Atwood Water Heater Question

[star kitty]

Hello!

I have an Atwood 6 gallon water heater dated 2004. Here's my problem....every year it takes longer and longer to heat the water. This last trip it was 25 minutes plus before I had warm water (not hot water). It will light up and heat the water, it just takes a lot of time and propane.

It appears my gas to air ratio was ok (although I didn't examine anything for debris or spider webs) because the flame sounded normal and strong.

This time to heat seems excessive to me, but after reading Atwoods sales literature, they state this unit will heat the tank within 30 minutes. My guess is that my heater is old and tired or something is wrong.

Any thoughts on a repair? What is a normal heat time on 6 gallons?

Thank you.

[BigAl]

Could be calcium build up. Try flushing the tank. I'm going to try CLR this spring and see what happens. Use it in my tea kettle all the time.
Al

[DKB_SATX]

I use a "water heater flush wand" every year or two to rinse the crud out. If you've been camping places with hard water, you may have deposits that don't just rinse out and need to decalcify, but it's not much different than your coffee maker. Eventually you have to descale it or replace it. Descaling is much cheaper and (in the case of an Airstream water heater) less of a hassle as well.

[star kitty]

Let's start with the easiest fix! How do you perform this "flush"?

[DKB_SATX]

Originally Posted by star kitty

Let's start with the easiest fix! How do you perform this "flush"?

I've never descaled one, I just flush with a "water heater flush wand" that's available from lots of RV supply places and probably Amazon. Just remove the drain plug, wear flip-flops and clothes you don't mind getting a little wet, put the wand on the end of a water hose and use the water pressure to rinse out the crud that settle in the water heater.

If I were doing to decalcify a modern one, I'd close the bypass valve to minimize the vinegar or CLR that got into the rest of the system, fill as much as I could with the decalcifying mixture (I'd prefer cheap white vinegar & water, that's all I use in the coffee maker) and let it sit in there for a while. Probably put a fitting on the relief valve output, open the relief valve and fill from there since you can't get much in through the drain plug before it comes back out. Then rinse it out through the drain hole like I described in the previous paragraph.

[Asherstanton]

Go to YouTube. In the search bar enter
"RVgeeks water heater" Five videos.
Everything you could ask for other than for someone else to do it.

[USAtraveler]

Originally Posted by star kitty

This time to heat seems excessive to me, but after reading Atwoods sales literature, they state this unit will heat the tank within 30 minutes. My guess is that my heater is old and tired or something is wrong.

Old and tired is the answer. Flushing and descaling is just as likely to cause water leaks as it is at lessening a few minutes heat-up time in this old heater.

The time it takes now does not seem that excessive. But if it is too long for your tolerance level, you'll experience less frustration to just bite the bullet now and get a new heater.

[DKB_SATX]

Originally Posted by USAtraveler

Old and tired is the answer. Flushing and descaling is just as likely to cause water leaks as it is at lessening a few minutes heat-up time in this old heater.

The time it takes now does not seem that excessive. But if it is too long for your tolerance level, you'll experience less frustration to just bite the bullet now and get a new heater.

While descaling MIGHT expose a leak that's currently gummed up with scale, I see no way that flushing a water heater is likely to cause water leaks. The OP is of course free to spend her money as she likes, but it's pretty cheap and easy to flush it out and see if that improves performance at all. Certainly much cheaper than buying a water heater and having it installed.

[MelGoddard]

Did you ensure that the outside shower taps were 'off'?

With the taps open but the shower head closed, will create a cold bypass that will dilute your hot water. (Or is it a hot water bypass? One of them anyway)

[JCWDCW]

Lime Scale is a possibility, but I've never heard or read of any serious calcification in AS water heaters. Vinegar is fine for aluminum and it won't attack the welds so it is unlikely to cause a leak. It just takes longer than CLR, which I'm not familiar with nor informed enough to comment on with respect to aluminum.
I would also be pulling the flame and probe assembly and running a brush through the fire tube. If the flame were badly out of adjustment for any length of time, excessive carbon built up in the tube could insulate the flame from the metal fire tube. Spiders are known to build nests in the tube but the flame would be blowing back out of the tube, and or there would be evidence of smoke. The flame may also be in adequate, although low gas pressure would result in a very noisy flame due to excess air; you state that flame is "normal". First time heating up takes longer than you might expect; mine is at least 1/2 hour. Once up to temp the cycle only runs for 4-6 minutes. Start with the easy stuff then consider a weak (vinegar) acid flush.
JCW