Trying to find an RV water heater fix?
Well, I probably don’t have all the answers for your RV water heater problems but I can show my DIY fix!
I will start by saying you can learn from my mistakes, which is why I document my journey in life so much. Being a newbie to the mobile dwelling community, and specifically, the full-time RV living community I did not know everything to look for when purchasing an RV. So one of the big things I did not check well was the water heater.
When you are buying your first mobile dwelling you get excited! Buying anything you have waited on and researched a lot gets you excited so I’m sure everyone can empathise with that. I did look under the seat at the water heater when I bought it but I did not look very closely. It was more of a glance to see if anything was leaking but that was it.
Holy Moly!
Nothing was leaking because it had a huge hole in it! The water heater was busted, more than likely from the weather. This is why it is important to winterize your RV so your pipes and tanks don’t go out on you.
Once I found this out I had to figure out if I could fix this on my own (my preferred method) or if I would have to buy a new one. So, again I put in the research like you are probably doing now, and I found out that I could get it welded back together. I was fortunate enough to have a mechanic that also worked at a steel company and was a great welder. He did not actually weld it because it is aluminum and he didn’t have the tools for that at work but one of his co-workers was able to do it at his house.
I pulled my tank out and gave it to his to give to his co-worker. About two days later I got the call to pick it up and it was welded back together like new! It only cost me $10! Now, I know not everyone can have these resources but I would suggest calling up companies that weld or even put it on Craigslist and I’m sure someone could do it for cheap that day.
A Leaky Situation!
My RV water heater fix did not stop there! After a while of testing it out, my water heater started to leak from the pipes.
Of course, because my RV was so old (1983) the pipes that were used are not common anymore. This is something else to think about when buying an older vehicle or RV. When I went to Lowes and Home Depot I could not find anything that would work. Finally, an older gentleman was talking to me about it and said that only plumbing companies would probably be able to help with that type of tubing. Knowing that wouldn’t be cheap I again decided to rig up my own DIY fix to make it do what it do.
I began finding piece in Lowes to connect together and make this thing work for me. You can see the whole struggle involved with doing that and how it looked in the end. After one leaky attempt that showed up while camping with some friends I had to start over again. The second time I made it work and it continued to work up to the day I parted with my first mobile dwelling.
Check out the videos below for my whole experience with trying to do an RV water heater fix DIY style!
(This is not recommended and I’m not professional, as you can see in the video, but it’s just how I fixed my problem!)
Did you get your RV water heater fixed? If so share how below so we can help each other out!
If you did not get it fixed, what is the problem? Maybe we can help!
Rather just get a new water heater?
Try this one out: http://amzn.to/2dL1E6b
