Water Heater Modification

Poppy & Nana · 05-16-2009, 10:28 AM

OK I have searched the forum and can't find what I'm looking for......I think it was John B who did a mod on his water heater - replacing the plug with an extended hose to avoid getting splashed and water in the heater area.....can anyone lead me to it?

Leo is working on the TT and was replacing the plastic plug with a brass one I thought I read somewhere where this should not be done!

Help before we ruin something!

kanyonkitty · 05-16-2009, 11:18 AM

Your right, you should not replace the nylon plug with a metal one of any kind. Your also correct that it was John B that did the drain mod, and I followed his lead. JohnB has a slightly more "refined" version

and these are pictures of my "girlie" version

Both versions achieve the same results.

DF5.4 · 05-17-2009, 05:19 AM

Where did you get the plug? Did you modify the existing one?

Steve Collins · 05-17-2009, 06:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DF5.4

Where did you get the plug? Did you modify the existing one?

The plumbing department of any home improvement or hardware store should carry a wide assortment of that type of fitting. It's probably made out of nylon (same material as the existing threaded hole plug), and is threaded NPT on one end, and hose barb on the other. I've purchased them at Home Depot.

Kinda looks like this:
https://www.coleparmer.com/catalog/l...mg=3061036.jpg

I used one on the pressure relief valve that had a 1/2" barbed end so I could just use a piece of 1/2" garden hose to direct the flow away from the electronics in the water heater.

If you aren't familiar with these products, you could print out the pictures from kanyonkitty's post and take it with you to the store. Someone there should point you in the right direction. You might also take the plug with so you get the right size adapter.

The plumbing department will also have a selection of hoses, valves, and clamps for this project.

kanyonkitty · 05-17-2009, 06:29 AM

The plug, hose & shut off valve all came from Lowes (It's sad to say but I REALLY know my way around Lowes

) I forget what shut off valve JohnB used, but his might be the smaller one, but the end result is the same, easy WH draining, and while your camping it's nice to have access to hot water while your outside. Well worth the little bit of cost to do this.

Kitty

Poppy & Nana · 05-17-2009, 09:25 AM

OK so I told Leo NG on the brass fitting screwed into the HW heater - now he wants to know why!

Isn't it something like the metal attracts corrosives and will "freeze" the plug in the tank????

Trying to teach an ole man new tricks isn't easy!

Help please!!!!! He thinks he can leave it in for the camping season and I'm not sure about that!

Steve Collins · 05-17-2009, 09:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Poppy & Nana

OK so I told Leo NG on the brass fitting screwed into the HW heater - now he wants to know why!

Isn't it something like the metal attracts corrosives and will "freeze" the plug in the tank????

Trying to teach an ole man new tricks isn't easy!

Help please!!!!! He thinks he can leave it in for the camping season and I'm not sure about that!

Kathy,

I just searched through all of the messages here about this, and also went through all the Atwood stuff online. There is no mention of brass drain plugs. The pressure relief valve is brass so there is likely no galvanic action issue with using a brass drain plug.

But, I would caution extreme care when using one in an RV water heater. The female side of the drain is aluminum. When using a nylon drain plug, the chances of chewing it up are minimal. However, the threads on the brass plug are VERY sharp and will chew up that female thread very easily. A chewed up opening pretty much means a trashed hot water heater.

So if the brass plug is already in there and the threads are not chewed up, perhaps it might be good to leave well enough alone for this season. When Leo winterizes, check the brass plug for any signs of galvanic action. If there is, that pretty much tells you to go back to a nylon plug.

Poppy & Nana · 05-18-2009, 05:59 AM

well he took the brass out yesterday -and replaced it with nylon plug and made a "girlie" fix just like Kitty's....better safe than sorry!!!!!

Thanks for the help..

Kathy

**JohnB** · 05-20-2009, 08:53 PM

Hi Kathy

Sorry been out camping but it looks like Steve and Kitty got you fixed up.

Just so you can see, here is mine

The tank fitting

The drain hose. 150 psi rated for potable water with a boiler drain valve on the end.

All tucked up for storage.

I also saw Kitty's gas valve. I never yet posted this but I cleaned my bare aluminum gas valve and painted it to stop the corrosion. Make sure you tape off the gas orifice end. If you look at mine it is black as that was the color I had in the shed. The T310 I painted silver as that was what I had.

That little bit of paint goes a long way on bare aluminum.

Oh and the brass plug, Steve pointed you right to not use as repeated use can get it cross threaded or worse the aluminum can gall up the threads and then never shut up a leak. There is some lower level of corrosion from dissimilar metals especially with heat with hot water. Heat can accelerate corrosion on water. They use dielectric unions on home Hot water heaters to separate the copper pipe from the steel tank system for this reason as they are very different metals. The safety relief is bronze but they also put pipe dope on the threads that helps insulate the bronze and they do not take it in and out all the time so it lowers the corrosion/galling expose to the 2 metals coming in contact with each other over time.

Glad you made out OK.