Taking one for the team. Volvo Penta’s genuine marine anodes are specially designed, tested, and manufactured to ensure a perfect fit for your application and the protection of your Volvo Penta product.
In salt and brackish water, Volvo Penta recommends aluminum anodes. If these are not available, zinc can be used. Aluminum and zinc anodes are not recommended in fresh water due to the increased risk of shifting to more noble potentials by passivating surface films, particularly at low anode current densities, stopping them from working properly.
In fresh water, we recommend magnesium anodes since the electrical conductivity is much lower than in salt and brackish water. Magnesium anodes should not be used in salt or brackish water due to the risk of overprotection and extremely high anode consumption.
Small amounts of zinc are essential for the human body, but in higher concentrations, zinc is toxic to the environment. Zinc anodes usually contain a certain amount of an activator to prevent passivation in certain conditions. For this purpose, many manufacturers of zinc anodes use small amounts of cadmium, which is very toxic.
Volvo Penta’s aluminum anodes are cadmium-free. Instead, indium is used as an activator.