Fixing My Water Heater

[Peacester]

Hey Everyone, I'm sure y'all getting used to my username poping up now. Anyways for those that Don't know I'm fixing up a 79' Wilderness Camper. My issue right now is that My water Heater Lines Broke. On the back of my water heater I have two grey lines coming out (I'll try and get a photo next Time I'm working on it) the line broke just outside of the heater unit, the other end of the broken lines are on the ground right now. they are Identical lines but one has a shut off valve. Which goes where? and is just clean cutting and patching with some Heat resistant PVC and contact cement good enough?

[Peacester]

SoundGuy wrote:

Peacester wrote:
perhaps time to replace it with a new one. 😉

Its defiantly on the list, but not in the budget right now, so when it breaks I'll have a excuse to upgrade 😄

[Peacester]

Thanks for all the Replies. I will be taking a better look at it once I clean the trailer up and taking one of the broken pieces to the local hardware store and see if I can't figure a good fix.

[ksg5000]

Take a piece of the old pipe down to hardware store and talk to a plumbing guy - he should be able to identify the old piece and suggest a fix.

[SoundGuy]

Peacester wrote:
Anyways for those that Don't know I'm fixing up a 79' Wilderness Camper. My issue right now is that My water Heater Lines Broke. On the back of my water heater I have two grey lines coming out ...

Grey water lines, along with this being a 40 yr old camper, likely means this is QUEST tubing, not PEX, and if that's the case you'll find joining the two problematic at best since QUEST is slightly different outside diameter than is PEX. Normally one would suggest using quick connect fittings such as Sea Tech or Sharkbite but they're made to connect PEX tubing together ... a problem for you to be sure. That said, do you really want to try to rely on a 40 yr old water heater? ... perhaps time to replace it with a new one. 😉

[westend]

Sorry, duplicate.

[westend]

I'd suggest that you replace them from the heater to the nearest fitting. I used PEX pipe. One of your lines probably has a check valve in it. That would be the output (typically topmost, but check on the heater for markings). The cold water supply would have the valve. With those two valves in the lines, you can bypass the water heater for Winterization.