Re: [VAC] Bowen water heater

["terry c. tyler" <tylerbears@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Title: Re: [VAC] Bowen water heater

Hey Kent,

Don't do any more repairs. Toss it and put in a new one. While you are at it, get one that has a remote switch for lighting it from inside the trailer. It'll take some ingenuity to lay in the wire and switch, but the convenience is real. Your honey will hug you and kiss you everytime she doesn't have to go outside to light the hot water heater (or send you outside in your pajamas to light it). 

Secondly, the reaction you speak about is probably between five incredients: the aluminum tank, the heating of water, the sediment picked up during the water's journey to your trailer, the copper tubing in your trailer and the chlorine in the water supply. 

In my zeal for a simplistic understanding of complex processes, my imagination has conjured up the idea that sediment coming into the trailer has chlorine ions traveling with it and together, they collect copper ions as the water passes over copper tubing, which bind with the sediment in the form of copper chloride crystals, which then react with the aluminum by eating tiny holes in the bottom of the tank. I have no formal training in this area of knowledge. This concept is all a figment of my imagination and junior high school chemistry classes.

But, if I'm even in the ball park and if I stop a large proportion of the sediment from entering my trailer by using an inline sediment filter for ALL water coming into my trailer, then my hot water tank will last longer than if I didn't use a sediment filter. 

Before this idea took up residence in my head, replacing the hot water heater seemed like a regular occurrence every few years. After I began using a sediment filter, I seemed like hot water heaters started lasting for longer periods of time. Perhaps the hot water tanks were built better OR perhaps my hypothesis was correct. Whatever the reason, I haven't replaced a hot water heater in over 15 years. All of my trailers have copper tubing somewhere in the water supply line. 

If anyone knows the real reason for pin hole leaks occurring in bottoms of hot water heaters, I hope they'll reveal it to me.  It's a casual interest to me ever since replacing the hot water heater was no longer a regular event and considerable expense every few years.

Third point. You mentioned repairing a well-rotted floor would precede replacement. If you use a product that hardens the rotted floor into a waterproof surface, that would make sense for the next time your crop of tiny pin hole leaks starts growing underneath the hot water heater (before your rug starts showing wetness and you can't see any leak, can't hear any leak, can't believe there is any leak and start blaming the dog or cat or your room mate for spilling water on the floor). 

Now, it's my turn to lurk and learn,

Terry