In last week’s report on sacrificial anodes, Lynn Lohr mentioned a study that had been commissioned by then-FHA President Stan Barbarich which verified zinc anodes’ ability to fight hull corrosion.
Now Stan sends along an addendum about an alternative: aluminum anodes. He points to one of the findings in the study by CorrPro, a $2 billion, worldwide leader in corrosion protection:
To confirm the CorrPro conclusions in a real-world setting, I paid them to replace the zincs on our home with aluminum anodes, and to install them per their recommendations. They first took electrical measurements of the hull with zincs, then with no anodes, and, finally, after installing the aluminum anodes, they attached a recording device to the hull to track current flow over time.
Results of this exhaustive experiment confirm that things are working well and are totally supportive of the engineer’s findings and recommendations, so those of you who do believe in the scientific method should be assured.
The Corrpro report, along with Stan’s article about their findings and another article on anodes by Dan Goodman, can be viewed by FHA members on the FHA website. Look for them under Resources/Maintenance once you’ve logged into the site.
According to numerous experts on the Internet, aluminum anodes are cheaper, lighter and less harmful to the environment than zincs. However, they are harder to keep clean which is important for maintaining their effectiveness over the long haul.