I've got a 1986 28 foot Regal. I was looking to install a by-pass on the hot water tank to be able to winterize the coach. I checked the location of the tank and it is buried under the kitchen cabinets. I was wondering if any of you has ever installed the by-pass? If so, how did you access the tank to install the valves? It looks like I'll have to just drain the tank and blow down the water out of the lines. I don't like using the pink stuff very much. Without the by-pass I would have to use a lot of it. Dennis

Hi Dennis,

Ditto here on the same thing. I could not see myself drilling and cutting through that cherry wood. Yep, I have solid cherry at the back and floor of the cabinets under the sink. Dennis, when I hook up the comressor and kick it to around 35 psi. I open that drain valve on the water heater and it blows out like a squirt gun for about 1/2 hour. I have a little twist jobby on there. I have never tried taking the whole drain plug out. It is so tight that I think it would break something.

I then only put the pink stuff in the traps.

By the way Dennis why are you talking winterizing. I didn't think it got below 60 deg up in your neck of the woods.

I installed a bypass kit on my hot water heater last year. It is in an awkward location, but I could get to it. There was not much play in the tubing connecting to the HWH so I was unable to get everything tight enough so it leaked a bit. This spring, I could not stop the small leak so I removed the bypass.

This winter I just bought two fittings to fit the tubing connectors on the HWH with barb connections on the other end to fit on the inlet and outlet pipes to the HWH. I then hose clamped a short piece of 1/2" ID tubing to the fittings and made a temporary bypass. It worked great and was much smaller than the other permanent bypass connector set. It was easy to install and did not leak. I'll simply remove it in the spring and screw the fittings back on to the HWH.

Sorry I didn't take any pictures, or I would post them. It was an easy job.

Bill G

I did what Bill G described, until I started replacing the plumbing on my coach. I first installed the standard by-pass kit, but it did not fit well, and placed pressure on the tank because of no room for the lower fitting. I used an example by Phred and it works well.
This is a photo of the work before I put back the kitchen cabinet shelves and floor.

Water Heater winter bypass picture


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89 Barth Regal 32
Runs like a Deere
New Hampshire

Dave It is suposse to get down in the teens later this week and we are going to have snow tonight. Jack, thanks for the picture of your by-pass. That is the way I thought it should be. The only problem is you have to cut into the cabinets to even get close to the tank. I could remove it from the outside, but I think that I will do like Dave mentioned and use air pressure. Dennis

Jack,

I would have re plumbed my HWH as in your picture, but alas, my plumbing routs in from the right side of the tank, coming from the back and around the side. This makes it all relatively inaccessible. At this time, my fix is easy and accessible. If I need to replace the HWH, I'll redo it with a permanent by-pass.

I know that Dave B was hesitant to remove the drain plug from his HWH, but it is not a big deal and doing so yearly allows for some of the tank sediment to be removed. Each time I flush mine before shutdown, a fair amount of white flaky crud flows out. I'm sure that this is mostly lime and some oxidation from the aluminum tank body.

Bill G