Water Heater Bypass Valve - How To Replace

[Proud_Dad]

There are two bypass valves associated with the water heater in my travel trailer. Each fall, when winterizing, I have to turn one from open to closed, and the other from closed to open. In the spring I have to reverse. I now have two problems.

Problem 1 - The "handle" on one of the valves broke. See photo below. How do you replace this valve?? It looks like it should be simple, but I am not sure how those black bands on each side of the valve work.

Problem 2 - In all the tinkering with these valves I am no longer 100% sure anymore which one is open when the water heater is functioning (summertime) and which one is open when winterized. If someone has an easy explanation for that it would be great.

Thanks.

[TomD62]

In a related situation, I'm replumbing a Fleetwood, multiple burst CPVC pipes with PEX-A .
The water heater bypass is a bit of a mystery, the bypass valve is on top and the cold feed comes up from the floor to the bypass and then back down into the tank cold inlet. Likewise the hot outlet goes up to the bypass and then feeds down to the floor. So this tank can't drain unless the drain plug is removed. I'm replumbing it now, why not run from the floor to the lower tank inlet, remove the whole bypass assembly and have the upper hot water outlet go straight to the floor and there is a T to the sink,shower, kitchen and the other side goes to a drain in the rear locker, same for the cold.
I plan on opening everything and draining as much as will drain at the rear, then blowing out the system with air from the kitchen, which is the far end of the system, Hot first, then close off hot shower, sink and rear drain and blow out cold pipes. This should get everything but the last bit of water in the heater that is below the cold inlet. If I do use anti-freeze, I would add it from the kitchen tap, only a 1qt or so on hot and cold and again blow most of that out with air, just to get the one low spot between kitchen and bathroom where pipes go under the floor and back up under vanity. No bypass needed and it simplifies the plumbing by the heater.

[DrewE]

Those rings are one-time-use PEX crimp rings. You'll have to cut them off or otherwise remove them to extract the valve (or cut the PEX beyond the valve and find a longer valve or splice some more tubing in place). The rings are installed with a pliers-like tool that scrunches them around the pipe and fitting.

For replacing a single valve, it probably makes more sense to get a sharkbite or similar valve that doesn't require specialized tools to install rather than replacing with a crimp style.

As to which way the valves go, it depends a bit on where the valves are exactly and how things are set up. If you have a valve in a pipe that goes between the hot and cold water lines in parallel with the heater, that one would definitely be open to bypass and closed to use the heater, and the other one (which I suspect is between the cold water line and the heater) set oppositely. In such a setup there would also be a check valve on the hot water outlet from the heater which you don't need to fiddle with manually.

[agesilaus]

Replace with PEX sharkbite fittings/valve which you can get at big box hardware-Lowes/Home Depot and maybe local hardware stores. Remove old valve and take it to the store with you. If you have to cut it out then you may need to splice in some PEX tubing.

[MFL]

Normally, the handle pointing in line with hose is open. Handle broken, bit hard to tell, except does it flow, does it not flow??

Jerry