Water heater leaking from relief valve (Propex Malaga 5)

[JoshCallaghan]

So I’m travelling through Europe at the moment and my water heater has started leaking from the pressure relief valve… I didn’t do the installation myself but have a pretty good understanding of the system. It seemed fine for the first few weeks of the trip, but now at a month in when I fire it up it just starts pouring from the relief tap, I’ve been on the phone to propex and they mentioned it needed to be a 20psi pump, which it is so there shouldn’t be any “over pressure” there. Trying to figure out what else might be causing it and what I can do to try and help it? Unlikely to get it fixed out here so we’ll aware it may be cold showers for the rest of the trip but if any of you pros had any ideas I’d be eternally grateful! Seems odd for the valve itself to go bust, the heater is basically new and we’ve not been using it much on the trip.

My next step was to switch off the pump and drain the heater I think just to see if that helps it out?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts on this!

 

[Landy Andy]

Is the valve serviceable at all?

Can it be removed and flushed through incase it’s jus got some crap in it?

 

[Raul]

Scale or impurities in the water. The relief valve shuts by a spring. Pull the lever to drain, then snap back shut. If it’s not shutting properly, try to spin the lever so it cleans the seat. It you snap it shut and by pushing it it stops leaking, you got dirt in the seat valve. I have the same water heater malaga gas/electric. Self installed with 20psi pump, over two years so far and all good.

 

[JoshCallaghan]

Is the valve serviceable at all?

Can it be removed and flushed through incase it’s jus got some crap in it?

It’s a bit of a faff to get to it, managed to get a piece of pipe on it to flush water through and drain it out of the van, may require some more flushing?

 

[JoshCallaghan]

Scale or impurities in the water. The relief valve shuts by a spring. Pull the lever to drain, then snap back shut. If it’s not shutting properly, try to spin the lever so it cleans the seat. It you snap it shut and by pushing it it stops leaking, you got dirt in the seat valve. I have the same water heater malaga gas/electric. Self installed with 20psi pump, over two years so far and all good.

Ah super interesting, I didn’t know spinning the tap would help do that? I’ll clear out the back and get some proper access to it and try that at the next stop - the carabineri will have a fit if I start emptying my van at the current spot thanks man!

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[RVbloke]

I have had same issue for longer than I was aware...American RV...the flooring is soaked and rotten. Very annoying, I've had to cut it all out and replace. I have ordered a new valve...was this necessary? Is there something else going on?

 

[Raul]

In my opinion is a bad design. The valve serves two purposes: pressure relief valve and drain off. It should been two separate items. Once the valve been activated, being at the bottom, it’s exposed to all scale from inside boiler. Rinse trough thoroughly will minimise the risc of getting the valve seat mucky.