Hot water heater access door

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busybee1952

I had to remove the old door and frame. Right now, it's covered with plastic. Has anyone ever tried putting up something different that would be more efficient or must I replace this with only another mh style access door? Here is a picture from before I removed the door.

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t243 ... goff-1.jpg

(Sorry but I can't seem to insert pictures.)
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Greg
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Check some of the dealers in your area that take older homes in trade and tear them down, they may have something that will work. Greg
"If I can't fix it, I can screw it up so bad no one else can either."
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Maureen
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If you can find it locally, check out Ashville mobile homes!

Mark has the link on the home page. Just click on the home link and scroll down half way through the page. You'll see it!

Maureen 8)
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'Plato'
busybee1952

Oh, I have found a new mh style access door already for $45.00. I just wondered if anyone has ever tried doing something different with the access doors to make them more efficient. If I do end up with just another mh access door, I am going to glue insulation to the inside of it so that when it's shut, there will be some protection. I can't believe that there is nothing between my water pipes and the outside except a piece of paneling with a metal cover! My hot water heater is vented through the roof so I don't have to worry about air getting in there. Also, there is a hole where the pipes come through the floor of the closet that will let air in there from under the trailer.

I tend to run out of propane alot and so need to open the door easily to re-light the hot water heater. I guess I was thinking of something more substantial than paneling and metal and just wondered if anyone had any ideas.
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JD
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Hi Pat,

It appears from your picture that you have an atmospheric mobile home water heater or possibly a standard water heater. Your door needs to have the vent slots at the top and the bottom of the door and only fire resistant materials on it. If you wanted to stiffen up a plain aluminum door panel, you could glue a fire resistant sheetrock to it. I would not cover the vent holes or use fiberglass insulation.

JMO

JD
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Maureen
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Good point JD! I bet there are a lot of folks out there, me included, that don't have fire resistant materials in the water heater closet.

Mine is outside, I've got a wood door, original, faced with the same siding as the home. The closet itself, is all paneling that was original to the home.

Just replaced the water heater in January, but might have to rethink the closet that it's in!

Maureen 8)
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'Plato'
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JD
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What I have read about the fire resistant materials was specifically about the water heater door. But after looking into many hundreds of water heater compartments, I can say that I have never seen factory installed loose batt insulation on the walls. Many times what I see is the back side of the paneling in the utility room and the panel behind the shower/bath faucet. Not very fire resistant but still no loose batt. A lot of the mid 80's homes and newer will have fire resistant grade sheetrock in the water heater compartment. This is also the only factory installed material I have ever seen added to a water heater compartment door.

New hinged aluminum water heater doors can be expensive, especially after shipping. For my customers with the real flimsy, sometimes slightly bent up, slide in doors, I will reinforce the door on the inside with the heavier extruded angle aluminum, so they quit trying to fold in the middle. This is a pretty cheap and easy fix.

JD
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Maureen
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Hey JD, I've got the bat insulation in between the studs. But the closet is finished off with the same wood paneling as the rest of the home. The door is just wood frame, no hinges. Just a J channel surround and lap siding to match the home. It gets lifted into place and I have the J rails drilled to secure screws into so it stay in place. That's worked for the 10 years we've been here.

But, here's my point! Not trying to take away from the original question, but I feel it's important to the board. What are the standards for those old outside water heater closets these days. We all know vents are needed. Enough space around the water heater. But, what about fire safety. A large percentage of the water heaters here are gas. That's pretty scary.

If you can give us any further info JD, I'd be more than happy to start a new thread in the repair forum. This is a pretty important topic for all of our members that have outside water heater closets.

Maureen 8)
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'Plato'
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JD
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I don't know what more I could add in regards to the older mobile homes. Having a fire resistant wall covering is a HUD code that was added some time in the post-HUD years. This is also a manufacturing code and did not apply to the older homes. Fire resistant sheetrock could be added to any water heater compartment as an extra safety measure.

But this could give a person a false sense of security. Fire resistant walls will not make the chance of a water heater compartment fire less likely. It only helps to slow the rate of fire spread. A water heater fire is a malfunction and would not be expected to happen under normal operation.

What a person can do is check their water heater regularly to make sure it is operating properly, replace old water heaters before they develop a problem, make sure it is vented properly and install a non-corrosive drip pan, unless this is a sealed vent unit that has vented air coming in from the bottom. Please do not store things in the water heater compartment such as, brooms, grocery bags, or burlap bags of un-needed parts (all of which I have pulled out of customer's water heater compartments).

The best safety measure is your standard fire safety stuff such as having and checking smoke/CO2 alarms, having a current fire extinguisher at good locations, having a fire exit plan for fires starting from any section of the home, etc.

So I guess a person needs to do those things they can do for prevention and safety and then not obsess over the chance of fire. I do not mean to belittle mobile home fires. I know they can go up fast once started and they are terrible and devastating to those who experience them. But in 2002, there were 17,200 MH fires. The chance of a fatal car accident is is greater than a MH fire. Yet we still need to get around. Most mobile home fires are electrical and cooking in nature. Smoking and alcohol consumption seems to be involved in a high percentage of the fatalities.

For the best information, go through the links below.

http://www.nfpa.org/assets/files/PDF/Ma ... eb2005.pdf
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/fire.htm

I hope this helps.

JD
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busybee1952

The door I took off did not have any vent holes. It was a solid piece of paneling covered with a solid piece of metal and I assume it was the original door of this 23 year old home. The hot water heater has been changed, however, according to Mark's book, I have the type of hot water heater that does not need vent holes since it is vented through the roof.

Apparently, there was a problem before I owned this home with the hot water heater blowing up. The floor in the nearby bedroom and bathroom, the floor of the hot water heater closet, plus the bathroom wall had to be replaced.

Here are links to what the hot water heater looks like. It's propane. I want to make sure I don't do anything dangerous when replacing this door but I also want to protect my pipes from freezing.

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t243 ... ughflo.jpg

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t243 ... erpipe.jpg
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JD
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You can have a solid door if there is an opening in the bottom of the floor. I usually see this hole and vented doors. The following is an excerpt of the installation manual for Reliance Mobile Home Atmospheric Water Heaters.

JD

Reliance Manual wrote:1. An enclosure with an exterior access door incorporating a single opening positioned a maximum of 6 inches above the lower edge of the access door and which may incorporate either 1/4 inch wire mesh or louvers. When 1/4 inch wire mesh is used, the size of the opening must be a minimum of 20 square inches. When the louvers are used, the area must be a minimum of 20 square inches.

2. An optional enclosure incorporating a solid exterior access door, when a 5 inch or 8 inch diameter, or 20 square inch minimum equivalent free air opening is located in the floor of the enclosure. The opening must be covered by a 1/4 inch wire mesh.
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busybee1952

Thank you JD. There is a hole in the floor. But I still don't know how to keep my pipes from freezing. As I said, I tend to run out of propane a lot and so the pilot light isn't always lit throughout the winter on the hot water heater. Is heat tape my only recourse?
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JD
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I would think you could find insulation at your local home stores that would have the ASTM 84 flame spread classification. I was cautioning against using standard insulation. This is not something I have had to deal with personally, living in the Central Valley, CA. We don't do much freeze protection here. But a common product that does carry the flame spread specification in John Mannsfield FSK-25 batt insulation. Ask your local store for that or something equivalent. Also check with your local building inspector about insulating the door and compartment. The phone call is free and many building departments have an email system too. I came across the whole issue many years ago when an inspector gave my boss a bad time for building a door out of plywood. We had to switch the door out with an aluminum MH water heater door.

JD
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All information and advice given is for entertainment and informational purposes only. The person doing the work is solely responsible to insure that their work complies with their local building code and OSHA safety regulations.
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