Water Heater drip sound and overheated??

[Klem]

Any ideas??

Late last night I heard a dripping sound and followed it to the water heater. It's a SW6D and on it's second week of use.

It sounded like a thermal ping or a drip and I turned it off. I ran the faucet and the water seemed real hot and maybe I saw a little steam ... It was a chilly night.

This morning I had a small puddle under the trailer. I saw some black flakes on the bottom of the water heater tray that look and feel like burnt paint or coating of some sort.

I turned it back on and aFter a couple hours the pressure release started dripping. I wiggled the stem and it dropped a fraction. I have the heater turned off now.

There has been a strong wind blowing at that side of the trailer and I wonder if that could fool the temp sensor into thinking the water is cooler then it is?

Everything else is working great and we are enjoying our new trailer!!

Thanks, Mel

[C&G in FL]

I may be wrong, but I doubt a strong wind would "fool" the water heater into thinking that the water is cooler than it is. My immediate suspicion is that if it is adjustable (some are not), it is set too high, and if it's not adjustable, the thermostat is faulty and needs to be replaced.

[jamman]

I would try this: Airxcel | Suburban Manufacturing Service (select Why does water drip ...)

If that doesn't cure it, I would take it in for warranty service. And I would suspect the thermostat.

[cpaharley2008]

Sometimes the pressure relief valve will leak, stand back and release it (watch out for hot water) and then shut the valve off, and then it should reseat itself, repeat if necessary until the drip stops, it should go away, this happens particularly in new units.

[Jubal]

DANGER
Do not open the pressure relief valve when the water is hot. Burns are not fun to recover from. Considering the age of the trailer, you should take it to a warranty center for diagnosis and or repair. Or call ETI for advice.

[GerriJ]

The manual for the water heater in our 5.0 contains an instruction for a curing dripping pressure relief valve. This is a common issue. I don't have the manual here but essentially the procedure is to release a small amount of water from the tank so that there is a small air pocket at the top of the tank. This is done with the tank heater off and sufficiently cooled. Open the relief valve briefly and let a small amount of water drain out. Without the air pocket the hydraulic pressure is to great for the valve. Having said all this, if the temperature is too high then the pressure in the tank woulds also be too high. In this case the pressure relief valve is doing its job. As mentioned be careful with hot water.

This condition is described on page 17 of this manual i found on line.
http://bryantrv.com/docs2/docs/subsw.pdf

[float5]

Originally Posted by Klem

Any ideas??

Late last night I heard a dripping sound and followed it to the water heater. It's a SW6D and on it's second week of use.

It sounded like a thermal ping or a drip and I turned it off. I ran the faucet and the water seemed real hot and maybe I saw a little steam ... It was a chilly night.

This morning I had a small puddle under the trailer. I saw some black flakes on the bottom of the water heater tray that look and feel like burnt paint or coating of some sort.

I turned it back on and aFter a couple hours the pressure release started dripping. I wiggled the stem and it dropped a fraction. I have the heater turned off now.

There has been a strong wind blowing at that side of the trailer and I wonder if that could fool the temp sensor into thinking the water is cooler then it is?

Everything else is working great and we are enjoying our new trailer!!

Thanks, Mel

I thought this was a problem when I first noticed it but have concluded that it is not. Of course, every instance in every trailer is not necessarily the same. Seems like the valve operating as expected.

[thoer]

Ours will drip slightly from the pressure/heat relief valve until we run a small amount of hot water in the sink - which relieves the excess pressure and is simpler and safer than playing with the pressure valve.

[Klem]

I appreciate the ideas and comments.

Anyone have blackish brown flakes inside the water heater housing on the bottom?

That was the part that got my attention.

Thanks, mel

[Klem]

This is what they look like.

[Devil Dog]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

Sometimes the pressure relief valve will leak, stand back and release it (watch out for hot water) and then shut the valve off, and then it should reseat itself, repeat if necessary until the drip stops, it should go away, this happens particularly in new units.

I've don this a few times when my trailer was new, works well enough . Now the trailers 3 summers old I haven't had to re set it .

[thoer]

Our Scamp did that when we first bought it. I called them and asked and they said it was normal, leftover oils on the burner from the manufacturing process or something like that.

[Klem]

Wow that's all good news. The flakes seemed very light and fell apart when touched.

I'll give it another test tomorrow and wiggle the pressure release before turning it on.

Thank you all !

Mel

[cpaharley2008]

That looks like soot of some sort, happens to new items when first exposed to heat, just blow them away.

[PGDriver]

Ours did the same thing for the first year or so, as for the pressure relief valve dripping ours only did that when we first fired up the hot water tank so I would open the hot tap at the sink and take some pressure off then it was fine.

[cpaharley2008]

Originally Posted by PGDriver

Ours did the same thing for the first year or so, as for the pressure relief valve dripping ours only did that when we first fired up the hot water tank so I would open the hot tap at the sink and take some pressure off then it was fine.

How would that release pressure when your water supply would replenish what you removed? The pressure will be the same before and after, would it not? I always thought there was some debris in the relief valve that needed cleansing that caused the drip. Just like in your residential water heater, you are supposed to periodically open and close that same valve to keep it clean of debris, but running the water would not.

[Jim Bennett]

It would release the pressure, if you left your pump off when not in use. This is what we usually do, mostly out of habit, as the pump in our last sticky always seemed to give a noisy grunt when not needed, especially in the middle of the night.

[thoer]

Originally Posted by Jim Bennett

It would release the pressure, if you left your pump off when not in use. This is what we usually do, mostly out of habit, as the pump in our last sticky always seemed to give a noisy grunt when not needed, especially in the middle of the night.

Jim - we too leave our pump off exactly as you describe. Grunt - a perfect term for that seemingly random on/off to wake or keep one awake. Interesting thing is that the relief valve only seems to ever want to drip on the first heat up cycle of the water heater and once I draw a small amount of hot water out of it it rarely does it again.

[cpaharley2008]

Originally Posted by Jim Bennett

It would release the pressure, if you left your pump off when not in use. This is what we usually do, mostly out of habit, as the pump in our last sticky always seemed to give a noisy grunt when not needed, especially in the middle of the night.

True, I understand that now, I was not following that avenue.

[Brian B-P]

Pump on or off, relieving pressure by letting out some water works. The pump will only restore pressure to its switch setting, but the problem is the pressure going higher than that due to a rise in temperature of the water in the heater after the water was last run.

I'll admit that I didn't understand the problem until I read the section in the linked water heater manual, which describes the situation pretty well. An accumulator (usually used to smooth out variations as the pump cycles or to prevent water hammer) should provide the same "cushioning" function as the air space in the top of the water heater.