Water Heater Repair

I went to the motorhome yesterday and pulled off the access panel inside the motorhome so I could see the back of the water heater. The water heater and the rear furnace are both in this same compartment. I was surprised how clean the area was. All the wood was in very good shape and there was no sign of any type of water damage at all. Now for the problem. There was nothing supporting the water heater at all. The unit was just slid in and screwed in at the front, but the entire water heater tank was suspended a few inches off the bottom of the compartment. It’s a 10 gallon tank so that’s 80 pounds of water plus the weight of the tank all being held by the screws around the front flange. Took it 13 years, but that’s what eventually what caused the heater to tear the metal facing and drop down a couple of inches.

So the good news is to fix it all I have to do is get something under the tank to raise it back up to where it should be and then put the muffler tape on the tear in the metal and we’re good to go until it eventually breaks and needs replacing.