Draining water heater

[coolmom42]

When former BF & I had a RV together, we drained the water heater ( or thought we did) by opening the low point drains and parking on a slope so that the water heater was uphill.

We then winterized by closing the WH bypass & pumping pink stuff through the lines, plus pouring in traps.

Never had any problem for 3 years.

Now that I'm reading with an eye to doing this on my own in the future, I see comments that say things like, "Water heater drain plug must be removed to drain it."

Were we just blissfully ignorant and got lucky? (Which I doubt, as RV was stored in central IL for the winter.) Or did we manage to drain the water heater through the low point drains?

And what is there to prevent the WH from draining through the low point drains?

[wolfe10]

doughere wrote:
If yours is a Suburban you need to pull plug to check anode yearly. If it is an Attwood, you can get a MPT to Male Hose Thread adapter, and put on a Hose cap which can be removed by hand (idea stolen from somewhere on this site).

Doug

And, now you have introduced electrolysis to the water heater. Atwood uses a nylon drain plug for their aluminum tank.

Put one or two dissimilar metals in contact (very likely to be higher on the galvanic chart) and you have done it no good. How much damage will depend on mineral content of water and how much the water heater is used.

Bottom line, not a good idea. Spend the $1 or $2 any buy the Atwood drain plugs from any RV store.

[coolmom42]

doughere wrote:
If yours is a Suburban you need to pull plug to check anode yearly. If it is an Attwood, you can get a MPT to Male Hose Thread adapter, and put on a Hose cap which can be removed by hand (idea stolen from somewhere on this site).

Doug

Great tip! I will keep that in mind when I acquire a RV.

[coolmom42]

Old-Biscuit wrote:

coolmom42 wrote:
As I said, I am no longer involved with this TT, having split with the now-full-owner. (He bought my half of it.)

I was just trying to figure out the best way to do it myself if I buy a RV in the future.

The TT is a basic Gulfstream Amerilite. It never occurred to us that the WH would NOT drain through the low point drains. We had the faucets open while draining. It did drain slowly but the amount of water seemed to confirm that the WH did drain.

If it was not drained, it definitely would have frozen under the storage conditions.

I believe it's an Atwood WH, am not 100% sure.

So the moral of the story is, some WH might drain through the low points, but not all will. And the anode should be checked regardless. (I don't know if ExBF has done that or not, it's not really my concern any more.)

Atwood doesn't use an anode rod because it has an aluminum alloy tank.
(Suburban uses anodes because of the steel glass-lined tank)

WH tank may have drained, may have only partially drained.......regardless it must have drained enough that the water left behind had enough room to expand when frozen that it didn't do harm ie: rupture tank

BUT easy sure fire way is to remove drain plug

I agree you are right about that. Will keep it in mind when I acquire my own RV. Good to know ahead of time.

[doughere]

If yours is a Suburban you need to pull plug to check anode yearly. If it is an Attwood, you can get a MPT to Male Hose Thread adapter, and put on a Hose cap which can be removed by hand (idea stolen from somewhere on this site).

Doug

[Old-Biscuit]

coolmom42 wrote:
As I said, I am no longer involved with this TT, having split with the now-full-owner. (He bought my half of it.)

I was just trying to figure out the best way to do it myself if I buy a RV in the future.

The TT is a basic Gulfstream Amerilite. It never occurred to us that the WH would NOT drain through the low point drains. We had the faucets open while draining. It did drain slowly but the amount of water seemed to confirm that the WH did drain.

If it was not drained, it definitely would have frozen under the storage conditions.

I believe it's an Atwood WH, am not 100% sure.

So the moral of the story is, some WH might drain through the low points, but not all will. And the anode should be checked regardless. (I don't know if ExBF has done that or not, it's not really my concern any more.)

Atwood doesn't use an anode rod because it has an aluminum alloy tank.
(Suburban uses anodes because of the steel glass-lined tank)

WH tank may have drained, may have only partially drained.......regardless it must have drained enough that the water left behind had enough room to expand when frozen that it didn't do harm ie: rupture tank

BUT easy sure fire way is to remove drain plug

[coolmom42]

joebedford wrote:
Mine doesn't drain through the low point drains. Are you SURE yours does? Personally, I wouldn't take the chance until I knew for sure.

This is what the plumbing in my rig looks like:



Yours is probably similar. Can you be sure all that drains just by opening the low point drains?

The plumbing in your photo is a hot mess. Good grief. Nothing in the RV I dealt with looked like that. It was very straight-forward & easy to figure out which lines went where.

[coolmom42]

Johno02 wrote:
keeping anode rod in during the winter keeps the spiders out.

Or MICE.

ICK.

[Johno02]

keeping anode rod in during the winter keeps the spiders out.

[fla-gypsy]

MY TT WH will not drain through the low point drains.

[coolmom42]

As I said, I am no longer involved with this TT, having split with the now-full-owner. (He bought my half of it.)

I was just trying to figure out the best way to do it myself if I buy a RV in the future.

The TT is a basic Gulfstream Amerilite. It never occurred to us that the WH would NOT drain through the low point drains. We had the faucets open while draining. It did drain slowly but the amount of water seemed to confirm that the WH did drain.

If it was not drained, it definitely would have frozen under the storage conditions.

I believe it's an Atwood WH, am not 100% sure.

So the moral of the story is, some WH might drain through the low points, but not all will. And the anode should be checked regardless. (I don't know if ExBF has done that or not, it's not really my concern any more.)

[Carb_Cleaner]

... Don't leave it out (anode rod) over winter as others do, putting it back in will keep protecting the tank.

How does the anode rod protect an empty water heater?

[mnm_2]

We installed a drain cock on our heater, remember to open the pop-off valve to allow the heater to vent and completely drain.The first trailer we had just opening the low point drains worked fine,our next trailer the water heater was below the low point drains as I learned after our first winter

[Johno02]

I have always just opened the drain plub on the heater, and let all the water just bubble out. Found out this time that if I open the relief valve also, the tank drains a lot faster. I remove plug with anode, inspect rod, and replace it loosely to keep bugs out.

[Sandia_Man]

Our rig's water heater does drain through low point drains as well but I've always just removed the drain plug as it is so much faster. We winterize de-winterize a few times each winter as we often camp for a couple of weeks in our warmer neighboring states of TX and AZ.

Additionally, it gives us a chance to inspect anode rod as we keep water in the WH all season, usually requires replacement every 4th year or so. Your method obviously worked as enough water was removed that expansion did not cause significant damage to occur.