Water Heater Removal

[Wanderer]

I have to remove the hot water heater from my RV to gain access for some repairs I need to make to the wall. The gas line is sealed with a kind of putty or caulking where it goes through the housing. It is a much larger hole than the gas line. Does anyone know if this a special compound they use to do this?

[Revere411]

They use silicone. It is just to seal the inside from the outside.

[Wanderer]

It's about a 5 cm (2 in) hole. Not sure how to fill that with silicone...

Update

There is a rubber gasket/sleeve inside all the sealant. I have found that you must use a high heat silicone to re-seal it as the area gets quite hot and Proflex or regular silicone will melt away.

[franktafl]

Use HI TEMP RED RTV if you think you need something with that much temperature.

[Revere411]

You should not have heat at the gas line. Regular silicone is fine. If you have high temps at the gas line and valve you have other issues.

[Wanderer]

Originally Posted by Revere411

You should not have heat at the gas line. Regular silicone is fine. If you have high temps at the gas line and valve you have other issues.

Apparently the whole inner area of the heater compartment gets hot enough to make proflex 'disappear'. I watched a YouTube where a guy was replacing it with high temp RTV as per recommendations from the heater company.

I was surprised but the cover does say HOT on it for a reason I guess.

[Revere411]

Originally Posted by Wanderer

Apparently the whole inner area of the heater compartment gets hot enough to make proflex 'disappear'. I watched a YouTube where a guy was replacing it with high temp RTV as per recommendations from the heater company.



I was surprised but the cover does say HOT on it for a reason I guess.

The cover says hot because that is the exhaust vent. Being a Master Certified Tech I have never run into an issue with heat and the gas line unless there blockage in the burner tube.

[Wanderer]

Since they are only inches apart and the gas line comes in only inches above the burner tube I'll just use the RTV stuff as a precaution. Since I have to redo it when I reassemble I may as well go for the high temp stuff just to be safe.

[franktafl]

Originally Posted by Wanderer

Since they are only inches apart and the gas line comes in only inches above the burner tube I'll just use the RTV stuff as a precaution. Since I have to redo it when I reassemble I may as well go for the high temp stuff just to be safe.