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Water heater and dump valves - Printable Version

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Water heater and dump valves - whatsnewell - 03-26-2020

I have been able to complete a number of projects while at Newell House for the past 3+ weeks including the removal of our 38 year old 12 gallon tank type water heater, and replace it with a Girard Tankless water heater.  I bought the Girard from a source on eBay who was selling these as 'scratch and dent'. It cost me just $430 shipped, and except for a small cosmetic dent in the metal case it works perfectly.  This Girard is a side vent water heater.  Most Newells have regular water heaters located in their water bays, but our coach was built with a side vent setup. After removing the old tank type water heater (quite difficult by the way) I cut the flange (11th picture) off of it so I could remount the old door, which was painted by Newell to match our Newell paint scheme.  I had to create a wood frame (3rd picture) out of 3/4" plywood to fit around the Girard as it was much smaller than the original hole cut for the original water heater.  I had to align the heater so the vent pipe was lined up with the vent screen on the original door. I painted the wood frame black, as the Girard door is also black (9th picture).  Once the Girard was installed (8th picture) I remounted that original door (10th picture), and it looks great.  There was a coolant hose connected to the old tank type water heater to heat the water while we were underway, so I had to connect the two ends together (2nd picture).  I used PEX and Sharkbite plumbing fittings (5th picture) to connect the original 1/2" copper plumbing to the Girard, and it was easier to do than I first imagined.  The pictures below show all that I am writing about.  The installation took place over a couple of days as the old water heater took so long to remove.  I probably spent about 10 hours in all from beginning to end.  The final task was to install a 12 volt interrupt switch (7th picture....switch located to the right of a light switch) between the Girard, and the digital control panel (6th picture) located in our bedroom so we can turn shutoff power to the Girard when we are dry camping/boondocking  the picture came out sideways for some reason.

                                 

                           

I also took apart our 38 year old Thetford dump valves to replace the large, circular rubber gaskets which seal against the paddles in the down position, one of the paddles, and the gasket between each half.  The gray dump valve had always leaked a little water, but recently the black valve developed a pretty steady leak.....as long as we were connected to a sewer  connection things were fine, but it made dry camping a little difficult.  Tom was of great help, and moral support while I wrestled with the 18 stainless steel screws which hold the two halves of the Thetford valves together.  They are located on the blind side of the valve between the valves and the segmented tank.  You can see in the first picture below the 9 stainless steel screws on the backside, or blind side of the valve.  All but the 9th screw shown in the picture, were relatively easy to remove, however, due to its location, the 9th screw was very, very difficult on each valve.  I removed one, and Tom graciously helped me get the other one out.  I guess it took over 90 minutes to remove each of the 9th screws.....crazy.  After cleaning the interior valve surfaces, and installing the new gaskets it took about an hour to put it all back together.  Now nothing leaks.  In all it took Tom and I 6 hours beginning to end to complete the task.  You can see the rubber gaskets that hold back the effluent when the paddles are in the down position in the fourth picture.  The one on the right was the one in the Thetford valve for the black tank....it was trashed, but the gray water gasket still looks pretty pristine, and could be reused, if an emergency arose.  I had bought a new Thetford valve as well as one rebuild kit.  I took the new stainless steel pull rod, and paddle from the new Thetford valve and used it to replace the old paddle in the Thetford valve controlling the black tank. In addition I used the new round gasket, and valve gasket from the new valve combined with the same gaskets from the rebuild kit.