Winterization----anti freeze in water heater--twice

[aatauses]

Hi everyone,
We are planning to winter in AK (drove 5000 miles, might just stay a while). So we wanted to winterize the BH 3670 and had a few problems. Fisrt the by pass valve would not close properly and permitted anti freeze to get in the water heater. I replaced the valve tried again and still got anti freeze in the water heater. I chatted with HL, and this is what we think has happened. The by pass valve is a three outlet valve, moving the lever to "by pass' closes one outlet that generally goes to the cold inlet on your heater. The next open valve goes to the pump. The last open valve goes to the hot outlet lines that come out of the water heater. We think the hot lines should have a check valve right next to the heater, so when anti-freeze enters into the hot waterlines near the heater, the antifreeze cannot go back into the heater (because of the check valve, so is forced up to your faucets.)
We think?? the issue is with the check valve in the lines right near the water heater, however some diagrams (from HL) do not show a check valve??
Wondering if anyone knows if their water heater has a check valve at the outlet of the hot lines? OR are we not figuring something is this issue?
Since I had to get the rv to storage, I removed the hot lines near the water heater and capped them--short term fix, until someone can help me with "does your water heater have a check valve at the outlet into your hot lines?
Thanks,
Al
currently in Kenai AK

 

[danemayer]

Hi aatauses,

Yes, the hot water heater output line (top) has a plastic check valve that screws into the water heater. The pex line then attaches to the check valve via a swivel elbow fitting. You're lucky - when they fail, it can be that the plastic cracks resulting in a leak in the basement. If your luck holds, the plastic fitting will come out in one piece. If it falls apart, you may find a nipple extractor tool helpful.

You should replace it with a brass check valve like this, along with a close nipple to correct the gender, and get a brass swivel elbow to replace the plastic elbow.

And of course use teflon pipe tape or comparable product on all the threads.

 

[aatauses]

Thanks Dan,
Appreciate your quick responce and your advice about replacing with brass. I have replaced a few of my fittings with brass already, whenever one starts to leak, so will add the watr heater one to the list. Appreciate you having the "links", helped a lot.
Let me know when I can return the favor.
al
currently in Kenai, AK