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View Full Version : replacing the hot water heater


encantotom
07-21-2007, 08:26 PM
hi, thought i would share this as well. my raritan 20 gallon hot water heater finally gave up. raritan makes mostly marine water heaters and are not available at typical rv shops. i bought it online at a boat parts place in california, but was still almost 700 bucks.( of course one on ebay sold for under 400 after i bought mine) locally they wanted almost a grand at a boat shop. it was the new version of what i had and took some minor adjusting and trimming and plumbing to get it in but it turned out great. the fittings are not quite in the same place so you have to decide how you want to redo the copper. the heater is also heated by the engine coolant and on mine there was no shut off to them so i pinched the two hoses with big c clamps to keep them from letting gallons of coolant from coming out. i only lost a pint or less. michael day helped me with some advice since he had done this as well. i had to do some trimming on the bottom flange of the heater to get it inside the compartment and for where the overflow pipe goes to the bottom of the coach. just plastic trimming with a utility knife. then drilled new mounting holes. whole thing took me a few hours not counting running to the hardware store. i replaced the nylon tubing where the checkvalve was to be safe as well. if you are handy with soldering/flaring and a drill, pretty easy to do.

tom