water heater plastic plug removal

[Notakwanon]

With the weather forecasters saying the temperature here in MD will drop to 19 tomorrow night, today I decided it was time to drain water from the Outfitter Apex camper. I grabbed the head of the plastic plug at the bottom of the water heater with a channel lock, as I have before, tried to turn a little, and the head of the plug snapped off. Well, that solved the problem of water removal, but now I've got plastic threads that somehow have to be removed. The space to get in there is very tight. Is there a better method for tackling this repair than to remove the burner unit, just to get at the drain plug?
Tom McCloud

[Kayteg1]

OP has aluminium tank that don't use anode.

[covered_wagon]

13 years with a brass plug that has a sacrificial anode attached to it. Anode is the least noble of metal therefore prevents any electro deterioration to the tank. Bought brass plug with anode at West Marine. Always use pipe thread sealant for easy removal in November.

[Bumpyroad]

Bedlam wrote:
Use a 6-point socket on the drain plug so you do not chew it up.

for some reason they slightly changed the size of this plug. I had a sears double offset ratcheting wrench that worked great and got behind that copper pipe blocking the plug.
bumpy

[Bumpyroad]

Kayteg1 wrote:
BTW in my plug hole I install electric heating element.
The $130 part is heavily chromed and made excelent investment when in winter we lived in camper after house sale.
Not only quiet, but it gave more hot water than gas burner and we could take 2 showers in the row.
Recovery is longer, but that never hit us.
I never drained my tank, but the heater has compression fitting, what is a breeze to remove

yep I had a "hot rod" on my bounder, I had to pay for electricity anyway at the campground.
bumpy

[zcookiemonstar]

Kayteg1 wrote:
BTW in my plug hole I install electric heating element.
The $130 part is heavily chromed and made excelent investment when in winter we lived in camper after house sale.
Not only quiet, but it gave more hot water than gas burner and we could take 2 showers in the row.
Recovery is longer, but that never hit us.
I never drained my tank, but the heater has compression fitting, what is a breeze to remove

You should enter this in one of truck camper magazine mod contests.

[Kayteg1]

BTW in my plug hole I install electric heating element.
The $130 part is heavily chromed and made excelent investment when in winter we lived in camper after house sale.
Not only quiet, but it gave more hot water than gas burner and we could take 2 showers in the row.
Recovery is longer, but that never hit us.
I never drained my tank, but the heater has compression fitting, what is a breeze to remove

[Dick_B]

If there is room drill two holes on either side of the remaining head large enough to insert the points of a long nose pliers then twist it out.
In the future X2 on the hex socket and teflon tape.

[wrgrs50s]

I got mine out easily with a pencil style soldering iron. Melted through the plastic threads on the top then on the bottom and used a pick to get the two halves out.

[Bedlam]

Use a 6-point socket on the drain plug so you do not chew it up.

[realter]

Kayteg1 wrote:
Copper on aluminium crates electrocorrosion.
Brass is better, but still not the best on aluminium tank.
I would stay with manufacturer recommendations.

X2

[Kayteg1]

Copper on aluminium crates electrocorrosion.
Brass is better, but still not the best on aluminium tank.
I would stay with manufacturer recommendations.

[Gary3]

I use a brass plug with Teflon tape 7yrs now just remove it once a year to clean the tank.

[enblethen]

Atwood recommends only using the nylon hollowed out plug.

[rwiegand]

Is there a downside to using a brass plug with teflon tape? My plastic plug needs replacing anyway from getting chewed up through a few removal cycles. Brass won't deform when you put a wrench on it. I can't think of an advantage of plastic other than saving maybe $2.

[rockylarson]

enblethen wrote:
I have used one of these normally used for sprinkler head repair.
Extractor

X2 Works well.