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?

[mobeewan]

Cold water line connects at the bottom hot water comes out of the top connection.

[Peacester]

Okay things are busy for me, just got a chance to look at all this. Okay so The water heater doesn't have any markings on what line attaches where. With my upcoming wedding I don't have a lot of time to work on this thing so I'm still trying to finish up patching the ceiling and back wall currently but this is next on the list. From what I'v researched I am going to patch it currently then if it breaks again replace it. The Sharkbite seems to be my best bet of getting a seal on it so I'll try that for a while.

as to figure out how this heater works I'll have to trace and make a map of the current lines and see if I an't figure out how this was designed. Wish me luck

[CavemanCharlie]

So that's what that stuff is. All I know is that it kinda sucks.

To drain my water heater on my 1993 TT I have a gray line that hangs down underneath the TT. It had a female end on it and you would screw a plug into it during the summer to keep pressure in the system. Suppose to be some sort of cone shaped o-ring in there. I can't seem to find the right ones of those.

This year the female end broke. I was able to use thread a 3/8 bolt with Teflon tape on it up into the line. By golly that has been working well.

I don't know what I am going to do next year though.

[D_E_Bishop]

The line with the valve is the supply side as stated, if you can pressurize the water system for just a second, you'll see water coming out the supply side. That is if you cannot trace it back to a fixture or the pump.

[mobeewan]

SoundGuy wrote:

mobeewan wrote:
Actually the grey tubing is Polybutylene.

Known by the brand name as Q(U)EST tubing ... you pick the spelling you prefer. 😉

Sowwy if I hurt your wittewl feewings. Not everyone knows what Qest tubing is. Some only know it as Polybutylene. I guess i should have typed "A.K.A. Polybutylene".

[drsteve]

SoundGuy wrote:

Gdetrailer wrote:
Yes, grey is "Quest" , you have that correct, BUT, you are dead wrong about shark bite fittings not working with Quest lines.

Incorrect ... and in fact to address this issue there are PEX > QUEST adapters available, if you look hard enough. BTDT, a PEX > PEX fitting used on QUEST will leak. :M

Actually you're both right, sorta... a regular sharkbite won't work with Qest, but they do make a push-style sharkbite (as opposed to the barb-and-collar version SoundGuy linked to) that will go from PEX to Qest/polybutylene. They have 'em for iron pipe size too.

[GrandpaKip]

I have the polybutylene pipe in my house. I did not know about the lawsuit until recently, too late for me. The pipe itself is fine, but the fittings fail. Mine have copper bands and those are not a problem.
Sharkbites work great to replace the failures. In the areas where I can get to easily, I replace with pex.
PVC is not suitable for hot water.
As suggested, replace with pex wherever you can.

[SoundGuy]

mobeewan wrote:
Actually the grey tubing is Polybutylene.

Known by the brand name as Q(U)EST tubing ... you pick the spelling you prefer. 😉

[SoundGuy]

Here in an example of a PEX to QUEST Adapter.

[SoundGuy]

Gdetrailer wrote:
Yes, grey is "Quest" , you have that correct, BUT, you are dead wrong about shark bite fittings not working with Quest lines.

Incorrect ... and in fact to address this issue there are PEX > QUEST adapters available, if you look hard enough. BTDT, a PEX > PEX fitting used on QUEST will leak. :M

[mobeewan]

Actually the grey tubing is Polybutylene. It was installed in Mobile homes, travel trailers and houses from about 1978 to about 1995. There was a large class action suit due to problems with it breaking down and eventually leaking and causing water damage. You would be better off replacing all the grey tubing with PEX. As you can see the water heater tubing has already failed. And cpvc is actually a better choice over PVC for hot water use, but PEX is even better and a lot more flexible. It can be used with the correct support brackets to make short bends.

[westend]

ScottG wrote:
Yep, that's Qest tubing. You can still get fittings at some H/W stores and it's really pretty good stuff if you use said fittings or COPPER crimp bands. It got a bad name when they introduced aluminum crimp bands. Those would eventually stretch and cause a leak (in my case at 2:00 AM).

Right it must go with tides, mine parted at about the same time. What a mess that was.

The OP should seek assistance or research plumbing a good bit. I've never met an owner or plumber that was so hard up that he couldn't ditch that quest pipe and put something better in it's place. BTW, there is no good glue for quest, AFAIK. It also gets hard and brittle in 40 years.

And yes, Sharkbite may fit quest. Its sealing ring fits a range of diameters.

[Gdetrailer]

SoundGuy wrote:

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. 😉

:R

Yes, grey is "Quest" , you have that correct, BUT, you are dead wrong about shark bite fittings not working with Quest lines.

I to have a 30 plus old TT, it HAS lots of the ORIGINAL Quest lines in tact.

When I rebuilt the trailer I did have to make a couple of changes to the water lines and have successfully used Shark bites to make those changes.

It has been 10 yrs since I rebuilt the TT, not one drop of water has leaked from those Shark bites.

The reason Shark bites work is because they use a rubber "O" ring inside to make a water tight seal.

Shark bites are also designed to make copper to copper, Pex to copper and have no issue what so ever dealing with Quest lines.

Copper, Pex and quest all have slight different diameters which the tight fitting O rings have no issue working with.

Just have to be patient and not force the fitting on, also helps if you REMOVE any burrs that happen when you cut the pipes. I like to slightly bevel the ends of the lines, helps the O rings to start over the pipe easily without damaging the O ring.

[ScottG]

Yep, that's Qest tubing. You can still get fittings at some H/W stores and it's really pretty good stuff if you use said fittings or COPPER crimp bands. It got a bad name when they introduced aluminum crimp bands. Those would eventually stretch and cause a leak (in my case at 2:00 AM).