Well, the wet vac attempt failed miserably overall. Sure I was able to reduce the nozzle to insert it into the water heater, but since the hole was so small the vacuum motor was starved for air and lost lots of suction power. The motor whined like it was crying. I was able to remove some residue and any remaining water was sucked up pretty fast but it was not very effective overall and there is still a lot of deposits still in there. It's time to go back to a water pressure nozzle.
I rechecked the CW website and the nozzle looks different from the one they used to sell which was much fatter than this one. This new one might be similar to a skinny metal nozzle. Being only $4.49 I might have to give that a shot, but it'll be 60 miles of gas roundtrip to get to the closest CW to my house (so add another $10). Maybe I'll try many of the local more expensive RV parts stores for something. I hope I can find a skinny metal kind.
My tank has lots of calcium deposits from what little I can see, but I've never cleaned the tank interior except draining it and wiping down the encrusted anode.
I think I need to pay closer attention to this because if I have to replace the WH they start at about $700!! So far the anode replacement is cheap but I still have too many deposits hanging around.
Lastly I agree with Orv, it's not how you heat it, it's the fact water has minerals some more than others and this is what causes the deposits when heated. A water softener would help but it's not perfect and then there's other cost and maintenance considerations for this that are for another topic. I would still use an anode because it is a passive piece of metal that will catch whatever else is in the incoming water.
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