Water heater leaking

[sundancer 87]

Don't know what to tell you except that when I pull the drain the plug has a slowly eroding, looped rod stuck to it. Looks just like a sacrificial anode to me.

I have had several water heaters before without an anode however. Maybe I got the prize that day.

Camco sells a drain plug that has its own pet cock in it and the plug also has an anode on it.

Go figure, every day is a new day in the the lives of an avid RVer.

[DesertRat]

I bought my anodes this past Jan. when were were out in Quartzsite. Showed our two friends & said as your rigs are older than mine you should get one. Neither of theirs had them & both were Atwoods not Suburbans. Interesting isn't it.

[splash]

Change my anode plug every year regardless of use, just like oil in gen. Never had an issue in 4 rigs... walmart had atwood plug recently. cheap peace of mind.

[hddecker]

Originally Posted by 72mach

CW actually had an elbow fitting like what was on it however it didn't require the pex 'ring' to hold it together. It used a compression fitting the screwed onto the elbow connector. I'll try and post up a pic of the WH, I might try and use JB weld to do a temp fix as CW wanted over 600 bucks for a new one (Suburban SW12DEL)

The fitting you describe is called a shark bite, just make sure that your cut square and that you seat the pipe all the way into the fitting. Give it a tug test, if the pipe is not seated all the way into the fitting they can blow of. You can usually find the Shark Bite fittings at big box building supply stores as well.

The price you have been quoted seems on the high side to me. I replaced the water heater in my Airstream 2 years ago and with an Atwood DSI and the cost was under $500.

Like most of the other posters I check and replace the anode rods on a regular basis.

[D and C 12 voltage]

Yes it can be welded but the best would be to have it t.i.g. welded. I'm surprised it doesn't have an anode rod in it, is it possible to put one in?

[72mach]

http://s22.postimg.org/wnc3l1wm9/water_tank_hole.jpg

Above is a shot of the bottom of the tank, I cannot remember how to embed the pics in the link.

Yes the unit would have been covered under warranty according to CW however I would have had to take it in to get it diagnosed and taken in yet again to get it repaired. For us being full timers it just wasn't worth hooking up and towing it in to get it repaired while paying for the hotel room etc. Granted this would have been a different CW as the one on Boulder Highway does appliances but the track record salted us insofar as dropping the trailer off for 3 or 4 times (a week at a time) to finally get the closet slide repaired so that was about 1k in hotel fees. I ended up getting the new heater for 480 shipped and pulled all the parts I could from the old unit including the thermal components that I had to replace (at my cost).

[splash]

Wow... Can't believe how rusted that is!

[72mach]

Originally Posted by splash

Wow... Can't believe how rusted that is!

I'm sure it had been leaking however little at a time until it caused it to bust through like in the photo. I was thinking about patching it and when I checked the integrity the whole became worse than depicted in the picture. There was a lot of rust in the tank after it dried out and anode was replaced back in November with little pitting after I pulled it out yesterday.

[D and C 12 voltage]

are you sure that you are putting water in that tank and not battery acid. I be checking the water for calcium and manganese which will do that to a steel tank just think what its doing to your insides?

[72mach]

Originally Posted by D and C 12 voltage

are you sure that you are putting water in that tank and not battery acid. I be checking the water for calcium and manganese which will do that to a steel tank just think what its doing to your insides?

I have an inline filter however I'm not sure if that it helps with what you are talking about. The water here in southern NV is know to be on the 'hard' side but it still surprises me that the WH took a dump. Perhaps a defect but either way more information for the forum if something similar happens in the future.

[hddecker]

Originally Posted by 72mach

I have an inline filter however I'm not sure if that it helps with what you are talking about. The water here in southern NV is know to be on the 'hard' side but it still surprises me that the WH took a dump. Perhaps a defect but either way more information for the forum if something similar happens in the future.

An inline filter won't help with hard water. What you need is a water softener, there are several RV sized softeners available in the $2-300 range.

[sawpilot]

Are these things ceramic lined? If so, hard water shouldn't affect it.

[hddecker]

Originally Posted by sawpilot

Are these things ceramic lined? If so, hard water shouldn't affect it.

Ceramic lining will work if it is intact. The problem with ceramics is they will crack after repeated heat cycles (water heaters shouldn't produce enough heat unless they have been run when dry). They are also prone to chipping. Our gas range at home has ceramic coated grates and there are numerous cracks and chips in the coating.

From the pictures of the tank in question I suspect that the tank had been damaged during shipping or the install.

A note for future references, I was looking around Ebay last night and came across replacement tanks only for Atwood WHs. I don't know if Suburban sells a replacement tank or not as I couldn't find on by searching. The prices I saw on ebay for the Atwood were about a third of the price for a complete tank.

[72mach]

Ok just one last note and an FYI for anyone else has to deal with replacing the heater on their own. My new unit had a revised wiring plan which omitted a 'relay' that was depicted on the original tanks wiring diagram. This meant that the orange wire was not included on the new heater so I capped the additional wire that was ran over to the water heater (+12v) and so far the unit seems to be working fine on the 120v and also for the DSI 12v side.