During our last RV outing the hot water heater sprung a leak. I am sure the tank and all the plumbing were original. In fact, the RV has polybutylene (hence forth called pb) water lines. This was just the excuse I needed to get in there are make some serious upgrades.

1. The old water heater came out and a beautiful stainless steel tank went in, complete with a new 120 VAC heating element and thermostate. The new tank retained the engine coolant heat exchanger.
2. I replaced all the PB water lines with pex. This covers the fresh water tank, toilet, bathroom sink and shower. I did not do the lines going over the ceiling to the kitchen sink / city water connection. I will get to those later
3. I installed a shower head on the outside of the RV to make it easier to clean the kids off before they track dirt in the RV.

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Smll Med Lrg old water heater in place	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg pb hot water line, I don't think its every been off
Smll Med Lrg cold water inlinet has PB check valve	Smll Med Lrg white check valve still seems to work though I won't be reusing	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg most stuff disconnected
Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg finally I can see the thermostat	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg 4 bolts hold tank support in place, just removed 2 on the left side
Smll Med Lrg the clamp thingies that hold the pipe to the supports were very annoying to dislodge	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg tank still supported by the blue metal support on the back	Smll Med Lrg gross, and you won't believe the gunk that came out when I rinsed the tank out
Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg original robert shaw thermostat	Smll Med Lrg cut a hole at the X to access the bolt on the bank of the water heater tank	Smll Med Lrg
Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg thank god that worked, what a huge time saver	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg
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Smll Med Lrg I can't believe the drain allowed any water to flow out at all	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg
Smll Med Lrg now I have plenty of space for replacing plumbing lines	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg I needed to go on a camping trip before I finished replacing the tank
Smll Med Lrg so I temporarily bypassed the water heater so at least I had cold water for my trip	Smll Med Lrg of course my toilet valve sprang a huge leak	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg
Smll Med Lrg pulled off the valve	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg Did you know that I love quarter turn valves? You do now
Smll Med Lrg I eventually came back and replaced that gray pb line too	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg removed the plaid cover for the water tank	Smll Med Lrg
Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg I hate this heater tube. It's supposed to heat the bathroom but it fails. And its in the way	Smll Med Lrg cut the heater tube	Smll Med Lrg and removed it from under the water tank. So much space for activities!
Smll Med Lrg Removed the heater tube from back here too	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg this stainless steel check valve got put on the water heater cold water inlet
Smll Med Lrg turns out this thing is extremely noisy. I endedup removing it entirely	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg
Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg This was only a fraction of what I needed to complete the job	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg
Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg What a cool pex adapter, 1/2" FPT with integrated quarter turn valve	Smll Med Lrg Picked up some bogie greasers at the same time I got the water heater. Will install them later	Smll Med Lrg Also finally got a jack adapter
Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg ended up using 1/2" pex everywhere. 3/8" not commonly available and 1/4" too small	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg the new stainless steel water heater is a work of art
Smll Med Lrg heat exchanger is completely isolated (2 times over) from the water in the tank	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg
Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg My first connection. By the end of the day I was a pro
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Smll Med Lrg had to remove medicine cabinet in order to hold plubming in back to remove shower head	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg gray pb line visible, goes from sink to shower head	Smll Med Lrg picture taken towards fridge and front of RV
Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg now more directly tied into the drain	Smll Med Lrg I needed about 3 feet to connect to toilet, what a pain	Smll Med Lrg
Smll Med Lrg Another awesome pex connector, 1/2 T with 3/8" compression fitting for toilet, awesom	Smll Med Lrg finally removing PB lines	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg yeah, this will work. Just need to route line behind toilet
Smll Med Lrg looking good	Smll Med Lrg out the back wall of the bathroom and tied into pex line	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg needed a way to hold pipe securely so I could attach outdoor shower head
Smll Med Lrg drilled hole too small, pressed in pipe.	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg Later I replaced the shorter pipe with a longer one to give me more space
Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg water line for outdoor shower head will be hard to get to once water heater installed	Smll Med Lrg longer pipe installed
Smll Med Lrg looking good	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg yay, now I have an outdoor shower head. Quarter turn valve will get installed inside by water heater	Smll Med Lrg goes from sink to shower head
Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg gray pb already coupled to pex (both 3/8"). Now temporary shark bite goes from 3/8" pex to 1/2" pex	Smll Med Lrg this let me avoid replacing water lines to kitchet at this time	Smll Med Lrg checking fitment
Smll Med Lrg blue pex with 2 90's goes to outdoor shower head	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg
Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg test fit	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg the cold water inlet (bottom) has ss check valve installed. Ultimately it was too loud so I removed
Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg Brain fart, accidentally installed hot line to cold faucet and vice versa
Smll Med Lrg yeah, hot going to wrong side	Smll Med Lrg this turd was way too loud. replaced with straight pipe	Smll Med Lrg getting there	Smll Med Lrg rerouted lines so bathroom sink has hot and cold on correct side
Smll Med Lrg white handled quarter turn valve shuts off water to outside shower, good for winter	Smll Med Lrg	Smll Med Lrg outside shower also has button right on it for local control	Smll Med Lrg all the old pb lines I removed
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