leaking water heater on 3055 rl

[Gaffer]

PJ, According to Calif. wacko's I should have been dead 30 years ago!!!! See you & Karol just after Xmas.
Gary

Hey Gary are you going to stay at Crazy Horse?

 

[patrick1945]

I met a fellow today that said he had the same problem with his 2011 Bighorn. He said that it required an extraction tool of some kind to get it out and he replaced it with a brass fitting.

 

[Gaffer]

I bought a nipple extractor from Home Depot for 3-4 bucks. They are in the irrigation section. Neither Home Depot or Lowes carry the brass check valve where I am at so will pay a premium at the RV parts store for it.

 

[goldenbetty]

Our hotwater heater is leaking from the pressure release valve. Next step?

 

[danemayer]

Our hotwater heater is leaking from the pressure release valve. Next step?

Carefully follow these steps - hot water can burn - be careful
Turn off the water heater, electric and propane, and let it cool for a few hours (so you don't get burned).

Turn off water sources (city water hookup, or internal pump)
Open a hot water faucet in the RV.
Pull or open the handle on the Pressure & Temperature relief valve straight out and allow the water to flow until it stops.
Allow the P&T relief valve to snap shut, close the hot water faucet, and turn on the water supply. Heat the water to check for proper operation of the P&T relief valve.

If the valve continues to leak, the P&T relief valve is defective.


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[goldenbetty]

Easy to replace? Hoping that we just need to restore the "pocket of air" in the tank, from what I have read on previous posts. Thanks for the prompt reply.

 

[danemayer]

I haven't had to replace one but I think it's straightforward and probably uses a standard hardware store relief valve.


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[Gaffer]

Got a fair price on the check valve (about $7) and it was male on both ends so no need for a close nipple. As expected the plastic check valve just snapped off when I tried to unscrew it. The nipple extractor was useless as well. It is as if they added some epoxy to the pipe dope when they installed the plastic one. I tried fracturing it with a a screw driver and hammer and I heated it with a hair dryer and kept trying to get the extractor to work to no avail. So off to Harbor Freight to see if they had a 1/2" NPT tap. They had the tap in in small tap and die kit 1/4, 3/8 & 1/2" NPT http://www.harborfreight.com/6-piece-pipe-tap-die-set-91395.html and a better extractor http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result?q=nipple . You tap this one in with a hammer and turn the 6-point head with a socket and ratchet. Sure hope this works as this project is no fun. Any other ideas out there? At least it is warm here in the Palm Springs area, I could be doing this in the rain, wind and snow back home.

 

[danemayer]

My guess is that the older the plastic check valve is, the less likely it is to come out easily.


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[khalsey]

If you have a electric soldering gun that has a cutting attachment you can make about 3 or 4 cuts and then chip out the sections with a screwdriver.

 

[Gaffer]

I now have hot water. The new better extractor would not budge the broken check valve. The tap would not start untill I got some threads exposed. I scored the inside of the nipple with a hacksaw blade in a couple of places and tried to pry that out with no luck. Then I got out the Dremel with a drum belt on it. Followed by a deburring bit http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...oogleMKP&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleMKP-_-pla-_-NA-_-NA which finally exposed enough threads to get the tap to start. Funny thing is and I didn't notice until the job was done....the cold water inlet at the bottom of the water heater is not plastic.

 

[boatdoc]

Glad you and Karol are back in shape PJ!!! Ya, you missed a doozy up here. Never seen it rain as hard as it did yesterday and today. We might just leave the truck and trailer here and drive the boat down!

 

[goldenbetty]

Well, we drained the HW heater and followed all of the steps to refill it, and it held good for two days but started leaking again from the pressure relief valve. Guess we better change it out. Any thoughts?

 

[aatauses]

We also had the issue with the check valve--found ours when we did a winterization and filled the water heater becuase the check valve was faulty. Concerning these plastic check valves--you also have one on your water inlet--this one was always leaking on our unit (BH 3670). I purchased several of these from rv stores and most of them leaked, I have taken them apart and the spring was sometimes twisted--straighten the spring and they work fine. So if you do buy another plastic one, make sure the spring is installed properly.
al

 

[boatdoc]

Changed our plastic check valve out today just to avoid any on the road problems. Doing it at my shop would be a whole lot easier I figured. Came out fine in one piece, so I'll throw it in the spares box just incase. Should be ready to go now, W/B's packed, leaks fixed, bring on the sun in Az, just 4 more weeks.

 

[simsfmly]

Woke up this morning to a drip coming out of the basement. Checked it back to the plastic piece everyone's talking about on here. Will change it to brass and let you know if that fixes the problem.

 

[simsfmly]

Went to Camping World in Tallahassee and the parts guy looked at me like I had a third eye, even holding the plastic check valve in my hand. No luck at Home Depot or Lowe's. Now in Foley, AL and there's another Camping World up the road. We'll see what happens, but not sure how you guys are finding a brass piece so readily available.

 

[cookie]

If all else fails, you can get one off ebay.
CAMCO

Peace
Dave

 

[danemayer]

Link to a brass check valve, along with a close nipple to correct the gender,

 

[boatdoc]

Our backwoods RV shop had 4 in stock when I bought ours, said they change them out all the time. Maybe you need to go to an RV SHOP that sells parts instead of lawn chairs and awning mood lights.