Atwood Water Heater drain

[shadester]

Originally Posted by Dnbgould

Thanks...no dissimilar metals issues?

I've seen quite a few of those factory plastic water heater plugs. After a few years they seem to crack along the head. I've always replaced with a brass plug with a little teflon tape. As for the dissimilar metal issue, they have the metal anode rods screwed into tanks, and also they sell a heater kit with brass fitting that screws into the drain hole for conversion. So ya, it can make you wonder what is right.

[norty1]

Atwood tanks are clad with aluminum and do not have anode rods.

Suburban wh's are not clad and come with a anode rod in the drain hole.

[Touch N Go]

Very nice. Great Idea Ace.

[shadester]

Originally Posted by norty1

Atwood tanks are clad with aluminum and do not have anode rods.

Suburban wh's are not clad and come with a anode rod in the drain hole.

I agree most atwoods don't because as you said they are aluminum. But I pulled one out of my wilderness trailer a few years ago after bought it and it wasn't pretty. I think the rod was eating itself. I thought I saw an atwood anode rod a few days ago at camping world. So what gives?

[jasum]

I replaced the Camco water heater drain with the petcock on it.......

I had drained the water heater after Thanksgiving and did NOT seem like much water when I drained it.

Today when I took entire Camco plug out, there was a lot more water in it. So those petcock drains do not work.

Sorry guys.....thought it was a good idea.

[bankr63]

Originally Posted by shadester

I agree most atwoods don't because as you said they are aluminum. But I pulled one out of my wilderness trailer a few years ago after bought it and it wasn't pretty. I think the rod was eating itself. I thought I saw an atwood anode rod a few days ago at camping world. So what gives?

So doing a little research, it looks like Atwood (or Atwood Bowen) moved to the aluminum/zinc coated tanks in 1988. So yes, prior to that there were probably Atwood anode rods. I knew some of what I just found but the internet filled in a few details; FWIW probably 25% of the details are inaccurate.

If you pulled an anode rod from a tank at it appeared to be "eating" itself, that is a good thing. These are sacrificial rods that are meant to be consumed rather than allowing electrolysis eat the metal of the tank itself. If you pulled it from an aluminum tank, it is possibly not a great thing as it was probably attached to a metal plug, that introduced an electrolysis process that wouldn't have been there in the first place.

Note that I read care should be taken with cleaning the Atwood tanks too as this is just a cladding on a tank that I assume would be regular metal. If you were to scratch or otherwise compromise the cladding, presumably the tank would start to corrode internally at that spot and eventually leak.


Thanks @farnik78 for the link to the Camco tool. On my Amazon wish list now. Up to now I have been removing the shroud from the burner to get enough space to get pliers in there. This should make life much easier!

[shadester]

I know Atwood will void your warranty putting a anode rod in a aluminum tank. But look at the video here: Anode Rod for Atwood Water Heaters - Camco 11553 - Water Heaters - Camping World Looks like a aluminum Atwood tank to me.

[bansai]

Originally Posted by shadester

I know Atwood will void your warranty putting a anode rod in a aluminum tank. But look at the video here: Anode Rod for Atwood Water Heaters - Camco 11553 - Water Heaters - Camping World Looks like a aluminum Atwood tank to me.

I don't think I'd let the (potential) warranty issue stop me. You can always put the 3 dollar plastic plug back in. I might pick one of these up, don't see how it could possibly hurt anything.

[dhinkle57]

We used a flex hose for a sink faucet. It was one of my first mods and I was so proud, I couldn't wait to try it. You know, that water is pretty HOT coming straight out of the water heater.

[campaholix]

Originally Posted by FIREBUGMAN

As far as the electrolysis issue, wouldn't a couple wraps of the teflon tape help to minimize that?

Not a plumber, so don't carve this in granite, but I've been told teflon tape will not prevent dissimilar metals reaction. I can tell you I just replaced a home water heater that had a brass connection installed in a steel connector at the top of the tank with teflon tape and the entire top of the tank was almost rotted through around the connection from the dissimilar metals issue. Maybe there was another issue...I couldn't tell.


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[FIREBUGMAN]

Originally Posted by dhinkle57

We used a flex hose for a sink faucet. It was one of my first mods and I was so proud, I couldn't wait to try it. You know, that water is pretty HOT coming straight out of the water heater.

Photo by any chance?

[norty1]

Here is the one I was talking about. on a Atwood wh.

[Preacher87]

I built my own version of this, couple of brass NPT to barb fittings, a length of air brake rubber line (for the temperature rating), and a 1/4 turn ball valve.
I winterize and de-winterize several times a year, so anything to make life easier is worth it.