Hot Water Heater ByPass

Hello, It's time for out annual R-pod / CanvasCampers Winter trip. While I was over here posting on that thread I figured I'd share my Hot Water Heater ByPass Mod that I just did. R-Pod, Travel Trailer, Pop-up, they all use similar Hot Water Heaters. I just copied my thread from CanvasCampers to share with the R-Pod group.

Last weekend I finally got around to winterizing my camper. I needed to install a Hot Water Heater bypass so I didn't have to waste 6 gallons of RV antifreeze. I also needed to add a siphon hose to my water pump to suck up the antifreeze. I am not a fan of dumping antifreeze in the fresh water tank. The HWH bypass cost $30 at my local RV store. They threw in the fitting for the water pump and I had some hose in the garage. In total I think I spent 30-45 minutes doing this. I only used 1 adjustable wrench and some Teflon tape that came with the HWH bypass kit.

Here is the back of the HWH before the bypass.


I simply unscrewed the existing water lines and installed these T valves (I'm not a plumber, there may be a more specific name for it)


Then I just screwed the original water lines to the new fittings and the little bypass hose.


For the water pump I just unscrewed the water inlet line


I put the hose onto the fitting


Screwed the siphon hose to the water inlet and put the other end in the jug-o-antifreeze

Originally posted by furpod 2 things.. 2.. you need to add a shut off valve in the crossover hose, or come spring you will get a "short circuit", and lukewarm water, if that.

Looks like the valves he used are "either/or". If so, no additional shutoff needed. If not, you're right.

Yes, I bought a kit. The T valves that came with it will shut off the crossover hose when opening up for the HWH

I don't know why all HWH don't come standard with bypass kits. That's cool that Rpods do come standard with the bypass.

I guess I am missing something here.  Wouldn't it be a whole lot simpler to just blow out the system with an air compressor?  I have done this every year since 2012 and it takes about 20-30 seconds and you are done.  No anti-freeze to fuss with, except for the traps.

Originally posted by techntrek Interestingly the bypass system on my camper only has one valve.  That threw me at first but after thinking about it, it makes sense since it is like the valves in Matt's system, diverting the flow either to one outlet or the other.  The other end of the bypass hose just has a regular T fitting like the black one at the top of the pic, above.  I'm surprised more campers don't have just that one valve since it should be cheaper.

and less confusing. 1 valve, it's either right or wrong. We see so many owners with the three valve confusions here.. usually the center one throws them. But having one would sure simplify getting a new owner to get it right when they have no hot water, or sporadic hot water..