Podmods, Maintenance, Tips and Tricks: Newbies

Newbies - Beware de-winterizing

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Topic: Newbies - Beware de-winterizing

Posted By: Happy Tripping
Subject: Newbies - Beware de-winterizing
Date Posted: 15 Apr 2019 at 8:33am

We're all excited, about to go out on our first trip of the year and just got finished dewinterizing.

When winterizing, remove the anode and flush debris out of the water heater tank with a hose. I say to myself, ok, sounds easy but not very important. WRONG! Today, after washing the antifreeze out of the lines, our kitchen faucet wasn't running. Gunk was blocking the aerator. I went back and unscrewed the anode plug.

Important! Always make sure there is no pressure by relieving it first, there's a relief valve above the anode plug. If you don't, you may get a faceful of hot water. When de-winterizing,the odds are that it will just be cold water. (Don't ask me how I know, I'll just lie.)

I stuck a hose in and got out LOTS of crud from the sacrificial anode (Now I know what 'sacrificial' means).

Bottom line, washing out the hot water tank with a hose is VERY important.

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"There comes a time in the affairs of a man when he must take the bull by the tail and face the situation" - W.C. Fields

Replies:

Posted By: podwerkz
Date Posted: 15 Apr 2019 at 9:48am

Good info!

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r･pod 171 gone but not forgotten!

Posted By: Jeepinator
Date Posted: 15 Apr 2019 at 3:31pm

Also, the silicone applied to the water tank casing by FR is not reliable. I found water inside the camper in that area and it took me a bit to correlate it with my recent draining of the tank. I laid Dicor over it to seal it.

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2018 Jeep Wrangler Willys
2017 179

Posted By: Awchief
Date Posted: 15 Apr 2019 at 9:26pm

Originally posted by Jeepinator

Also, the silicone applied to the water tank casing by FR is not reliable. I found water inside the camper in that area and it took me a bit to correlate it with my recent draining of the tank. I laid Dicor over it to seal it.

My 19/189 came from the factory with a defective hot water unit. FR replaced the defected unit with a new one overnighted from Atlanta. The PDI tech pointed the extra caulking he added because of the propensity of Rpods to leak internally because of the design of the exterior lip. He said the water will build up in that area and has no way do drain out so it flows back to the interior. The extra caulk he added was to stop that from happening. 10 months and no leaking as far as I can tell.

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Michael

Posted By: Tars Tarkas
Date Posted: 15 Apr 2019 at 10:00pm

Originally posted by Happy Tripping

We're all excited, about to go out on our first trip of the year and just got finished dewinterizing.

I stuck a hose in and got out LOTS of crud from the sacrificial anode (Now I know what 'sacrificial' means).

Bottom line, washing out the hot water tank with a hose is VERY important.

I totally agree that rinsing out the water heater is a good, probably essential, thing to do. I'm not sure that crud is the result of the sacrificial anode's deterioration, at least not directly. I don't know what it is, and I could be wrong. I'd like to know what it is.

I just rinsed out my WH a few days ago -- again, I'm in complete agreement that it needs to be done once a year.

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2010 176
FJ Cruiser