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az350x's avatar
az350x
Explorer
Sep 10, 2015

Plumbing/water heater issue

So, I'll start by admitting that I goofed. Although I've owned about 10 RV's in the last 15 years, this last winter was the first time we've lived in a climate where winterizing was necessary. So, last fall I winterized my TT. I isolated my water heater and did the whole RV antifreeze thing to the plumbing system. My mistake came a couple weeks ago when I de-winterized for our first trip this year. I forgot that the water heater was isolated, and I lit it off and fried the element. I also removed the anode when I was changing the element and flushed the heater. When I did that, a small piece of ceramic came out. Yay. With both the element and the anode removed, I looked inside and really didn't see much. My plan is to hopefully get another year or so out of it and then replace it, hopefully before it rusts through and makes a mess. I also intend to remove the anode and element and dry it out good when not in use.

Anyway, so the weird issue I'm having after this headache I've caused myself is this. My bathroom lav faucet has reduced flow from both hot and cold. What's weird about it is that the pump is right under the bathroom sink. Forward, in the kitchen, the sink works perfectly (right over heater). Aft of the bathroom sink, both the tub AND the sink in my outside kitchen work fine as well. Do these fixtures ever fail and reduce the output flow? I mean, they ARE made from the finest Chinese plastic available and all...

Thoughts or ideas? I've noticed no leaks anywhere or anything either.

Thanks!
  • First of all, that was not a "small piece of ceramic". I assume you have a Suburban water heater. That "piece of ceramic" was actually pieces of gunk from inside the water heater. Simply flush the water heater with a flush tool that you can get from Camping World. You'll be surprised at how much gunk comes out.

    Second - For the lav faucet. Try removing the aerator screen at the end of the faucet and cleaning it out. If that doesn't work, buy a replacement faucet. Get a nice one and you won't have the flow problems you do with you wiz-bang OEM faucet.
  • Anode rod is for 'sacrificing' itself vs steel tank that Suburban uses.

    Just keep on using an anode rod, flushing tank

    Bathroom sink faucet....reduced flow hot/cold side.
    First thing.have you removed the aerator screen on end of faucet, cleaned it and checked flow w/o it installed?????

    IF YES and flow is still reduced.....those high quality plastic junk RV faucets have been know to fail --- replace with a residential faucet.

    Course you could disconnect cold/hot sink lines and check flow thru them but usually problem is clogged aerator or faulty faucet

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