water heater leak

[rhmahoney]

I've noticed a drip of water coming out from the molding at floor level just behind my entrance door. I pondered this for a while. Looked first for it coming off roof A/C. Seeing nothing of that nature, I walked back along the coach and found it was coming from the hot water heater way back over the rear wheels. The source was the big white nylon drain plug. Got a big pliers and proceeded to tighten it. Wrong thing to do! The more I turned the more the jets of hot water appeared.

Shut off the water supply and propane and called the CG repair folks. surprisingly there was someone on duty this Saturday morning. He easily dug out the pieces of crumbly plug and installed a new one and commented that this was a common mode of failure.

Moral: carry a spare and or replace during maintenance. I had the unit cleaned out last yr(age 5 yrs) without replacing the plug.

 

[Ron]

Russ,

Glad you noticed it before serious damge occured.? ?I think it is Ned  that highly recommends carrying a spare plug.

 

[Tom]

I think I'll buy a spare and carry it.

 

[Ned]

I replaced mine with an all brass assembly that includes a drain cock.  No more nylon plugs for me.

 

[John From Detroit]

Those things are just 1/2 inch Iron Pipe Thread fittings... You could put a standard outdoor type faucet in there and it would work

Just like the one on your house type hot water heater (which likely has the proper fitting too)

I happen to have a 1/2 inch nipple fitted into a ball cock (when open it's a straight pipe, very good for this kind of thing) I'm thinking of where I might use it... I used to use it in the shower as a cut off valve till I found the regular shower flow regulator valve I bought

And no, the shower head in the RV does (or rahter did) NOT have a cut off valve, I looked, hard... It does now

 

[Terry A. Brewer]

Ned

>>I replaced mine with an all brass assembly that includes a drain cock.? No more nylon plugs for me.<<


I hope you have a Suburban water heater rather than an Atwood like Russ's or you will be in a world of hurt when that brass plug welds itself into the Aluminum tank...That is why Atwood uses a plastic plug.


Terry
At Clark Fork, ID

 

[Ned]

Nope, I have an Atwood and have already removed the plug.  It didn't weld itself in.  In any case, there is a smaller plug inside the large brass plug that can also be removed to install an anode.  There should never be any reason to remove the large plug again.

 

[lhyzer]

Atwood doesn't require an anode rod. But Suburban does. The reason Atwood don't is due to the lining inside the tank.