I jinxed myself. Now I have a water heater problem.

[zach477]

Yet another problem has presented itself. I hope I run out of problems soon...

I have been hearing my water pump run randomly for about a half a second here and there. So I started searching for leaks.

There was a wet spot on the ground under my water heater. It's an atwood. I could see water slowly dripping out of the drain plug, so I tightened that thinking I fixed the problem. However the water pump is still doing its thing.

The wet spot has returned under the water heater, the water is dripping from somewhere inside the water heater. I had the water heater off for about 12 hours and it was still leaking.

It's has only dipped below freezing for a night or two around here. In afraid I may not have had the water heater on at that time. 😕

I don't have time right now to investigate further. I'll have to wait until tomorrow. I'm. hoping it's not expensive to fix, but I'm fearing it might be. I'm feeling a little defeated at the moment. Also just found out my dog has to have an expensive surgery to removed a growth that could be cancer. Sorry. I'm just venting now....

[xctraveler]

Haven't had to deal with plug in water heater tank in a while as we have On Demand water heater, but had 11 years experience with plastic plugs. I learned there are two different plugs! The threads are the same but one is tapered to make it easier to get started and the other - newer? - is straight and I found it a bear to get started which meant I was less likely to take it out and redo the teflon tape when it started to drip. Eventually I found a supply of the tapered plugs that lasted me until we sold the coach. needed one or two every year.

[midasman]

Nobody mentioned the problem I had. Mine leaked hot OR cold. The white plastic plug in front didn't look good. I tried to take it out, and it came out in pieces! $2 and a new plug fixed it right up!

[Bobbo]

When mine did that, I finally found the leak. It was the shore water inlet dripping. Fortunately, no water inside the RV. It was all dripping onto the ground.

A garden hose plug got me home from the 2 week trip. Then a new back check valve for a permanent fix.

[Gjac]

Also check your toilet valve for a leak.

[xctraveler]

One other thought about occasional pump operation. There is a check valve in the pump head to prevent water from flowing back through the pump when it is not pumping. If that has a slow leak, pressure would drop and the pump would activate. You would not see any water leaking anyplace.

[RayChez]

zach477 wrote:

Jim@HiTek wrote:
There's another thing that causes the random pump operation...you know the two showers most RV's have?

If the gate valves are ON and the head valve is OFF, that could make the pump run periodically. Check both the bath tub shower head and the dog washer out in the wet basement compartment.

I always turn the shower water off completely otherwise it drips from the shower head.

The random pumping is definitely a lot less frequent now that I have stopped the WH from leaking.

It might have helped, but you still have a leak some where. The pump should not start if your lines are tight.

[zach477]

Jim@HiTek wrote:
There's another thing that causes the random pump operation...you know the two showers most RV's have?

If the gate valves are ON and the head valve is OFF, that could make the pump run periodically. Check both the bath tub shower head and the dog washer out in the wet basement compartment.

I always turn the shower water off completely otherwise it drips from the shower head.

The random pumping is definitely a lot less frequent now that I have stopped the WH from leaking.

[Jim]

There's another thing that causes the random pump operation...you know the two showers most RV's have?

If the gate valves are ON and the head valve is OFF, that could make the pump run periodically. Check both the bath tub shower head and the dog washer out in the wet basement compartment.

[zach477]

Bobbo wrote:
I wonder if the drain plug was ALMOST tight and when it got cold out, the plug contracted allowing a slow seepage.

That must be it. I seems to be fine now. Although I still hear the water pump randomly turn on from time to time. At least now I can rule out leaky water heater.

[Bobbo]

I wonder if the drain plug was ALMOST tight and when it got cold out, the plug contracted allowing a slow seepage.

[zach477]

Gjac wrote:
Zack,have you stop the leak?

For now it seems like further tightening of the drain plug has stopped the leak. However it's been so warm here lately that I can't be sure. It seems that it was more prone to leak when it was cold out.

In the mean time I'll enjoy the 60-70 degree temperatures. 🙂

[Gjac]

Zack,have you stop the leak?

[Jim]

Just a couple days ago, I replace a toilet in my rig and needed to use a plastic right angle (male) adaptor to my older PEX (the grey stuff) female connector.

With everything being plastic, you'd think there wouldn't be a problem with leaking but this union of white to grey plastic did. No amount of tightening would stop the leak.

So I used some teflon plumbers tape and the leak stopped.

And that's what I suggest, teflon plumbers tape on your drain plug. Even if it's plastic.

[zach477]

Gjac wrote:

zach477 wrote:
If it were to be an air pocket issue, wouldn't it only leak when it was turned on and heating up? Mine will leak even if it has been off for a day.

Yes Zach you are right it should not leak under pressure. But there is still some pressure until the water cools. You could lift the handle to release the pressure. You said it appeared to leak right under the drain plug. Are you sure it is not leaking from the plug it self?

Well when I first noticed the leak, it was obviously coming from the drain plug so I tightened that and thought I had it fixed. Water was no longer collecting in the front face of the HW. But then I started to notice was dripping down from inside of the enclosure which seemed like a separate leak.

Yesterday, on a whim, I tried tightening the drain plug even more. I haven't seen any water leaking since, however it has been pretty warm the last couple of days and I have noticed that the leaking was more prone to happen when it was cold out. So it may have been just that simple, but we'll see what happens when it gets cold.