water heater anode rod

wildtoad wrote:
True enough. I have no issue with needing to drain it from time to time, and down here in SC getting a frozen wh is the least of my concerns. What I don’t like most is, this is the first wh I’ve owned that will spew water out of the relief valve. Yeah Yeah, I’ve tried all of the published remedies, and from time to time I’ll go a few heat cycles without it dripping. The manual says it is normal for an RV wh to drip when the air pocket is lost. My take is if they know what causes it, then they can design a solution. They just choose not to. End of rant....

OK, this really confused me. I'm not understanding what's going on here. Are you saying your relief valve blows occasionally spewing water? If so, it's doing that because the water is heating too much. Those valves are temperature regulated.

If you are talking about "spewing" when you replace or take the anode rod out, either via the relief valve or from the anode rod - drain hole, then make sure the water pump is off and turn off the water spigot at the water inlet source (garden hose). Then let pressure off by simply opening a faucet inside the camper first until nothing flow any more. Now you can comfortably remove the plug / anode rode without getting a shower first. And you don't have to relieve the pressure at the pressure relief valve, getting everything wet.

If you are talking about an occasional drip at the relief valve, this is normal. It's not the water heaters fault, it's in the relief valve, usually a speck of lime build up. Open and close the lift handle a few times and this usually breaks any crud and they seal good again. Even home water heaters relief valves will drip if opened and closed until they lime over again.

The difference on an RV is, we drain them often. Unlike a house where they may get drained once in 10 years.

If the "drip" is at the anode rod itself, this is also normal. If the threads of the anode are rusted, and / or the threads of the tank are rusted, chances are, there will be some small dripping going on. So, never store the camper with the anode rod pulled. Always replace it, even if the tank is empty, to keep the threads from rusting.

Also, Teflon tapes helps around those the plug threads too.

I don't understand the above comments about the air pocket and lowering the tube. I know there is a small air pocket at the top of the tank. But if the air is escaping through the relief valve, eventually, the air will be replaced with water and dripping and spewing (if overheated) will still happen.

So, I'm confused over your situation here, what's going on.

If spewing out the relief valve, sounds like your water heater is getting to hot, or the relief valve is failing, time to replace it.