Hot water tank LEAKS

[dave brown]

This is my third major appliance issue with my brand new 2021 265BH. a day after purchasing i noticed water under the sofa below the bunk house... it was wiking along the edge of the wood trim along the floor.. had already warped the wood and made the wood grain sticker bubble and peel ! after pulling all the drawers out i realized several gallons had spilled and covered the entire back end of my trailer. under the stairs, entirely covering the inside of the back storage area, under the drawers etc... Turns out the installer did NOT even hand tighten the hot and cold service lines!! i hand tightened them. on the hot side i got just over 1 complete turn, hand tightening. on the cold side i got about 3/4 of a turn. i spent a couple hours drying out the areas i could access using towels and a powerful shop vac. after everything was dry i buttoned things up and left a paper towel under the leaking service lines from the hot water tank, this time i used plumbers tape (teflon). i checked back 4 day's later and it was bone dry. phew, thought the problem was over. a week after this bone dry check i was vacuuming and noticed water creeping along he edges of the sofa again in the living area! what the heck! This time i noticed the pressure from the cold service line had actually been strong enough to blow back through the 12 volt pump and had sprayed out a bunch of left over winterizing antifreeze (we have only been on city water and never used the fresh tank or pump). The difference this time was that we had gotten down into the teens for a few nights. the RV park water has been noticeably colder when washing our hands in cold, my guess is down in the mid thirties, it actually hurts to wash your hands in the cold water.

to summarize: i'm positive that the cold water had to expand so much in the tank that the pressure was too great for such a wide thermal range. think of going from 35 degrees f to 125 degrees f VS 50 degrees f to 125 degrees f. This brought me to guess that there is NO EXPANSION TANK on the hot water supply side! is this true? can anyone tell me if there is by chance and expansion bladder in the hot water tank? it just doesn't look big enough to have one. This would shock me again that GD would fail to include an expansion tank on a hot water heater!!

If anyone knows any about model SW6DELC please let me know. also if anyone has found an expansion tank small enough to put in an RV on 1/2 pex let me know. i would rather put an expansion tank on the hot side of the circuit than deal with the discharges of water and degradation of the wood trim and siding! Really sad to me how much loss there has been already on our brand new 265BH between flooding, groceries lost, wasted gas with the furnace problem etc. i haven't even started in on the leak behind the shower faucets that remained hidden for 3 weeks until i noticed puddles under our trailer! This thing has been a nightmare

[howson]

dave brown -- can you please put your 265BH's VIN in your profile? Let me know when done, OK? Thanks.

Howard

[Cate&Rob]

dave brown
Sorry to learn about this and your other similar posts.

The following are small points, but might be useful . . .

Thread tape won’t help the water connections. These are a compression seal on a rubber cone washer inside the fitting. These typically don’t need to be much more than hand tight and if they still leak, the fix is to replace the cone seal. Water leaks can also happen at the crimp connection between the soft hose that is used in some locations and the fittings. Check these for a potential leak beside a fitting.

Water expansion is handled by an air dome inside the water heater. Over time this air gets absorbed into the water and the air cushion has to be re-established by turning off the water pressure, opening a low cold water drain and cracking open the pressure relief valve on the water heater.

Rob

[dave brown]

Cool Rob, thanks for the info. the cones seals (kind tapered rubber grommet?) seem healthy and the trailer is literally a month old. I love your info on the air dome. Do you know if it is a separate bladder or just an air pocket established at the top of the tank. I'm going to try your directions to re establish this air dome. At least by tightening these loosely connected fittings i have eliminated the shower one that was constantly spraying a beam of water and in the case of the loosely tightened kitchen sink one i have eliminated the 40 drips per minute leak. The Trailer is no longer dripping rapidly from underneath in two different spots. So these fittings really should have at least been hand tight. Maybe the tape makes no difference. I hear you on the expansion air dome and will see if i can fix that tomorrow. what a nightmare

[GDRV-Emily]

This is my third major appliance issue with my brand new 2021 265BH. a day after purchasing i noticed water under the sofa below the bunk house... it was wiking along the edge of the wood trim along the floor.. had already warped the wood and made the wood grain sticker bubble and peel ! after pulling all the drawers out i realized several gallons had spilled and covered the entire back end of my trailer. under the stairs, entirely covering the inside of the back storage area, under the drawers etc... Turns out the installer did NOT even hand tighten the hot and cold service lines!! i hand tightened them. on the hot side i got just over 1 complete turn, hand tightening. on the cold side i got about 3/4 of a turn. i spent a couple hours drying out the areas i could access using towels and a powerful shop vac. after everything was dry i buttoned things up and left a paper towel under the leaking service lines from the hot water tank, this time i used plumbers tape (teflon). i checked back 4 day's later and it was bone dry. phew, thought the problem was over. a week after this bone dry check i was vacuuming and noticed water creeping along he edges of the sofa again in the living area! what the heck! This time i noticed the pressure from the cold service line had actually been strong enough to blow back through the 12 volt pump and had sprayed out a bunch of left over winterizing antifreeze (we have only been on city water and never used the fresh tank or pump). The difference this time was that we had gotten down into the teens for a few nights. the RV park water has been noticeably colder when washing our hands in cold, my guess is down in the mid thirties, it actually hurts to wash your hands in the cold water.

to summarize: i'm positive that the cold water had to expand so much in the tank that the pressure was too great for such a wide thermal range. think of going from 35 degrees f to 125 degrees f VS 50 degrees f to 125 degrees f. This brought me to guess that there is NO EXPANSION TANK on the hot water supply side! is this true? can anyone tell me if there is by chance and expansion bladder in the hot water tank? it just doesn't look big enough to have one. This would shock me again that GD would fail to include an expansion tank on a hot water heater!!

If anyone knows any about model SW6DELC please let me know. also if anyone has found an expansion tank small enough to put in an RV on 1/2 pex let me know. i would rather put an expansion tank on the hot side of the circuit than deal with the discharges of water and degradation of the wood trim and siding! Really sad to me how much loss there has been already on our brand new 265BH between flooding, groceries lost, wasted gas with the furnace problem etc. i haven't even started in on the leak behind the shower faucets that remained hidden for 3 weeks until i noticed puddles under our trailer! This thing has been a nightmare

Good morning dave brown Have you reached out to our customer service department regarding this issue? I would highly recommend reaching out to them so they are aware of the issue and to see if they are able to assist. They can be reached at customerservice@granddesignrv.com or (574) 825-9679.

[dave brown]

In reply to Rob and his "air dome" info from the manual. I have re-initiated the air dome 4 times now by following the info i found in my manual. This does seem to work but only for a few days and the leak slowly re-appears. If there is really cold weather outside the serious leaking (as in huge puddles under the bunk) happens within 2 days. i have learned this pattern and am putting rags underneath until i have the time to go out and get a proper hot water expansion tank and install it. This is how ANY hot water system should be installed, especially by a manufacturer that insinuates (by allowing warranty coverage) living in their unit is ok. Again, pretty disappointing unit so far.

[Country Campers]

dave brown

Do you have some pictures of where the leak is occurring? This may help us help you. I am not sure that the "air dome" is the answer to your issue.

Brian

[dave brown]

Brian, thanks, no photos, sorry, the puddles form directly under the cold water supply to the tank itself and the cold supply input to the 12 pump. system clearly needs an expansion tank. i have one on order. Air dome thing does appear to work for maybe 3 days but we are using the hot water a lot.

[Cate&Rob]

Brian, thanks, no photos, sorry, the puddles form directly under the cold water supply to the tank itself and the cold supply input to the 12 pump. system clearly needs an expansion tank. i have one on order. Air dome thing does appear to work for maybe 3 days but we are using the hot water a lot.

Even if the air dome gets absorbed into the water, the pressure relief valve on the exterior of the water heater should release excessive pressure before any connections leak. If you install a system pressure gauge, connected into any cold water line or even temporarily connected to the cold low point drain, you will be able to observe the pressure in your system under different conditions.

Rob

[Jlawles2]

Cate&Rob dave brown I had 2 units that would not open the pressure relief, but would leak through various fittings.

Dave, are you leaving the HWH on all the time? I found that mine would only leak the first time the HWH heated up and then be fine. As funny as this may sound, you may try pulling the screen in the city water connection out and reversing it like winterizing in order to bypass the one way valve to see if it will vent the excess pressure back into the city supply, be advise that your pressure regulator may not allow the back pressure and you may have to eliminate that to test the theory.

[Cate&Rob]

Cate&Rob dave brown I had 2 units that would not open the pressure relief, but would leak through various fittings.

Dave, are you leaving the HWH on all the time? I found that mine would only leak the first time the HWH heated up and then be fine. As funny as this may sound, you may try pulling the screen in the city water connection out and reversing it like winterizing in order to bypass the one way valve to see if it will vent the excess pressure back into the city supply, be advise that your pressure regulator may not allow the back pressure and you may have to eliminate that to test the theory.

The greatest pressure rise is definitely the first time the water heater is turned on which starts with the coldest water. This pressure rise can be removed by cracking open any faucet during the warm up. During this initial warm up (before I installed the accumulator tank) I could watch the pressure start at 40 psi and climb past 70 psi on my water system pressure gauge.

Rob

[Country Campers]

Brian, thanks, no photos, sorry, the puddles form directly under the cold water supply to the tank itself and the cold supply input to the 12 pump. system clearly needs an expansion tank. i have one on order. Air dome thing does appear to work for maybe 3 days but we are using the hot water a lot.

Have you confirmed that the fittings that are leaking are properly seated and the cone seal inside the fitting is not damaged and installed correctly?

Having an RV for many years I have not needed or had any major water leaks that would constitute installing any type of expansion tank.

Brian

[Jlawles2]

On our first camper I had a couple of the cone seals look perfect, but always seemed to leak. Changed them out with the ones from amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and no more leaks.

[TedS]

I agree with verifying the seals. I have had many pressure excursions to the water heater relief valve setting without experiencing leaks.
That said, I will be installing an accumulator to absorb the heated water expansion. I should not have to verify that there is an air bubble in the tank.

[acoleman43]

I don't know if this is helpful, we had one connection under the shower leak. At first we thought the kids were not closing the curtain...but then it happened to my wife and myself. I found the leak was coming from an elbow under the shower. It would leak anytime the water pressure was above 50 psi (From city water....I like to keep at 55). I now keep the pressure at or under 50 psi and no more leak there. Eventually I need to redo the fitting.