Water heater issues 2011 Vista 36D

[Dallasrules]

We are on our first trip in our new to us motorhome. It is a 2011 Winnebago Vista 36D.

It has been winterized from last year. The water heater has a leak. It is an Atwood water heater and the manual says about 2 quarts of water will remain when you drain it. None of the plumbing pipes are leaking, but a small amount of water appears underneath. It is leaking a couple of tablespoons in about 15 minutes. It is leaking also when it is bypassed, so I am thinking that the actual tank is leaking. If this is the case I assume that the whole water heater will need to be replaced.

How uncommon would it be for a water heater this age to be leaking like this?

Has anyone replaced their water heater with a tankless one? How difficult is this? Do you like it? What is the relative cost between the tanked one and a tankless?

Any suggestions or opinions are appreciated.

[Ray,IN]

Does the tank leak when it is not pressurized? Does pressurizing it with your water pump or city water increase the leak rate? As to your "common" question, no it is not a common thing. My Atwood WH is a 1999 model and does not leak. I suspect yours may not have been drained when last winterized and it froze enough to create a tiny crack.


Those 2 qts. of water remaining will never cause a problem. When shallow water freezes it expand inward and humps up in the middle of the tank instead of expanding outward. That cannot happen if the tank was full of water, it must expand outward.


As to a tankless WH, I've never read comments praising a tankless in an RV on any of the RV forums to which i belong.
To function as designed a tankless must have a constant incoming flow rate, and if the hot water consumption rate is too slow the tankless burner will cycle on/off; resulting in uneven temperature at the showerhead.
IMO newer RV's with a tankless are the result of which costs less to install at the factory.