Cracked Suburban water tank

dclark1946 wrote:

Fisherguy wrote:
OK,

No

It's a 10 gallon tank, is there any reason I can't put in a 10 gallon Atwoond They don't have anodes, right? I like the idea of being able to put in a drain valve, removing the anode to drain the tank is a PITA.

Not sure why removing the anode rod is a PITA. I remove ours after each camping trip with a dedicated ratchet wrench and socket that I keep in the cargo compartment. Draining the water heater that way allows a lot of the sediment to flush out.

Dick

And putting a 'drain valve' on Atwood will not allow full flushing.
Atwood drain hole is only 1/2" and then putting drain valve just makes opening even smaller

Fisherguy wrote:
OK,

No

It's a 10 gallon tank, is there any reason I can't put in a 10 gallon Atwoond They don't have anodes, right? I like the idea of being able to put in a drain valve, removing the anode to drain the tank is a PITA.

Not sure why removing the anode rod is a PITA. I remove ours after each camping trip with a dedicated ratchet wrench and socket that I keep in the cargo compartment. Draining the water heater that way allows a lot of the sediment to flush out.

Dick

MrWizard wrote:
You leaked water, from the crack, it must go into the water heater , water tank section
Dremel and steel wool then jb weld set for 24 hrs, might work

Best option is a new water heater

No, it didn't leak with water in the tank, it only leaked water into the trailer when I drained the tank so I'm going to take the advice and use JB weld to seal it.

That's not the tank- it's the draw pan. Seal it with whatever to keep water out.

Contrary to popular opinion a Suburban water tank which is porcelain lined steel is much less likely to split open than an Atwood aluminum tank but can hairline split as yours has. Since this is just a hairline crack and it is a steel tank you don't have much to lose other than a few $$ by having a welder see if he can repair this crack. However, if you do decide to replace it you'll likely have to replace the entire water heater because AFAIK Suburban doesn't offer just the tank itself, whereas Atwood does, I suspect because Atwood aluminum tank splitting is so common. While camping a couple of weeks ago I helped a friend remove his own leaking Atwood WH but because it turned out to be a hairline crack around the water pressure relief valve he's going to have the tank aluminum welded rather than replace it ... he got lucky!

I've owned both brands and although both work well for the intended purpose the Atwood in my experience offers a much faster recovery time. However, they each require an entirely different sized cutout in the trailer sidewall so if you do replace your Suburban do so with another Suburban as you'd find retrofitting an Atwood into a cutout it wasn't designed to fit a real PITA.

From what I can see that crack looks like it is in the metal 'pan' that covers the outside portion of water heater vs crack in water heater tank.

Crack in pan allows water to leak back inside RV around WH area.



Clean it up, rough it up, JB Weld it up.


And NO Atwood would not be a direct replacement........
Different cut opening sizes (Atwood wider)

Suburban has higher BTU burner than Atwood

You leaked water, from the crack, it must go into the water heater , water tank section
Dremel and steel wool then jb weld set for 24 hrs, might work

Best option is a new water heater

downtheroad wrote:
Did you maybe put some muscle into it and crank your wrench really hard to get the anode rod out? That might have cracked it.

Before you replace it, try gooping some JB Weld into and around the crack. You might get lucky.

I think you're right, the anode was in there pretty tight, surprised me how tight it was actually.
Thanks! :)

Looks like it's just the tin around the exterior of the tank.

JB weld should do it. Maybe use a punch to recess it a little before applying the JB weld.

Did you maybe put some muscle into it and crank your wrench really hard to get the anode rod out? That might have cracked it.

Before you replace it, try gooping some JB Weld into and around the crack. You might get lucky.