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dpgllg's avatar
dpgllg
Explorer
Jun 19, 2019

Atwood Hot water heater drain plug

Hello,

My 5th wheel has an Atwood hot water heater that came with a nylon (plastic) drain plug. The location of the plug makes it very difficult to get a wrench or anything on it to remove the plug.


Original Atwood plug

I replaced it with a Camco brass drain plug with a valve that you can open to drain the tank.


Camco plug

The Camco plug was a complete waste of time and money. It leaked constantly and when you wanted to drain it came out so slow that it would take a day to drain the tank. I even popped the pressure relief and opened all my faucets with minimal improvement. Removing this drain plug took over an hour due to location and the brass stripped very easily.

Does anyone have a better solution? What do you use? Any special wrenches that fit better?

Thanks for your response!

Dave

33 Replies

  • Here's what I did to make draining the water heater easy. Two nylon thread to barb adapter fittings, 12" of 1/2 inch tubing and a valve.



    Stored position so door can close.

  • I use the plastic plug, but had a hard time with it too, until I started using this with a 15/16 socket. It needs a slight angle to work it up in there. My 1991 water heater might be different though.

  • Better solution

    Use the NYLON OEM drain plug

    Atwood uses the NYLON for a few reasons
    NYLON will not strip out the Aluminum Threads (tank is aluminum and so are all threads)
    NYLON has the proper temp/pressure ratings should the T-stat/ECO fail
    NYLON seals without having to really crank on it with a wrench

    Actually should install finger tight then using a 6 point socket just snug it up
    Socket should be 7/8" (some are 15/16")