Low hot water flow-dribble

[flyboy4533]

I own a 1996 Winnebago Brave 31RQ which has a standard Atwood 6 gallon water heater. Recently I'm experiencing not much more than a dribble out of all hot water faucets. The small amount of water makes it about impossible to take a shower, which my wife says makes me smell too bad for her to continue camping with me. It doesn't matter whether I am on house water from the house water pump or shore/street water; it's the same limited flow. The cold water works normally all the time on street or house water. The only unusual things that have occurred prior to this happening is that we were in an area that had a strong smell of sulfur in the water and that water came from a relatively shallow well which might have had some dirt or sand in it. (There have been no filters installed in the system.) Additionally, the hot water pressure relief valve started to leak badly sometime after the shallow sulfur well incident-which led me to suspect some dirt or grit from the shallow well. I was on the road at the time so I had the relief valve changed by a reputable RV dealer. It's been another weekend trip or two since the relief valve change when this low water flow situation has presented itself. I'm pretty mechanically savvy and have been maintaining my RVs for the last 20 years, but can't figure this one out. I've disconnected the hot water feed line from the water heater tank and connected a street water hose directly to all 4 hot water faucets and I get good normal flow. I then removed the hot water drain plug, shut the hot water faucets off and connected a street water hose to the hot water outlet line in an attempt to blow any possible dirt or blockage in that line back out through the tank. I get good water flow through the drain, but cannot really tell if it's unrestricted. When I reconnect everything back up I still get the same low flow through all hot water faucets. This would indicate that the problem is not in the hot water lines which only leaves the hot water tank itself. I'm stumped..........and my wife won't go camping with me any more...........and I'm too old and ugly to start looking for another female companion. Any ideas will be appreciated. Thanks

[Gene_Ginny]

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Symptoms of a bad check valve.........

^^ yup, what he said ^^

[cekkk]

OP said, "The small amount of water makes it about impossible to take a shower, which my wife says makes me smell too bad for her to continue camping with me."

When you find the cause, PM me and I'll help you patent it. 50/50 $$ split. :B

[1492]

Moved from Forum Technical Support

[Old-Biscuit]

Symptoms of a bad check valve.....

The check valve is part of the fitting that is on the tank....typically on hot outlet.
BUT there have been some with check valve on cold inlet.

Disconnect the lines coming out of WH tank. Look inside the nipple on tank for check valve. Remove that nipple and get a new one

OR install shut off valves on hot/cold/bypass lines and do away with that cheap junk check valve.

[RoyB]

Here is a couple of diagrams that may support the above discussion...





Roy Ken

[Artum_Snowbird]

If you put your HWT on bypass by shutting off the inlet to the HWT and opening the valve between the inlet and outlet of the HWT(as I think you may have done) then cold water should run out the taps when set to hot (on it's own) and cold (on it's own). If that is good, then shut off the water pressure in, release the pressure, and pull the plug to the HWT and drain off all the water. Now, you are in bypass still, put inlet water pressure on again with all taps in the off position. If water comes out the HWT it is getting in by a partly open hot water line check valve. Not the relief valve, but the inline check valve. It could well be frozen partly open.

If nothing comes out the HWT then check the inlet line to the tank. To check the inlet to the tank, go off bypass and drain the tank by pulling out the plug. Make sure all taps are in the off position. Connect to water. Water should flow into the tank, and onto the ground through the pulled plug. If you seem to have a good flow out the drain plug hole, put the plug back in and turn on a tap when you are not on bypass. The tank should fill and only release air out the taps until the tank is full, then water should come out the tap. If it's slow, you have to change the check valve on the outlet of the HWT. This is not the relief valve on the top of the tank, it's the check valve.

The check valve is only about 3/4 of an inch long, and until I had a problem, I didn't know it existed either. Compare the cold water inlet line, and the hot water outlet line and you will see the check valve in the line.