Draining water heater when not using camper

[Campy]

Should I drain the water heater when I'm not using the camper? It's been inside storage since July 13th and will not be used again till Sept. 23. Curious if it's good practice to drain it every time were done? It's a Suburban water heater with a steel tank.

[limit4]

I had a bad experance once when I forgot to drain the hot water heater. Terrible odor in the water pipes. So i drain every time.I think the length of time you are talking about it would be best to do so.

[chuckster57]

I'm just the opposite. I don't drain mine between trips. Maybe your odors are caused by poor water quality.

My water heater has had the same water in it for months at a time.

[SteveC7010]

Should I drain the water heater when I'm not using the camper? It's been inside storage since July 13th and will not be used again till Sept. 23. Curious if it's good practice to drain it every time were done? It's a Suburban water heater with a steel tank.
I don't drain mine until it's time to winterize in the fall. The water system gets the usual cleaning with bleach in the spring. The only water that gets into the system is our own city water here at the house and campground water. Since we have camped exclusively at state parks, their water is known to be well chlorinated and tested daily. No sulfur or other odor causing agents are to be found.

When you return from a trip, it may help to fill your fresh water tank about a quarter of the way full and add a 1/4 cup of bleach. (Disconnect or shut off any city water hookup.) Then run the water from all hot and cold taps using the pump. Run the hot longer to make sure enough of the bleach water gets into the tank to have an effect. You'll only have to run each cold tap for a half minute or so to replace the water in the tubing and pipes. It'll take a few minutes to get enough on the hot side into the water heater and then on to the down stream pipes. Did I mention that you don't need to have the water heater running?

Bleach solutions weaken in water over a period of just a few weeks so you should not have any strong bleach odor to contend with when you are ready to use the camper. If you do, just drain the fresh water tank so you don't add any more residual chlorine to the system, and the flush everything with fresh water. Here you can use city water if you like.

If campground water is suspect, I have an inline water filter that I can hookup to the city water connection or on the fill line for the fresh water holding tank. I use a filter element that contains activated charcoal that pulls odor and some methyl-ethyl-bad stuff from the water. It also gets all the sediment. This way, only reasonably clean and odor free water gets into the trailer's systems.

If you decide to use a filter, place at the supply end, not the trailer end of your hose. That way, you're protecting the hose as well as the trailer's tanks and pipes. (Same rule applies for pressure reducers!)

[{tpc}]

I leave my hot water tank full as well until its time to winterize. Haven't had an issue yet.

[14george]

I don't drain mine take out at least once a month

[Pull Toy]

I do not drain until winterization. All of the campgrounds that we use either chlorinate/fluoridate, or UV sanitize their water supply, and I'd trust that over air bourn pollutants/biology in an empty water tank. I'm also not willing to risk cross threaded fittings any more often than needed. In the old days, tanks had a petcock style drain, instead of a plug and anode. The anode (aka sacrificial zinc) sometimes makes threading the plug back in a tricky thing.

If you do decide to drain... make sure drain plug is back in, and be sure to re-flood tank and burp lines prior to WIFEY turning on water heater switch! OOPS!

[GaryWT]

We camp every weekend or at least every other weekend so we do not drain it. If I was going 2 months without a trip, other than total withdrawal I would consider flushing it out before using it.

[bmach]

Only drain it come winter.

[KanTC]

Drain ours after every trip -but- we have hard water [heavy mineral deposits] & triple digit summer temps.

Terri, the Chevy co-pilot :)

[hoffbrew]

Drain ours after every trip -but- we have hard water [heavy mineral deposits] & triple digit summer temps.

Terri, the Chevy co-pilot :)

Ditto for me too.

[Bolter303]

I drain ours after every trip. However I deal with hard water and heat as well. The trailer in stored in AZ.

[{tpc}]

Not that it matters but just in case, not every tank has a anode type deal in it. Mine doesn't, and I don't think you could add one if you wanted to because of where the plug is located.

Either way I don't think it would change my draining habits any.

[roadglide]

We camp every weekend or at least every other weekend so we do not drain it. If I was going 2 months without a trip, other than total withdrawal I would consider flushing it out before using it. I took the rod out because it was deteriorating , I installed a 1/2 inch ball valve. We use ours a lot but now I'm just kicking back at home for 2 months, ill drain it easy with a twist of a handle.

[denverpilot]

I took the rod out because it was deteriorating , I installed a 1/2 inch ball valve. We use ours a lot but now I'm just kicking back at home for 2 months, ill drain it easy with a twist of a handle.


The rod is supposed to deteriorate and be replaced. If the rod isn't there, what will be deteriorating instead is your tank. The rod is intended to be sacrificial to save the tank components.

[PerryB]

What he said!! ^^^ The rod is there for a reason. As far as draining, if the trailer is going to be sitting for more than a couple weeks, I drain the entire system. Fresh tank, lines and heater.

Denver, what do you fly for pleasure? I have a Supercub.

[Festus2]

If you have a steel-lined Suburban water heater then it needs an anode to prevent the lining from being "eaten" by an electro-chemical reaction in the water tank. The anode acts as a "sacrificial lamb" so instead of the tank lining corroding, the anode takes its place.

Some aluminum-lined tanks, such as the Atwood, do not need an anode.

If you have taken yours out and the tank is steel-lined, you should replace the anode or you could be looking at buying a new water tank.

[Ittle Dew Too]

I have an annode rod with a drain valve in it. The night before we leave the campround, I turn off the water heater and turn off the switch outside under the outside cover to prevent accidentally turning it on with no water in it.

In the morning when it has cooled down, I drain the tank. I also drain the low point drains and the fresh drain if it was used before putting it away. I never know how soon the next trip might or might not be.

Overkill I know, but no water in the system means no water to leak or go foul.

[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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[slow]

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

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

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.

[SteveC7010]

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

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk


No, it does not.

[SteveC7010]

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]

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.