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bhivetravels's avatar
bhivetravels
Explorer
Jul 24, 2014

Broken plastic Atwood hot water heater drain plug

So a small leak turned into a complete drain. The plastic bolt on the bottom of the hot water heater was leaking. In an effort to clean the bolt and then wrap it with teflon tape and reinstall it, it was still leaking a but so I tightened it a smige...just a smige...and it snapped off :S Now I can get the replacement plastic bolt, but how do I get the rest of the plastic bolt threads out of the hole?

23 Replies

  • Perhaps use a heat gun to heat (melt) the plug until its soft enough to deform and remove it.
  • If you don't have a large enough screwdriver, take an old steak knife and ram it into the plastic threads to get a good bite, then unscrew.
  • Heat a screwdriver and poke it in the plastic plug and screw it out.