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Old 10-01-2016, 03:14 PM   #1
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Winterizing and the water heater question

Hi guys,

Im getting ready to winterize my Coleman 244bhs here in Colorado as I usually do. This year I made one of the best mods I even found, install the water heater "Hott Rod" to have hot water without use my propane.

Now, the thing is that was veeeeery uncomfortable to install the Hott Rod in to my water heater (I forgot which is the brand, I believe is Attwood or something like that) because of the tight space and took me a couple of campings to finally get it done without leaks. I am really looking for a way to winterize my RV without have to remove the rod/plug and drain the water, I'm trying to avoid that hassle.

Any idea of how I can accomplish this? I was thinking to do the winterization with my air compressor instead of anti-freeze but I don't think that is going to take all the water from the water heater tank leaving all hot water faucets open while push the air , and if it takes some it will probably leave a couple of gallons inside, is that save?

I appreciate any help, is going to be a pain in the %^$# if every year I have to install and uninstall the rod/plug, I know that at some point I will ends up breaking a cable or screwing up the threads.

Thanks in advance!
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Old 10-01-2016, 04:00 PM   #2
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There is no problem using air to flush the water lines, I've been doing it for years. I keep our camper ready to go at anytime, we often use it during the winter, when we go visit the kids at Christmas. Just make sure you anti-freeze the P-traps and pour enough you get lots into the tanks.

Did you have a seperate bung for your Hot Rod or did you use the anode rod/drain hole. If you used the anode rod bung, the is also the drain and the flush. It is amazing how much grit and sand gets caught up in the tank and if you get any funky water sitting in the bottom. Let's just say it's less painful to remove the Hot Rod every year, than replace the tank.
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Old 10-02-2016, 04:18 AM   #3
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There is no problem using air to flush the water lines, I've been doing it for years. I keep our camper ready to go at anytime, we often use it during the winter, when we go visit the kids at Christmas. Just make sure you anti-freeze the P-traps and pour enough you get lots into the tanks.

Did you have a seperate bung for your Hot Rod or did you use the anode rod/drain hole. If you used the anode rod bung, the is also the drain and the flush. It is amazing how much grit and sand gets caught up in the tank and if you get any funky water sitting in the bottom. Let's just say it's less painful to remove the Hot Rod every year, than replace the tank.
Hi, thanks for your reply,

I used the only one drain hole to install the anode, so I don't have another way to drain it. Thats my point, should I have to drain the water heater no matter if I use air to flush? I was hopping that with the air flush most of the water in the water tank get out from the faucet, dangtit, I will hate to have to unscrew and screw back in the rod every year, is in a very tight place.
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Old 10-02-2016, 05:03 AM   #4
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I realize you've spent about $100 on this kit already, about 10 propane tank refills. So it will be a while before you've reached "break even." I know you said space is tight, but is it possible to plumb in a T-fitting, so the Hott Rod goes through the T, and into the tank, but the other (bottom) part of the T goes to a drain plug, or better-yet, a valve? BTW, even draining doesn't get rid of all the water.... opening the drain and then blowing air gets the most out. If it were me, I'd scrap the Hott Rod, put in a drain valve, and absorb the cost of propane, at least until you have to replace the heater. Personally, I like the fast heat of propane.
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Old 10-02-2016, 12:04 PM   #5
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Hi, thanks for your reply,

I used the only one drain hole to install the anode, so I don't have another way to drain it. Thats my point, should I have to drain the water heater no matter if I use air to flush? I was hopping that with the air flush most of the water in the water tank get out from the faucet, dangtit, I will hate to have to unscrew and screw back in the rod every year, is in a very tight place.
You don't have to be has fussy as I am about cleaning out the tank, but if you don't clean it out, you will never know what's happening in the tank. As I said you can get some pretty funky stuff in your tank and I believe in getting it out of the tank. Some of the crud that gets built up can become rather corrosive and it laying in the bottom of the tank can shorten the life.

I'm with Marty, if the Hott Rod is an impedimate to maintaining the tank, I would scrape it. It wouldn't be the first RV bandaide that I fell for and junked. The industry is famous for putting the low cost stuff in a camper and then giving you a bandaide to make your parts something they're not. Some of them fixes work, but then you get stuff like the heater that it becomes an impediment.

I believe you mentioned you were using Teflon tape and having difficulty in getting the rod to seal. Have you ever used Locktite PST pipe sealant with Teflon. I run a baed around the lower threads, after I've cleaned them. I run the scarificial anode rod/plug back in until I have to start putting some real pressure on it, once snug about 3/4- 1 full turn and it's sealed.

Come the spring I have a clean tank and when I sanitize the fresh system, that whole system becomes as close to new as it can get. Maybe it's from growing up in places where the water left a lot to be desired, but I love water, I drink about a gallon a day, more in the desert, so it's very high on my maintenance list
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Old 10-02-2016, 02:48 PM   #6
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You don't have to be has fussy as I am about cleaning out the tank, but if you don't clean it out, you will never know what's happening in the tank. As I said you can get some pretty funky stuff in your tank and I believe in getting it out of the tank. Some of the crud that gets built up can become rather corrosive and it laying in the bottom of the tank can shorten the life.

I'm with Marty, if the Hott Rod is an impedimate to maintaining the tank, I would scrape it. It wouldn't be the first RV bandaide that I fell for and junked. The industry is famous for putting the low cost stuff in a camper and then giving you a bandaide to make your parts something they're not. Some of them fixes work, but then you get stuff like the heater that it becomes an impediment.

I believe you mentioned you were using Teflon tape and having difficulty in getting the rod to seal. Have you ever used Locktite PST pipe sealant with Teflon. I run a baed around the lower threads, after I've cleaned them. I run the scarificial anode rod/plug back in until I have to start putting some real pressure on it, once snug about 3/4- 1 full turn and it's sealed.

Come the spring I have a clean tank and when I sanitize the fresh system, that whole system becomes as close to new as it can get. Maybe it's from growing up in places where the water left a lot to be desired, but I love water, I drink about a gallon a day, more in the desert, so it's very high on my maintenance list
My season/year RV average use is about 3-5 campings of 2-3 days each, from those maybe 50% are using propane because im boondocking, do you think that this is enough use to be worry about clean the tank? I was watching youtube videos and most of the time when people have the tanks very dirty is because they are full time RV'ers, so I was thinking that in my particular case I wont get mine dirty every year. If that is not the case, I will forget about everything and clean it up every year.

I didnt mention teflon but thanks for the tip, I will look in to that locktite.

I dont think that remove the rod for cleanning is an impediment, is just that is not as easy as remove the plug, if im going to short the life of my heater definetly I will remove it every year, it will takes me about 15 more minutes of work every winterize and de-winterize but I dont care.

Bottom line, my original concern was about be able to remove the water from the tank without remove the rod, now that totally changed to the concern of clean the tank, sooooo, I think im not worried anymore, I HAVE to remove the rod, thanks a lot ;-)
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Old 10-02-2016, 02:55 PM   #7
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I realize you've spent about $100 on this kit already, about 10 propane tank refills. So it will be a while before you've reached "break even." I know you said space is tight, but is it possible to plumb in a T-fitting, so the Hott Rod goes through the T, and into the tank, but the other (bottom) part of the T goes to a drain plug, or better-yet, a valve? BTW, even draining doesn't get rid of all the water.... opening the drain and then blowing air gets the most out. If it were me, I'd scrap the Hott Rod, put in a drain valve, and absorb the cost of propane, at least until you have to replace the heater. Personally, I like the fast heat of propane.
Hi Marty,

I spent $80 and honestly i dont know how you can refill 10 propane tanks with $100, the average cost in my area is about $15 every refill, so that give mes 5.3 refills. Anyways I agree with you, it will be a while until break even, but we are from warm weather an here in Colorado except for in the middle of the summer we use hot water a lot, even my wife prefer wash the dishes with warm water every time, so for us is a huge advantage spend the park electricity (that i paid for it) instead of my propane.

I like your idea of the "T", I will take a look this week to see if I have the room to add that.

Thanks a lot
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Old 10-02-2016, 03:48 PM   #8
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I mixed your thread with another one talking about Teflon tape. But I do like my Locktite products.

Our camping is about 90% boondocking, while we're campers, we are also travellers. Our it is not uncommon for us to be from the West Coast to the East Coast. Last year it was Alaska. So we are getting a wide variety of water from unkown sources, if it was just our water we were using, I may have a different opinion. The big yabut in the mix is knowing the kind of junk that the factory includes at no charge. Saw dust, dropped screws and other assorted constuction debris. If you have any significant chucks of wood in the fresh tank, you have the perfect petri dish to grow a nice crop of mold and mildew. Chances of doing so, probably .01%, but it's something within my control to do something.

I can't answer to what you see on youtube, I can only relate to my experiences. Over the years, I've picked up the habit of over maintaining my stuff.

In the Grand Scheme of things, given the amount of shore camping your doing, it would take you a bunch of years to burn them 5.3 tanks of LPG.
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Old 10-02-2016, 09:42 PM   #9
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Can I ask.....?

What is this "sacrificial anode" on an RV water heater?

I full time, so I'd like to extend the life of any\all of my appliances.

To be honest, I assumed hot-water was going to be much more hit-miss than it has turned out to be. First off, the electric option is the one I chose because I'm on shore power. And I only turn it on a few minutes before showering. Maybe 10 minutes.

I'm very happy with the result. Water is very hot and somehow a 6 gallon capacity is ample. I don't know why. I never hurry, nor do I run out.

So, what maintenance would you experts suggest? I don't winterize. I have no normal reason to drain the systems. And I'm rarely on propane.

Just like everyone else, I would like to keep things working well. I have no reason to take shortcuts. Plenty of time and actually enjoy the feeling of taking good care of things.
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Old 10-02-2016, 11:03 PM   #10
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Can I ask.....?

What is this "sacrificial anode" on an RV water heater?

I full time, so I'd like to extend the life of any\all of my appliances.

To be honest, I assumed hot-water was going to be much more hit-miss than it has turned out to be. First off, the electric option is the one I chose because I'm on shore power. And I only turn it on a few minutes before showering. Maybe 10 minutes.

I'm very happy with the result. Water is very hot and somehow a 6 gallon capacity is ample. I don't know why. I never hurry, nor do I run out.

So, what maintenance would you experts suggest? I don't winterize. I have no normal reason to drain the systems. And I'm rarely on propane.

Just like everyone else, I would like to keep things working well. I have no reason to take shortcuts. Plenty of time and actually enjoy the feeling of taking good care of things.
Hot water heater anodes and rust protection
Yours, if you have one, is part of the large drain plug. It's the rod or anode that's connected to the drain plug.
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Old 10-02-2016, 11:11 PM   #11
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Just like everyone else, I would like to keep things working well. I have no reason to take shortcuts. Plenty of time and actually enjoy the feeling of taking good care of things.
If you have the Atwood heater like I do (aluminum tank), it doesn't come with an anode, nor is it recommended you put one in. I'd just flush it with water twice a year and not worry about it. I bought a cheap flushing wand from camco that attaches to a hose, takes 5 minutes to drain and flush it out.
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Old 10-03-2016, 01:50 AM   #12
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Highly likely I do dawniewest.

I'll verify. Thanks!
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Old 10-03-2016, 03:18 PM   #13
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You can drain the water heater tank by opening the low point water drains beneath the camper and then flipping open the pressure relief valve on the back of the water heater. I hear that some water heaters will have a check valve in the cold water inlet that would prevent this backflow draining from occurring, but mine does it with no problem.

There will still be some water remaining in the tank, but just a shallow pool at the bottom beneath the cold water inlet. Normally this can freeze and expand all it likes without a problem. But I also leave my hot water tank drain plug out all winter, I'm not sure if a plug with heating element attached would be in the way of that little pool of water/ice. I notice the Hott Rod manual says to remove it for winterizing. http://www.campingworld.com/includes...s%20Manual.pdf
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Old 10-03-2016, 04:21 PM   #14
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Snake,

If you have ever heard the term Galvanic Corosion, That is what you are setting up unthe water heater. You create an environment that attacks the easy to replace anode rod and not the water heater tank.

I'm sure you have taken things apart that are two dissimilar metals and found them glued together by corosion, that's Galvanic Corosion.

Modern alloys have reduced and in some cases eliminated the need for the anode. Some metals receive a coating to protect it. If your heater needs ananode rod it is shipped with it, if the manufacture says don't use one, they have already looked after the problem.

Some years I clean the anode 2-3 times because of the build up of gunk. I dig out my "good" old camping knife and scrape the rod with the dull side of the blade. Then I use one of them synthetic scrubbers to get the remnants off and wash it with clean fresh water.

A pre-filter will go a long way to slow down the amount corrosive effects by trapping most of the impurities that cause the problem.

When I'm flushing the tank, I use the fill it through the drain hole and bilud enough pressure it blows the seiment out the drain hole. About three times and nothing but clean, clear water comes out.
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