Hot Water Heater/Furnace Layout

[cavdad78]

10 days ago, I hooked up water to our brand new 2018 Windjammer, and had a leaky bypass valve on the water heater,.......plus a cracked water heater. Brand new, $30,000 camper, and a cracked water heater???? Really???
No customer service help from my dealer in Troy Ohio that sold it to me, I had to call Forest River myself and get it taken care of.

Now, has anyone else noticed a stupid design flaw? My water heater, sits on a shelf, directly above the furnace. Now, what do you all think is going to happen, if a tank leak goes unnoticed over a period of time?

[SeaDog]

Its no different then having a water heater installed in a house (living area) without a drain pan underneath. The builders is betting the odds of a leak are far smaller then and less costly then redesign of the location.

[67L48]

Actually, it is different. There are building/plumbing codes that mandate either a drain or a pan for a residential water heater tank. Older homes may have been built before modern codes mandated that, of course.

I manage products that have water and electronics inside the box. We always try to have electronics above the water for the reasons you mentioned. But, we're not required to do so ... there is no governing regulation that mandates it. I would think the same is true of RVs. The same isn't necessarily true of our houses, though.