Raritan Hot Water Heater relief valve leaking

[felizcortez]

My pressure relief valve on my Raritan 12 Gallon water heater leaks water when the engine heats up the water inside. My thermostat is a 180F unit. I replaced the relief valve with the recommended 75psi one from Raritan. The new valve still leaks just like the old one while motoring for extended periods of time.


I've read that I may need an expansion tank on the cold water side of the system to account for the expansion inside of the water heater. Does anyone have any recommendations for a particular unit? My plumbing system is 5/8 reinforced hose with barbs.


Are an expansion tank and an accumulator the same thing or would they have the same effect in the system?


Thanks.

[peghall]

Give Raritan tech support a call. Unlike most mfrs, their tech are well trained and actually answer the phone. 800-352-5630. If you aren't in the US, 856.825.4900 Jerry is one of their senior techs...his extension is 236.

--Peggie

[Marathon1150]

We had this problem on a Raritan tank - the pressure relief valve started to leak and after replacing it with a locally available valve (I can't remember what it was), it still leaked. As mentioned in the previous post, Raritan support was very good. Their recommendation was to replace the tank because it was more than 20 years old. So we did that and the new Raritan tank is much better than the old one in terms of insulation and heat retention. Not cheap but very good.

We have two boats and now the Raritan 5 gallon tank is starting to leak from the pressure relief valve on the second boat. This boat has a pressure accumulator and the only way that I have found to stop the leaking is to turn off the pressure water which is not a suitable fix. So the way that this tank is plumbed on this boat does not benefit from a pressure accumulator in the system in terms of a leaking pressure relief valve. The tank on this boat is in an extremely difficult to access location. Changing the valve will be challenging but doable. Changing the tank will be in a league of its own - swapping out the engine would be easier.

I hope that the OP will let us know what he learned from Raritan.