Water Heater

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What do you think it will do to the faucets and shower head?

If it is an Atwood or Dometic water heater it can be welded. It requires removing it and in many cases, partially disassembling it, but much cheaper than new.

If a Suburban, you are out of luck. Its a porcelain on steel tank like most home water heaters.

Charles
 
It sounds like someone is trying to get out of "doing the proper fix", which sometimes is easier than doing the wrong thing. Knowing the brand/model of water heater, and the location and severity of the leak would help alot in getting better suggestions.

But no, stop leak is a bad choice. I won't even use it for its intended purpose in a automobile engine.

Charles
 
I won't even use it for its intended purpose in a automobile engine.
I used in in my 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee. It worked great! But I wouldn't use it for anything else other than an old junky vehicle that ain't worth fixing the correct way.

Too much work to fix that one the right way and I no longer care that much about my old ICE vehicles.

-Don- Auburn, CA
 
Has anyone tried using

Radiator Stop Leak as a quick cheap fix for a leaking hot water tank? asking for a friend LOL!​


Charles named the number one reason to no use this stuff it will stop holes where you don't want them stopped.

Also a radiator is a closed system and the "stuff" circulates until it finds it's way to a hole. To get it into the RV you would have to introduce it into the water inlet and flow the system - it would likely go right through the tank into the faucets.

I don't think tape will work even at the relatively low pressures in the water system.

There is the "right" way to do the wrong repair. I would pull the tank and asses using something like alumabond or liquid metal type stuff. You may have to groove out the crack with a dremel or something.

However once the tank is out you might as well buy a new tank...
 
Charles named the number one reason to no use this stuff it will stop holes where you don't want them stopped.
Here are common components found in most radiator stop leak additives: Ceramic fibers and particles, Sodium silicate. Aluminum, copper and iron particles. Since that is your drinking and cooking water you just as well put some in your coffee or coolaid.
 
If it worked for the USS Nautilus in 1958...

On June 2, 1958, the Nautilus arrived in Everett and spent the night there. The following day, with a load of dignitaries and journalists, the submarine ran to Seattle and docked at Pier 91. A leaking condenser unit threatened the secret mission to the North Pole, but security concerns and time precluded repairs through the usual channels. Experts hit on the idea of using Bar's Leak, an automotive stop-leak product developed for leaking radiators.

Commander William Anderson ordered crewmen to change into civilian clothing. The men fanned out across Seattle in taxicabs to buy cans of Bar's Leak at local service stations.

The sailors in mufti returned with 140 quarts of Bar's Leak, half of which was poured into the condenser. The leak stopped.

But I don't think it is made for potable water.
 
But I don't think it is made for potable water.
While I didn't serve on the Nautilus, I did serve on the next generation nuclear submarines (USS Seadragon) a couple of years later and we had almost the same main steam system and later served on 2 much newer nuclear submarines with more modern plants but they all shared the same general main steam system. The water used is the same water quality as is potable water but in a completely different system and the crew never drinks it.
 
I don't think I'd care to shower or wash dishes with any water used in a cooling system, whether nuclear or automotive. Any such system will have additives to alter the boiling point, reduce corrosion, improve heat transfer, etc.

But that's not even the primary reason for avoiding Barr's Stopleak in this case. It is not likely to work, simply because it relies continual seepage of the chemical to build up in a very slight crack or pinhole. You don't get that in a water heater, where the fresh water is continually introduced and the water with the Barr's get flushed out to the hot water taps. I suppose you could add it via the PT opening and then let it sit for a couple days without opening a tap, thus making the leak the only exit point. That would at least give it a chance. Not sure if that is an easy fix, though.

Besides, most heater leaks are in the fittings where water enters or exits, or at the bypass valve(s). I'd be looking there rather than dumping in chemicals.
 
I can remember working on the 609, 619, 620, 635 back in the late 60’s and early 70’s and many more fast attacks. I can’t remember most of the names. Then there was 605 Jack, 606 Tinosa, 597 Tullibee, 674 Trepang, 579 Albacore to name a few. Also several 688 Class boats.
Can’t forget the NR-1.
I was in the Outside Machine Shop, shop 38 at PNSY Portsmouth NH.
 

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