Thanks for taking the time to write that out CW.
Pretty sad one has to do all that. Says a lot about build quality.
Atwood's on the old camper at 2 decades + with nothing more then a wipe off of the covers. Only just started making noise in the last few years, but still do their thing.
I wonder if you could cut the bottom off a bleach type bottle and slot it over top of them. Would give some UV protection too. (I think I saw that or buckets maybe, some body mentioned doing. Here or on another forum.)