Anode material selection
Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2018 6:58 pm
When I bought my boat, it had Magnesium anodes on it that were mostly gone. I did a bit of research and read that Magnesium was specific for fresh water, Zinc for salt/brackish, and Aluminum was acceptable for both. 99% of our boating will be in fresh water, but as I've shared in other threads, we may do a once a year trip to San Diego and put the boat in salt water.
I settled on aluminum anodes since they supposedly work for both fresh and salt water. Seeing the buildup on my prop after 4 days in Havasu got me thinking though (not that it's corrosion, just made me think), they anodes are really easy to change so maybe I'd be better off with a set of both magnesium and zinc and just change them out when we move from fresh water to salt and back.
Any thoughts on this? Should I stick with aluminum since that's what I already have, or would it be better to get two more sets and swap as necessary?
I settled on aluminum anodes since they supposedly work for both fresh and salt water. Seeing the buildup on my prop after 4 days in Havasu got me thinking though (not that it's corrosion, just made me think), they anodes are really easy to change so maybe I'd be better off with a set of both magnesium and zinc and just change them out when we move from fresh water to salt and back.
Any thoughts on this? Should I stick with aluminum since that's what I already have, or would it be better to get two more sets and swap as necessary?