Beware Camco Water Heater Tank Rinser
I bought one of these to clean my hot Water tank. Five seconds after I started, the long tube blew off inside the water heater where it now permanently resides. I don't know what this means for the fu...
Forum Discussion
I had the same problem about a year ago. It took me almost two weeks of trying various solutions to finally get it out of the tank. Mine is an Atwood so there is no way it was going to come out the drain hole because of the size and angle. I got one of those small cameras and inserted it into the heating element mounting hole and could see that it was lodged underneath the gas heating tube.
I tried blasting it with compressed air, didn't budge. I made up another water tube connected to the hose and tried moving it that way...didn't budge. I finally tried refilling and draining the heater and after the third try the tube moved to where I could see it laying on the bottom of the tank fairly close to the heating element hole. I had to have my wife shine a flashlight into drain hole in order to see inside the tank. I then used 2 pairs of 12 inch locking Hemostat Forceps to finally grab and remove the plastic tube. The "Mechanical Fingers" that was linked to on the previous page did not work. It was difficult to get into the hole and when I did get it in the right position it didn't grip the tube tight enough for removal.
I contacted Camco about my problem and frankly they could have cared less. All they said was they didn't think it would cause a problem. I told them it was a poor design and the grey tube was susceptible to splitting and coming off the hose adapter. If you decide to use this product be sure you use a small hose clamp to secure the grey tube to the hose adapter nipple. If you see any splits in the tube cut off the damage piece and reinstall it and use a hose clamp.
I also put a clamp on my Camco fresh water fill device to keep it from going into the fresh water tank...
I tried blasting it with compressed air, didn't budge. I made up another water tube connected to the hose and tried moving it that way...didn't budge. I finally tried refilling and draining the heater and after the third try the tube moved to where I could see it laying on the bottom of the tank fairly close to the heating element hole. I had to have my wife shine a flashlight into drain hole in order to see inside the tank. I then used 2 pairs of 12 inch locking Hemostat Forceps to finally grab and remove the plastic tube. The "Mechanical Fingers" that was linked to on the previous page did not work. It was difficult to get into the hole and when I did get it in the right position it didn't grip the tube tight enough for removal.
I contacted Camco about my problem and frankly they could have cared less. All they said was they didn't think it would cause a problem. I told them it was a poor design and the grey tube was susceptible to splitting and coming off the hose adapter. If you decide to use this product be sure you use a small hose clamp to secure the grey tube to the hose adapter nipple. If you see any splits in the tube cut off the damage piece and reinstall it and use a hose clamp.
I also put a clamp on my Camco fresh water fill device to keep it from going into the fresh water tank...
