Draining water heater when not using camper

[SteveC7010]

Originally Posted by KSH

I open up the hot and cold drains on the bottom of the camper. Does that drain the hot water tank as well?

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No, it does not.

[SteveC7010]

Originally Posted by slow

I open my COLD water low point drain and the pressure relief valve on my Atwood water heater to drain it. Not intuitive, but it works. Also replaced the low point drain caps with valves to make it easier.

The pressure relief valve is at the top of the water heater tank. It can not possibly drain the tank. You need to pull the plug at the BOTTOM of the tank to drain it.

[PerryB]

I think he means it drains through the cold low point. The relief valve is giving it a vent. I don't see why this wouldn't work, but its too easy to just pull the plug. Besides, you get any sediment out of the heater without sending it back into the plumbing.

[jsmith948]

On our 5er, the hot water low point drain will drain most of the water out of the w/h. But, as PerryB said, removing the grain plug gets all the sediment from the anode rod out. I have a 3/8" rubber hose that I place over my air nozzle that works really well for getting that last little bit of water & sediment out of the tank.

[Cindy_N_Gary]

If I am going to be parked more than two weeks without using it, I drain the water heater. But I do put the anode rod back in so the threads don't rust.

[slow]

Originally Posted by jsmith948

On our 5er, the hot water low point drain will drain most of the water out of the w/h. But, as PerryB said, removing the grain plug gets all the sediment from the anode rod out. I have a 3/8" rubber hose that I place over my air nozzle that works really well for getting that last little bit of water & sediment out of the tank.

The feedback on using the cold low point drain to empty my Atwood hot water tank got me thinking that maybe it was not emptying the water tank. So today when we return from camping, I drained the tank as I normally do with the Cold low point drain and pressure relief valve on the tank open. When the water stopped draining, I closed the low point drain and left the pressure relief valve open. Then I took out the drain plug as per the following video:

https://youtu.be/N5InYF_2Nkc

Looks like the tank is draining completely using the Cold low point drain.

[Campy]

Well I learned,... we took the camper back out camping this past week and the hot water side was full of really nasty stinky water. Took for ever to get the smell flushed out. Camper is currently "sanitized" with bleach and back in storage. Will be flushing the system again this Thursday for our next trip.

[roadglide]

I took the anode rod out and put a 1/2 ball valve with 1/2 pipe to hose adapter and drain the water heater into my pine tree after every use.