wrench. The package also includes some teflon thread-sealing tape to help seal the new part into the heater.My well water is very acid, in the pH 5.0 range, and typically can cause a tank to leak in about 5 years. My present heater was a warranty replacement 4 years ago. When I pulled out the old anode rod it broke into pieces and fell into the heater tank. Not a good situation but there's no way to remove it. This is of course NOT the fault of this replacement anode rod. If I had replaced the old rod sooner it would probably not have broken off. Since the cost of replacing the heater has got so high now, I will make a point of replacing the anode rod every 3 years due to my acidic water supply.

I purchased this in part because it seemed a good deal that it also included the needed socket to remove/replace the anode rod since I don't have a 1 1/16th socket. I never even looked at the socket-------just assumed it was the proper socket for the job. It seemed to lock on tightly with the breaker bar I first tried, (which usually fails to loosen 'em without spinning the heavy 7/8 filled water heater around) but when I put it on the impact wrench, it spun on the anode bolt....and started to round off the bolt head. Not a good thing to have happen when the bolt is down a three inch deep hole, and locked fast.I couldn't figure out what was happening. Then I looked at the provided socket ---marked "27mm."which is roughly almost exactly the same as a 1 1/16. I purchased a Kobalt 1 1/16th from Lowes, which worked perfectly. Curious what was going on, I mic'd them: the one with the kit was not fully as hexagonally precise as the Kobalt impact one. One side measured larger than the others, one smaller (hundredth's of a mm) ....but I still cannot figure out why it was spinning without grabbing on the bolt. The socket was not getting chewed up, no sign of wear, but clearly slipping. The Kobalt one didn't spin. A mystery. Just glad I got the rod out.If you're without a socket and are purchasing this item for the added socket as I did----the socket might not work. It didn't work for me.Too soon to critique the Mg rod. As it turned out my 3 yr old OE aluminum rod was still viable. I'll give it a yearly or so inspect and replace it when it's worn out.

Worked perfectly. No issues. 27mm socket fit the 1 1/16 hex since 27mm is 1.063 inches and 1 1/16 is 1.0625. Came with plenty of teflon tape

My water heater is in a tight spot so getting a full length rod into the tank is impossible without cutting it down. This is a brilliant solution that allows you to get almost as much material into the water as a full length rod.