As everyone who ever used a wrench knows, the first one is easy, it's the last bolt that's impossible to get loose.

Which leads to hot water heater anode rods.

I've managed to live all my life without ever knowing about these things. It seems hot water tanks are built with a "sacrificial" rod that dissolves to protect the tank. The idea is that this rod reacts with the water and chews up the various ions, etc before they corrode the tank.

The symptom that you need to replace this is your water starting to smell like sulphur.

My hot water got smelly some 3 or 4 years ago. I thought I was looking at multi-thousands worth of new water treatment system, and just haven't gotten around to doing anything about it.

I checked on YouTube, and replacing the rod is pretty easy. A coupler or two and unscrew the rod and put in a new one.

Not only that, but it requires a set of narrow side-grip pliers that I didn't already own.

Really, who can say "no" to a simple task that requires buying a new tool?

A little more looking and it turns out that there's disposable anodes (standard in most water heaters) and powered anodes that electrolyze the problem ions. The powered anodes cost about a hundred bucks more than the standard ones, but they last forever.

So, I ordered a powered anode rod, hit Lowes after skating and got a new pair of pliers and waited just one day for the new anode to be delivered.

As expected, the first coupler nut came off nice and easy. It's a larger bolt than any of my crescent wrenches can handle, but no problem for a 18 inch pipe wrench.

The second coupler nut was also trivial with the right tool.

At this point, there's about 3 feet of rod in the water tank, and an inch of pipe nipple sticking up out of the tank.

The next trick is easy, you grip the pipe with the side-pliers and unscrew the rod.

On the YouTube videos, it was easy.

I applied the pliers to the rod and twisted.

And the water tank laughed at me and kicked sand in my face.

Well, I've seen that ad, and while I don't have time to take a Charles Atlas Body Building course, I can up my game with a better tool.

So I applied the 18 inch pipe wrench to the anode rod nipple.

I generated sufficient force to rotate the water heater, but did not rotate the anode rod.

So I dug out the 22 inch pipe wrench, pushed with one hand and held the water tank with the other.

The damn tank smirked at me and said "Is that all you got?"

It wasn't "all I got." I got a five pound sledge hammer and beat on the pipe wrench with that, sort of a do-it-yerself impact wrench.

This had some effect. Real effect. Noticable effect.

I bent the pipe nipple out of shape.

I went back online looking for suggestions for "anode won't turn". Most of the ideas were ones I'd already used, but one person suggested using penetrating oil.

A quick run to my local hardware store, and I oiled the bleeping thing.

This required letting it sit overnight, so the oil could seep in. in the morning continued to reshape, but not rotate, the nipple.

At this point, it was impossible to put the heater back together. The threaded pipe was scrunched into a rectangle. I had only cold water until I managed to fix this.

When the going gets tough, the tough get help. (That's what makes them so tough.)

So I called my usual plumber, who told me they didn't have time for me. But they suggested Al's Hot Water Sales and Service. I called Al and explained how I'd munged my "easy repair" and admitted that I'd probably need a new water heater.

A few hours later a couple guys showed up with a new water heater and a bunch of tools that I don't own. They repeated what I'd tried to remove the rod, with the same results, then cut off a slice of the water heater top to get a better grip on the rod. With two of us holding the tank and a linebacker-sized dude wielding a 24 inch pipe wrench, they got the rod loose.

I'm happy to report that the rod was heavily corroded and needed to be replaced. I'd have felt pretty silly if it was just fine and I'd gone through all of this for nothing.

I let them install the new powered anode. I hadn't thought through just how differently sized the powered anode was from the original. Installing it required cutting my hot water line and putting in an angle adapter.

I guess this part is pretty common if you do hot water systems for a living. They had the angle adapter in the truck, all ready to go.

So, in the end, I was out about two hundred bucks for the professional help. At least I didn't have to replace the entire hot water heater, which would have topped a thousand.

And, now the world is a better place. I can take a shower.