Water heater warping side wall 2023 Spirit 22M

[Twells-WO]

Our 2023 Spirit 22M recently has developed a warping in sidewall above water heater. Contacting Winnebago, they have said water heater exhaust needs to me shimmed out. Is anyone familiar with this process or issue?
I can tell you this is not from excessive use.

 

[Eagle5]

I have never seen this before. All I can say is that I don't run my water heater while underway. The road wind moved the flame front enough to burn-out my ignition wire, which then needed to be replaced.
Can you provide a photo of your heater with the door open?
Eagle5

 

[Pointyears]

Our 2023 Spirit 22M recently has developed a warping in sidewall above water heater. Contacting Winnebago, they have said water heater exhaust needs to me shimmed out. Is anyone familiar with this process or issue?
I can tell you this is not from excessive use.

Do a search. I know this topic has been recently discussed.

 

[Eagle5]

Do a search. I know this topic has been recently discussed.

Hi Pointyears,
Could you please provide the links to that topic from this forum?
Thanks, Eagle5

 

[Twells-WO]

I have never seen this before. All I can say is that I don't run my water heater while underway. The road wind moved the flame front enough to burn-out my ignition wire, which then needed to be replaced.
Can you provide a photo of your heater with the door open?
Eagle5

here you go Eagle5

 

[Eagle5]

Hi Twells,
I just took two photos of my 2019 heater. It appears that your uppermost heat deflector is rotated backward. My uppermost heat deflector is flush with the heater box casing. Can you rotate it so that it comes-out flush with the casing?
Thanks, Eagle5

 

[Twells-WO]

Do a search. I know this topic has been recently discussed.

Can you help locate this on the search? Not sure what to search for.

 

[Pointyears]

I can't find it.

 

[Eagle5]

Here is a video of a panel repair:

If you do decide to repair the panel yourself, I would recommend that you have better protective gear than what the lady in the above video was using. In this link, I repaired my bed baseboard using fiberglass, but I used proper fiberglass scissors, an organic respirator, and butyl rubber gloves:

Bed Baseboard Repair on a Minnie Winnie 22M

On my Minnie Winnie 22M, the rear Queen bed's baseboard started to easily deflect. Upon closer examination, it appears that an insufficient amount of glue was used to form the composite panel. As you can see in this photo, a ¾" gap could easily be seen with finger pressure. A brand-new panel...

www.winnieowners.com

With the decal involved, this will be a difficult repair, so you may wish to hire a trained body man.
Good luck; Eagle5

 

[Twells-WO]

Hi Twells,
I just took two photos of my 2019 heater. It appears that your uppermost heat deflector is rotated backward. My uppermost heat deflector is flush with the heater box casing. Can you rotate it so that it comes-out flush with the casing?
Thanks, Eagle5
View attachment 1503826View attachment 1503827

Eagle5, believe it or not this is the warping area today, I have done nothing to this, I don’t know it might be weather related as it has been cooler these last couple days. Will have it looked at by a professional to see what is going on.

 

[Eagle5]

Hi Twells,
Gee, it looks like most of the warping has gone away; is that right? If so, perhaps one of the paintless dent removal shops could use their heating and chilling magic to pull the warping out totally. It actually doesn't look too bad in these photos.
Eagle5