Hot water heater problem

[Blue Ox1]

I started getting a drip out of my pressure relief valve on the water heater. Does anyone know if you can rebuild these relief valves or put a new one in or is the water heater junk.

Joe

 

[WestTN]

It should be a standard relief valve. Pick one up at a hardware store.

 

[TowPro]

No need to rebuild. There is an attwood service buliten on this.

turn off the heater, Turn off the water. Drain about a gallon of water out of the heater. turn back on water and flush air out through sink.



The problem is the heater is designed to have Air in the top of it. Over time the air in the water tank goes into the water and you end up with no "air space" and it ends up dripping water.



Never blead the air out using the pressure releaf valve.



try it, I bet it fixes your leak.

 

[Blue Ox1]

I'll try that and see if it works,hopefuly it does. Thank's for the help.

Joe

 

[Bob Cochran]

Doing what they say works but does not seem to last very long. I sorta gave up and what I need do now is divert the water out of the relief valve so it does not do damage to 5er below the hot water heater.

 

[Radshooter]

We have a Suburban water heater. I replaced our relief valve last spring. Don't know if Atwoods are the same, but it wasn't much of a job on ours. I bought a replacement valve from an RV store. I used a 15" crescent wrench and it came right out. I did have to remove a heat shield from the water heater to get a good line with the crescent wrench, but that was only 4 screws. I also used a few wraps of teflon tape on the new valve before I put it back in.

Good luck... ... Steve

 

[B.G. Smith]

The relief valve is pressure and temperature sensative, make sure the water is not getting too hot, if the valve is still dripping you need a new valve. bg

 

[GaryCarter]

As posted previously, it could be just doing it's job. I've noticed when first firing up after the heater's been completely cold, there is a major pressure increase and it would make ours drip through the relief valve.

Now I just turn off the pump, crack open a hot water valve at the sink, and fire the heater- letting the expansion drip at the sink.

Once the heater is up to temp and just maintaining, it's never a problem.



Gary

 

[TowPro]

Here is the notice from Atwood



I did not find one from Suburban