Step 7: Installing the Atwood Water Heater with the Bowen Cover
When last we left our intrepid DIY-ers and our trailer it had a neatly excised hole in the side, a mutant Atwood-Bowen waterheater spawn and a bunch of Ikea cabinets all clamped together ready to be installed. Ah, yes, that was the issue. So it turns out that you really do have to have the cabinet completely installed before you complete the installation of the water heater. You must have a good solid platform to mount the heater, drill holes for drainage, supply and gas. These are things that you really don’t want to do until the cabinets are pretty much installed.
So the water heater sat half done in the garage for a few months while we completed the rest 0f the trailer. But we did eventually complete the rest of the trailer! Or most of it anyway, and one of the best parts is the marvelous water heater. So lets scoot forward in time to when after all the cabinets are completely isntalled and the plumbing is finished, now we can complete the installation of the water heater.
So, as it turns out the actual installation- that is the putting of the water heater into the trailer, hooking up the connections (per Atwood instructions) is pretty simple. It just slides in (take a look at this post for a front view) and the water connections are on the back, the gas on the front. The gas is a little fiddly to get to, you have to poke the gas line through a small rubber gasket, but its not hard just annoying. The heater barely fits in the 18″ Ikea cabinet and we kind of mangled the crappy styrofoam insulation that Atwood uses. You see it here artfully repaired with duct tape. We eventually repaired it properly- no really we did, promise.
Did I mention that this water heater was not exactly cheap? I was appalled at the quality in general. The dump valve for the water heater is plastic and on the front. It looks as though the first time you use it you will be replacing the whole heater. I decided to add an external dump valve of my own devising here in cabinet. Since I use quick release plumbing fittings throughout the trailer, the only difficulty was drilling the hole and running to the hardware store to buy the valve.
I mentioned in an earlier post that the Atwood vent is on the opposite side from the Bowen so we had to flip parts of the cover, this means that much of the exterior connections on the cover did not actually work well or at all. I were faced with trying to figure out how to connect the pieces of the cover to the trailer. However, once I decided to move the dump valve to the interior of the trailer, I didn’t need to access the outside of the water heater except in odd circumstances. Essentially, the electronic ignition and the installation of the dump valve inside the trailer means that I never have to open the exterior cover. So we just screwed the cover on. And we used the same stainless steel screws that we used to attach the permanent parts of the heater and cover to the trailer so it all looks the same. Simple.
So what do I think of the mutant heater? I’ve been using this for more than a year now; it’s quiet, it certainly does heat water well and I do love the electronic ignition. I love that the outside of my 1964 Globetrotter still has the original Bowen cover even if it is a bit dinged up.
Now, when we pull in we turn on the gas refrigerator and heater (if needed) but always flip on the water heater. It was certainly one of the nicer things that we did for the trailer. I recommend it although I questions about the quality of the Atwood. I guess time will tell. The Bowen worked for 40+ years before getting a bit touchy.
Interesting and informative. But will you write about this one more?
Thank you for posting about this, I would like to read more about this topic.
Greetings from Tim.