Forum Discussion

DCamp84's avatar
DCamp84
Explorer
Apr 27, 2017

Water Heater Vinegar Soak

Hey guys. I want to flush out the water heater tank before I start the season. Just got our first camper in march and our maiden voyage will be next week. Detwinterizing everything I noticed a bunch of sediment in the bottom of the water heater tank (suburban) and the annode rod was pretty deteriorated. Got a new annode rod and I'd like to flush the tank and try to clean it out as best I can as it looks like it's never been done (camper is a 2011). I've seen good results with the vinegar soak but everyone I saw was done with a winterizing kit which my camper doesn't have. So my question is how do I fill my tank with the vinegar. Can I hook up a hose to the intake side of my water pump and suck it up that way? Is it safe to run vinegar through the water pump with out hurting it? Sorry for the long winded question just wanted to be as clear as possible. TIA!!
  • LLeopold's avatar
    LLeopold
    Explorer
    Apr 27, 2017
    Gentle reminder from the Forum Rules.

    "You are not allowed to post the same message in multiple forums without permission from one of the Open Roads Forum moderators."

    Further replies can be made here.
  • DrewE's avatar
    DrewE
    Explorer II
    Apr 27, 2017
    Vinegar would not harm the water pump. All many of the winterizing kits do is put in valves so you can connect the suction side of the pump to an external hose rather than the water tank, so doing that manually is equivalent. You will, of course, need to disconnect the water tank or remove that hose or it won't be able to suction out of your container.

    I would actually suggest putting in valves etc. so that you can do this without removing and replacing hoses, and you'd then have the winterizing setup ready. If you have a fill valve for the city water connection (as opposed to only a gravity fill port), you can also use the pump to fill the water tank from a container with the winterizing setup by opening that fill valve and setting the others to pump from the external source.

About RV Newbies

4,026 PostsLatest Activity: Jun 15, 2017