Water Heater Air Gap February 13, 2015, 12:04:09 pm Yahoo Message Number: 151040Quote(George)There is no air gap in the water heater. I suspect that there are quite a few differences between residential plumbing and RV systems. Home systems don't usually need pumps to pressurize, and RV water heaters are very small compared to home water heaters. And, RV water heaters are designed to operate in changing environments, including elevation changes. As Ken and Bumper have posted, there is an air gap in the Atwood 6 gallon water heater installed by Lazy Daze. And, opening the TP valve is necessary from time to time.Kevin Lindsay Garden Grove CA 2000 Lazy Daze 30 IB
Re: Water Heater Air Gap Reply #1 – February 14, 2015, 01:20:48 am Yahoo Message Number: 151054As Ken and Bumper have posted, there is an air gap in the Atwood 6 gallon water heater installed by Lazy Daze. And, opening the TP valve is necessary from time to time.Kevin********* A good bit of advice. NEVER OPEN THE TP VALVE. You are looking for a problem. ONLY OPEN A FAUCET IN THE KITCHEN OR BAT. When you open the TP valve you risk getting some thing loged in the rubber seat.GeorgeRetired plumber
Re: Water Heater Air Gap Reply #2 – February 14, 2015, 02:55:47 am Yahoo Message Number: 151056"A good bit of advice. NEVER OPEN THE TP VALVE. You are looking for a problem. ONLY OPEN A FAUCET IN THE KITCHEN OR BAT. When you open the TP valve you risk getting some thing loged in the rubber seat".George Retired plumberGreat advice, if you are talking about a home plumbing system. But absolutely wrong for an LD. If you had bothered to read your LD's Owners Manual, you would have seen the instructions to renew the air gap using the relief valve drain the tank.. I will take LD's expertise over yours when it comes to maintaining our LD..RVs are different. Opening the faucet, with the pump off, will not drain the water heater or do anything to re-establish the air gap. Opening the relief valve is the only easy way to do it. If it seeps afterward, pop the valve a few times, with the pump, on to clear any obstruction.As I said, try reading the manual before SHOUTING at us, it's rude..Larry
Re: Water Heater Air Gap Reply #3 – February 14, 2015, 11:07:13 am Yahoo Message Number: 151065Great advice, if you are talking about a home plumbing system. But absolutely wrong for an LD. Larry it is more important for the MH than the home HWT. If it happens at home or the home HWT I just go up to the local Home Depot and get a new TPV. If it happens on a trip you are at the mercy of the local hardware store and there price gouging. And if it happens when you are dry camping you may be 50/100 miles from the nearest store. As for me I'm not the average bear in the woods. I have a drain valve where the plastic drain plug is located. Yes all home HWT have one. I just open the valve and drain a little water and we are back in business. CONTRARY TO WHAT LARRY MAY THINK THE NEEDED WATER WILL COME OUT. LD did got the terminology right . They call this space an "AIR POCKET" not an "AIR GAP" as Atwood does. If Atwood does not know the difference between an air pocket and air gap what else do they not know. How many other mistakes do they have in there manual. As for what you call "SHOUTING" go back and read the LD manual. On just this subject of the HWT they "shout" at you no less then 10 times. This is so that you do not over look the important points. How many time do you read literature and they high-lite or capitalize some thing so that you do not mis the important points. One thing about forums like these it that they are to help others. But then you have people who have read a book/manual or did the job and did it WRONG and want to pass that information on to others than leave it to those who make a living at it. Sort of like the person to goes to the Doctor and gets there knowledge on what to do then come home and lesson to the naibor and takes there advice instead.GeorgeRetired plumber
Re: Water Heater Air Gap Reply #4 – February 14, 2015, 11:32:06 am Yahoo Message Number: 151066It's very rare that I have to ban a member--I've done it less than half a dozen times in the last decade or so--but when someone repeatedly posts dangerously inaccurate information and disrupts the group's friendly dynamic with abrasive, argumentative and outright insulting messages, generating a host of private complaints to the moderators, then it's time to say "enough!" for the sake of the group. You won't see any more posts from George the plumber.Andy BairdTravels with Andy
Re: Water Heater Air Gap Reply #5 – February 14, 2015, 11:58:12 am Yahoo Message Number: 151067It a hard thing to ban a member but when the safety of the members and/or their LD is threatened with so much incorrect information, a stop to it is needed. Combining this with an aggressive attitude and insults toward those who disagree is very disruptive to the forum. My mailbox too was full of messages pertaining to George and how to deal with himThanks for taking care of this...and I understand why, after so many ears, you need a break. A moderator's position can be a tough one at times.Now, lets get back to discovering and exploring the facts about our LDs and RVing.Larry
Re: Water Heater Air Gap Reply #6 – February 14, 2015, 12:32:35 pm Yahoo Message Number: 151068Andy, Thank you for getting rid of this menace George. Now I can get back to enjoying and using the good advice of so many members of this group. A group without a poster trying to overtake the board with constant postings about every topic. Those that assume to know it all stopped listening and learning long ago. From the looks of it he must have missing english, spelling, and grammer classes.A nice Birthday present. Thanks again!
Re: Water Heater Air Gap Reply #7 – February 14, 2015, 01:35:19 pm Yahoo Message Number: 151070Thank you.
Water treatment with chemicals not RO Reply #8 – February 14, 2015, 02:10:02 pm Yahoo Message Number: 151071.All this talk of an air gap got me thinking about a question I have been wanting to ask for years. I used to be a water treatment regulator and I enforced the regs on air gaps (2 x dia).In a water treatment plant chemicals and physical actions are used. The technical terms are: coagulation (adding chemicals), flocculation (letting the chemicals attach to dirty particles), and filtration.A few years ago I experimented at my house kitchen sink on treating water. Walmart sells coagulant chemicals used for swimming pools and I mixed this with used dish washing water in jugs and shook them and let the water settle then filtered it. It worked. I would not drink it because disinfection and bacti testing is needed.Well my question is -Has anyone ever seen anyone treating water from a RV gray water tank?Where someone was treating the water using chemicals and filters and then reuse the water. This is kinda a survival question and I do not mean recycle the water to drink it. Just make it clear so it can be used to take a bath in or wash dishes.I mean using chemicals, not sand. Sand can be used but I do not want to go that way because it is hard to do it right using sand.I know the first and easiest thing to do is use a basin to wash dishes and use this water to flush the toilet.Oh - I am not talking about treating black water. This can be done and is done but crazy in a RV situation.A story - once I came across an air gap with a 12" pipe at the end of a sewage plant (treated sewage) and the water was going on to a recycle plant to be further treated and then used for irrigation. They designed the air gap at 12" , which is 1 x diameter. I had to make them rework it and they told me it cost them over $25,000 to do it. It always amazed me that engineers did not know the legal requirement for an air gap. Now they can Google it.Again has anyone seen or done a water reuse like this (using coagulant chemicals)? I tried YT but did not find anyone. It might be outside the realm of reality, ha ha But if I were boon docking and because of my water background, I know I would want to try this.But I never solved the filter problem cheaply. Again it is the filtration that is the most difficult. I tried screen filters, coffee filters, and cloth filters. Also there would be problem with drying and disposing the chemicals. So it turns out to be very difficult to do it right and not get locked up trying (either in jail or a mental institution ha ha ha)Thanks in advance Roger
Re: Water Heater Air Gap Reply #9 – February 14, 2015, 02:28:10 pm Yahoo Message Number: 151074Good call Andy.. You can over look it a couple time but after while, Enough is Enough. I nearly got into it with him about steal'n in Quartzsite.. I stopped it by say'n this is a LD site and not talk'n about Guns as we both had different opinions about it and didn't want to go any further..And Bob, HAPPY BIRTHDAY !! Enjoy this Beautiful Day JO
Re: Water treatment with chemicals not RO Reply #10 – February 14, 2015, 04:14:04 pm Yahoo Message Number: 151081"Has anyone ever seen anyone treating water from a RV gray water tank? "RogerThe contents of the gray water tank can be as nasty as the black water tank, due to the greater variety of nutrients and bacteria. Field processing of either tank does not seem to be very practical. If you do coagulae and filter out the solids, what do you plan on doing with them? It's not legal to dump partially processed sewage on the ground or in public trash cans in most places.Best practices are to use as little water was possible and to recover what you can, such as shower water wasted while waiting for the hot to show. 10-14 man-days (people-days) is possible for most and still maintain a clean rig and body.Larry
Re: Water Heater Air Gap Reply #11 – February 14, 2015, 07:57:46 pm Yahoo Message Number: 151087Andy,Thank you. Subject, with his usual grace, posted many things that technically drove me up the wall. Once I made the mistake of challenging things. It only lead to an exchange of postings that meant nothing which I finally terminated.I made up my mind that I would not contribute to any thread where he was present. Earlier this week there was a thread about AGM batteries to which I commented, followed by a posting from subject that I was wrong. There was also a posting to the thread that asked me some specific question. Rather than posting to the thread again, I answered the question via a personal email and told the person exactly why I was doing it that way.
Topic: Water Heater Air Gap (Read 18 times)
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Topic: Water Heater Air Gap (Read 18 times)
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