Water heater blew

[GypsyJo]

2006 Monaco, my water heater was leaking behind pressure regulator. Today it blew. Is there any way to bypass the water heater to have water in the coach till I get water heater replaced? 

[Bob Jones]

Isn't there a bypass valve on or about the hot water tank with a lever that you can activate?

[MurrayD]

From the cargo bay next to the HW tank there is a small access door to the HW bypass valve

[CorinthWest]

Yours may be different, but in mine, the HW bypass valve does NOT shut off pressure to the HW tank.  I think it is there only to stop water from flowing through it.  But there "SHOULD BE" isolation valves on both the inlet and outlet from the HW heater.  I would look for these and shut them off.

 

UPDATE:  I should not have posted that.  I'm flushing my WH this weekend and found the problem.  My check valve is defective.  So when I put the WH in bypass mode, I still get water flowing through it if I pressurize the water system (it backflows from the WH outlet past the broken check valve and flows into the WH).  Your WH should isolate like other posters have said by simply putting the WH in bypass mode.  Sorry for the confusion.  Ordering check valve today.  If it wasn't for your post, I probably wouldn't have looked into this.  Thank you.  Mine uses a Lakeview bypass valve, and looks exactly like Scotty Hutto's picture below.

Edited May 22, 2022 by CorinthWest
Update

[BradHend]

There’s a two position valve attached to the water heater.  Turn it the other way and just use the cold water taps.   Done that once now. 🥲

[Scotty Hutto]

Here’s what the WH bypass looks like on my 2006 Dip.  Access it from the basement using the little access door in the second compartment , passenger side. 
 

[cnot305]

I highly recommend not replacing with the newer Dometic version water heater. Dometic had to reinvent the wheel when they bought out Atwood and its terrible! I'm considering an on demand Truma when mine goes......IMO 

[Dr4Film]

I would definitely recommend looking into on-demand water heaters versus replacing it with something that is prone to failure.

[GypsyJo]

14 hours ago, CorinthWest said:

Yours may be different, but in mine, the HW bypass valve does NOT shut off pressure to the HW tank.  I think it is there only to stop water from flowing through it.  But there "SHOULD BE" isolation valves on both the inlet and outlet from the HW heater.  I would look for these and shut them off.

This is what I have under there and the valve shuts all water from the coach. 

[StephenW]

To isolate the water heater you will have to disconnect the cold and hot water lines to the water heater and plug them off.  I see two swivel connections you could use to take the piping apart and use pipe caps or plugs so you can get water back on to the rest of the coach.

[GypsyJo]

8 hours ago, StephenW said:

To isolate the water heater you will have to disconnect the cold and hot water lines to the water heater and plug them off.  I see two swivel connections you could use to take the piping apart and use pipe caps or plugs so you can get water back on to the rest of the coach.

Thank you. I will give those a try. 

[GypsyJo]

13 hours ago, GypsyJo said:

Thank you. I will give those a try. 

That worked. I have cold water in my coach. Thank you

[GypsyJo]

I ordered a Suburban on demand water heater. It’ll be 3 weeks till it comes in.