I know this is not trailer talk but I wanted to ask your opinion. I went camping last weekend and noticed there was water leaking. After I got back home, I investigated a bit and found one of the connections at the gas/electric water heater is corroded. Is that a sign of leaking? I didn’t test the water since the camper is at storage and there’s no water source. I just wanted to see what you guys thought. That’s the only logical place where it’s corroded and it’s leaking…correct me if I am wrong. Thanks y’all.
The connection needs replaced or repaired wether it is the leak or not. Can’t you bring home long enough to spray water on the trailer to locate the leak .
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Looks like pipe joint sealer, see if it feels like clay.
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I could bring it somewhere but a hassle to do so, I guess so I might have to do that to see if it’s leaking at that connection. I can see the corroded connection isn’t a good thing eh?
And to elaborate…the stuff feels sticky but not sure if it’s clay-ish.
I don’t see any stains under the water heater. Corrosion crumbles and feels like sand.
Guess I’ll have to investigate more eh? Or let the trailer shop do it. Which means more money out of my wallet. Sigh. But it is what it is. I do want to upgrade to a new trailer but at the same time this trailer is paid off. So I’m not in any debt. Between a rock and a hard place I guess.
I would guess that is pipe joint compound, step i find where the leak is coming from. My firstguess the plastic fitting needs some teflon tape.
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I dont know anything about campers but why not bring a sealed 5 gallon pail of water to your storage area. fill the unit and see where its leaking. just a thought and not sure if its something you can do there.
I am guessing there is water in the water heater at this time and from the picture there are no water leaks.
More hassel then towing to some camp site ? Without seeing where the water was I doubt if even my Crystal Ball can make a resonable guess.
Just a wild guess but has that fitting ever been replaced? I do know that some metals don’t work well together in the picture it looks like galvanized and brass together i don’t know if that is good or bad maybe some one with more know how than me can say.
I do see some rubbing marks on that bottom hose. I would put something in between where its hitting. with time and vibrations it will rub a hole through some time in the future.
It’s called galvanic corrosion.
Galvanic corrosion, also known as bimetallic corrosion, is an electrochemical process whereby one metal corrodes in preference to another metal that it is in contact with through an electrolyte. Galvanic corrosion occurs when two dissimilar metals are immersed in a conductive solution and are electrically connected.
Tester
Thank you for that information the only thig I knew for sure about galvanized is welders don’t like to weld on it. Could that be part of the OPs problem as he said the water heater was gas and electric connecting it to the brass fitting?
To me it looks like it was leaking at some point, and a home-brew repair was made as a temporary fix. Since it never started leaking again, the repair was left as is. Usually what I do w/that sort of thing is just replace all the fittings w/new ones, and w/the new fittings, rely on teflon tape rather than gobs of pipe dope. I don’t think plumbing code allows metallic fittings to be inserted into plastic ones. Plastic inside metal ok, but not the other way around If you have that problem, which it appears you do with what appears to be brass fitting going inside a black plastic fitting, now’s a good time to rectify that situation.