Thread: Zinc Test
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Old 01-09-2011, 02:10 PM   #3
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RE: Zinc Test

I posted on T&T and got this answer:

West Marine sells "Made in China" zincs from Canada Metals, Corp. Others
sell "Made in US" zincs from such companies as Camp and American Anodes.

Is there a difference in how long they last?

REPLY
Yes there can be. It depends on how good their quality is.
Many chinese manufacturers rely on subcontracting out and this is when
quality control really suffers.

There is a MIL spec standard that defines how pure zinc must be to be
considered pure. Only a tiny amount of trace contamination is allowed.
Depending on what was used; scrap metal or virgin zinc from a mine the
amount of alloy contamination may shift the end product on the galvanic
scale. Shift it too far and it will not have the galvanic properties
required for adequate anode protection.

The consumer cannot determine alloy purity without a test lab. For that
matter neither can West Marine; so they have to rely on the declaration by
the manufacturer that the zinc anodes are good.

You can thank the well intentioned but hopelessly misguided
environmentalist for banning virtually all metal smelting in North
America, resulting in this Chinese Crap Cockup of questionable quality
metal alloys.
Arild
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