atwood water heater flushing with vinegar

Old-Biscuit wrote:
In order to use vinegar soak you have to pour the vinegar into water heater tank.
Remove the Pressure Relief Valve. Use a funnel and pour in 4 gallons vinegar (for a 6 gallon tank)....then reinstall PRV.
Open PRV via lever and turn water supply on to fill tank. Secure water supply and let PRV snap close when water runs out of PRV.
Turn water heater ON and let it fully heat the vinegar/water mixture
Let it cool......repeat 3x more times
After 4th heat/cool cycle.....drain & flush water heater

The above is from an Atwood water heater manual using vinegar solution to descale

I did it just as Old Biscuit says but used 6 gallons of vinegar in my 10 gallon water heater. I pre-mixed the vinegar with water and poured it into the water heater after removing the relief valve.

Our hot water was smelling like rotten eggs. I tried sanitizing the system using bleach and it did nothing to help the smell. The vinegar wash did the trick. It's amazing what you can find when you actually read the owner's manual.

well, we've done this on our Itasca. Drained the water heater,dropped down the hose for adding antifreeze. Didn't open any valves anywhere except hot water in kitchen sink. Changed the pickup valve to the winterize position,fired up the water pump and pumped in 2 gallons of vinegar. Closed valve, added water until the WH was full then drove around. Drained the WH, refilled a couple of times with water from city supply. Picked up one of those WH spray wands at Walmart to clean the junk out. Rinse it out with the wand until no more debris comes out. Done.

In order to use vinegar soak you have to pour the vinegar into water heater tank.
Remove the Pressure Relief Valve. Use a funnel and pour in 4 gallons vinegar (for a 6 gallon tank)....then reinstall PRV.
Open PRV via lever and turn water supply on to fill tank. Secure water supply and let PRV snap close when water runs out of PRV.
Turn water heater ON and let it fully heat the vinegar/water mixture
Let it cool......repeat 3x more times
After 4th heat/cool cycle.....drain & flush water heater

The above is from an Atwood water heater manual using vinegar solution to descale

I used two gallons of vinegar to flush mine and I got a lot of junk out of it. The only problem was that I didn't pay attention to where the vinegar drained and I killed about a two foot square patch of grass. I should have watered it heavily after the vinegar got on it.

Bill

What makes you believe you need to do this?

My water heater fills from the water tank or the city hose connection.
To the best of my knowledge there is no way to bypass the water tank.
The bypass for winterization is to bypass the water heater so you do not have to use 6 gallon of anti freeze to fill the water tank.

There are products you can add to the fresh water tank to clean the water.

hensonliu wrote:
If I use winterization mode to add vinegar to water heater, do I need to do something with fresh water tank to ensure no vinegar getting into it

I don't quite understand.

Winterization mode bypasses the WH.