EXPLODED Water Heater Tank Repair! Can It Be Welded? 

We weld these all the time at the shop I used to work at, at least 4-8 a week. It failed because they didn't drain it and it froze, unless they don't drain it again it will be perfectly fine.

Anthony nice to see you doing some aluminum welding. Don’t worry about all the nervous Nellies. The biggest concern on a water heater is a properly working temperature/pressure relief valve, that is installed into the tank and not somehow down stream for someone’s installation convenience. That tank will be lucky to see 40-50 PSI. If your welds were to fail it’s not going to explode, but just soak the camper! Tanks explosions happen from run away pressure and heat forming rapidly expanding liquids. Invariably the safety relief valve has an issue and didn’t reduce the pressure in time. I would tell the customer to make sure they install a new safety relief valve. No one spends sleepless nights worrying about their water tank welds holding up!

11:17 you are killin' me Anthony, thanks for the shout out.......cheers, Paul

Nice repair. One thing to watch out for is the vapor from whatever chemicals you use to clean the material. What I’m talking about is they can get inside the tank and explode. I did this one time welding up a pontoon on a gold dredge. The second I struck the arc it exploded and threw me back a few feet and destroyed the pontoon.

I prefer the drill at the end of the crack method but a grinder would work

@Meltin Metal Anthony was always taught to drill the very end of the crack out to prevent recracking , and mildly heat it up to see where the crack truly ends before laying down your first bead. the same applies to fiberglass repair work too

Well Rockstar, totally solid repair, all the small🤔, well gigantic innuendos about life had me and my wife rolling! Like I said before, I learn on here from time to time, but your style, talent and personality keep us coming back! You were successful before and we believe you will only continue to become more successful! Solid work Meltin’ Metal!

I just fixed the same exact tank at work a few weeks ago, used an aluminum burr bit and sanding pad to clean and open the crack, drilled the ends, preheated it and tigged it up, holding good so far!

You have amazing attention to detail even on the jobs that you probably won’t profit from. Really great video

Have a shop in Indiana welded many cracked camper tanks from people forgetting to drain them very easy to fix

When welding cracks on aluminum you not only want to clean the surface as best possible but also drill a hole at each end of the crack to prevent the crack from coming back

looks like a solid repair my man

I worked at a big fab shop for a while. They underbid a job and were rushing people, and whoever had fit up the chord I was working in had made a mess of it. 20, 24 gusset plates, each with 4 tack welds an inch and a half long, two thirds of which were cracked out. Now I'm no CWI, but I know better than to weld over cracks on a D1.1 project. So 7 hours later, I start welding. Then management gets pissed off, and I start talking to QC. Head of the department, CWI for decades, former boilernaker tells me two dozen times you can't weld over cracks. Shop foreman comes to look at the next one that was fit up. Tons of cracks. I start pointing them out to him, he says "No, that won't hurt anything. Just weld over that." and walks off. Head of QC comes back by and tells me and my lead don't weld it, he'll talk to the foreman. Whatever, they're day shift, they're going home, let them sort it out. I'm not welding over any damn cracks. So next day I come in, talk to the plant manager about it, he says don't weld over cracks, he'll talk to the foreman. Forty five minutes later, foreman wants to talk to me. Backs me into a corner and the head of QC comes along again. Turns out, it was ok to weld over cracks after all! And probably rust and coolant and whatever the hell else gets in the way! I told them just about how far that was going to get them with me. He backs me into a corner and starts yelling. I walked out and didn't come back.

I’m not really into grinding the crack first, I just like to use extra lube so I have easier penetration into the crack. Grinding just takes way too much out of me if I’m going to be penetrating any cracks.

Another suggestion. The RPMs on the wire wheel you are using may be too high and can actually imbed or burnish the oxide film you are trying to remove further into the material. The issue with that is aluminum oxide has a melting point three times greater than aluminum itself. You generally see better results with a hand wire brush.

Transverse Cracks ? For the amount of welding done a new tank would have been in order

Also, with aluminum especially cast aluminum or really dirty aluminum that you can't reach the back side on. I run a heat pass first with no filler then use the wire wheel again. This can help to clean up the backside that you can't access. On cast aluminum this is simply the best way - gotta burn out all the contamination and "recast" the aluminum around the break. When I learned this trick on cast it changed my cast welding life.

Right on. Great fix Tig finger I need to get one myself

great work with the tig looks way better then the spool gun👍

Hey Ant... I noticed that you weren't using any argon purge gas inside the tank while welding. May help with tank or tube tig welding in the furture.

The thing we really need to know. Did it hold and did you get paid? It was a good repair but that tank looks near the end of it life. Only a matter of time before it fails again and that is not your fault it just looks like it needs replacing sometime in the future.

Only advice I would offer…drill out the ends of the cracks…weld to ends of each. Cut a bevel over the drilled ends and weld stringers to build up the material to prevent the crack from running any further.

Just wanted to say, try using warm soap water with the stainless toothbrush on aluminum some time, you'll be amazed how much better it goes because the puddle starts and wets out easier. It works because the soap breaks up the aluminum oxide skin so the HF doesn’t have to do it all, allowing fewer amps to do the same job. Just scrub it in and weld, no need to wipe it off.

Anthony, I think acetone just reminds you of your favorite thing as a young child. Those vintage permanent markers, the fat ones that came in the metal tubes.

I don't have the equipment for aluminum welding. When my pops water heater tank froze last winter it was only like $250 for a new tank on Amazon. About an hour to swap out all the other stuff on there over to the new tank.

One thing I would always recommend on thing aluminum breaks like this is drilling a stop hole. Oftentimes we cannot actually see with our eye where the Crack ends. There are dyes that can be used to find the microcracks at the end but I find just drilling a small hole roughly 1/4 inch from the end of the Crack has always worked. All aluminum water heaters I have fixed I did with a plate though after rewelding the Crack plate it and weld it full.

The tank starts out as two round discs of aluminum then it is heated and stretched into the shape that it’s in and then to halves are welded together. This is why part of the tank is thinner other parts are thicker.

I was in the middle of watching this and out of nowhere my son comes in the room and says woah he's making a lego head like yeah he is😭😂😂

Great video, love the sense of humor 😂

I take a small drill bit to each end of the crack and try and dead head it before I grind it...had a few times where the grinder couldn't get all the way in but the bit could I haven't had any issues doing this

Good job Anthony! Loving the new thumbnails as well as your call to action for subscribers 😆😆😆

At least it's good to see anthony using a manhammer

The only time I make sure not to cut all the way through a crack is when it's a casting with a gasket surface that needs to come back to exact original dimensions. If you cut the crack out the casting can become misshapen. You need to be able to squeeze the casting back into original form so all those little "mirrored" zigs and zags of the crack need to be preserved so you can squeeze the part back into its original shape. I hope that makes sense

I’m not a bog TIG weldor, but I believe I’ve seen guys that are, use argon as a back gas on the inside of the tank. They attach a continuous low pressure flow with argon on the inside, in order to help keep the weld joint consistent and to help avoid porosity on the inside seam. …I think that’s how they do it roughly.

Bro, if you’re getting that much reverb from that building, I need to record an album in there. That’s wet af!

Always drill out the end of the cracks, this will let u inspect the alloy grain to see if it started to crack beneath the top layer aswell.

Can you? mmm... SHOULD you? Mmmmm!😂

I usually don’t grind out the crack but I do take a drill bit and drill at the end of the crack to prevent it spreading

Always helps to drill stop the ends of the crack to keep it from spreading past the weld repair

you are looking happy way up North old timer........cheers.Paul

If anyone can fix it you can 👍excellent video and work amazing how many cracks appeared once you started welding definitely looks like you have to check check and check. Keep up the great work and videos

i no a guy who has 8 fingers... put your guard on mate love the videos to

I was gonna say that looks like they gave you the frank white water tank they moving weight in 😂

If someone handed me that tank to repair I would have thrown it back at them and run off screaming like a little girl.

Even if its "free", its always good practice.

Always a good watch for a laugh 😂

Bro one of your most creative videos! Loved it.

I’d weld it then add bands across the weld for strenght. Also weld a push pull dog to take out the hi/ lo.

It’s thinner on the crowns/ radius sections coz that area stretched when it was formed in a die press

I’ve seen a lot of guys drill out the ends of a crack not 100% sure the science behind it but maybe worth looking into!

Being an RV tech the customer should just get a new heater. It's pricey but the reason it cracked was because it wasn't maintained with new anode rods and a hard water filter. The hard water is eating away the walls of the heater so it's going to crack again.

A true professional will fix anything broken

for acetone, just look up acetone poisoning, your a grown man, do as you like, and I assure you, after many years of using it bare handed in body shops cleaning parts, I dont see any negative effects on me. "WHEW" lol. but last 4-5 years, yes I do wear gloves now. enjoyed video,

I know you can polish a turd, but unless It gets a heat treat, it's just gonna crack again. Sometimes you just have to tell the customer what they don't want to hear.

Nice. Only thing I’d of done is drill a 🕳️ at the end of the splits to isolate them and you won’t get any new cracks as you burn it in & when knocking the seam down get it somewhat flat then throw some extra hot and quick tacks pushing the filler rod in there aggressively cuz as you know esp with alum. You’ll never get a tack without filler unless the seams super tight even then it doesn’t just melt it like mild or stainless then go back and knock the seam tight. If not you’ll be fighting the seam wanting to warp & open up on you. Although not necessary on thinner alum. it doesn’t hurt to run your torch over the work piece to pre heat esp. if your running and air cooled torch it will allow you to get slightly more capacity out of your rig machine or at least whats its rated for without burning it running hot af. For example a cylinder head you’d want to place on a hot plate to get some heat into it. Then wrap in welding blanket when finished to let slowly cool like you do cast. Just a few things that came to mind. Also if I had to wipe down filler I’d never get nothing done. Lol

Just did one of these a couple of weeks ago. Wasn't to bad

In cases like this one I'd try to separate the halves. Clean the inside with muriatic acid and rinse with water. Repair the the cracks in both than weld the halves back together. Then as a final on the big crack I'd sand the outside welds rounded and do weld over strap over that for added strength. All depending on what the customer is willing to pay. 👈🧐👍

I think i would've purged that tank with argon as i welded but looks like it still came out pretty good.

Im not sure on the cutoff wheels but on the hard grinding wheels i tested one made for alluminum and a general purpose wheel on alluminum and the alluminum wheel ground the alluminum a lot faster than the general purpose wheel

The factory weld is likely mig, fast, efficient, and automated. Unfortunately, porosity an incomplete penetration can happen with mig.

Funny stuff. I work out of a shop about 70 miles east of Yellowstone. it gets really cold here. last year a guy brought a water heater in that looked very similar to this. Well just the other day he brought it back with another big ass crack from not draining it over summer. Drain the water out of your water tanks and boat motors if you live up north or you will have a bad day.

I like to drill the ends of the crack when repairing. That way I terminate the crack from continuing.

"Drugs are bad, I mean let's do the right Drugs " lmao 🤣 🤣🤣

Fucking love your sense of humor 🤣🤣🤣 This video had me laughing my ass off.

I just repaired two identical tanks last week, they weren’t in quite as bad of shape though

Get a die grinder, some aluminum burrs and ditch the flap disc and cut off wheel. Couple of dogs tacked to the tank would help pull that together and pull the two sides into same plane. That thing was spun or pressed or hydroformed process might determine why wall thickness varied, if it did. Or maybe no anode. A patch would be better.

Aluminum experiences metal fatigue though repeated pressure cycles. Pressurized aluminum aircraft cabins are retired or rebuilt after a set number of pressure cycles and that water heater tank experiences much higher pressures than an airliner cabin. My guess is that the whole tank is work hardened and brittle from pressure cycles during its lifetime. I would be a little uncomfortable to take on this job to say the least. I hope you give periodic updates to let us know how it's holding up or if it fails, details about the failure.

Excellent video, you crack me up! Naysayers can pound sand , ive fixed dozens of those with no issues just like how you did it

Nice video man. An old cat I weld with saw me using a wire wheel one time on aluminum and he stopped me to tell me that that wire wheel can kinda fold the oxides over back into the base metal. He swears by a hand brush. Im not sure if that's true and I don't wanna be the arrogant welder who knows it all but just something to think about.

There are lots of bad drugs but I like the good ones...LOL

Am I high as fuck or is there an echo. Love the vids man watch em all just really might be high as fuck or you got turned into an echoey alien

The tank halves were probably deep drawn from sheet so you would have some stretching and thinning.

That’s like fixing a Sandcastle

I would have turned that job down personally because l am not qualified or experienced in pressure vessel work. Interesting though to watch others do it. When it comes to cracks, l have drilled both ends of the crack in the past but now prefer to blow a hole the each end with whatever process l am using for the repair. No swarf and it stirs up the base material and changes the structure to terminate the ends of the crack.

pressure vessels get tested a bit above their working pressure to make sure they are ok-then put into service

Love yr vids my dude. Keep crushing The SAIT aluminum specific cut off wheels do perform better cutting aluminum, in that they don't "gum up"like general purpose discs tend to when cutting aluminum. On the flip side, a SAIT aluminum cut disc cutting steel will whither down to nothing WAY faster than a general disc cutting the same steel. I mention the SAIT's because they are the only aluminum specific cut wheel brand I've used and that was only because they came out of a tool room and I wasn't footing the bill.

I always drill a hole at the end of the crack and fill it in

Ant id love to help you out with some aluminum, I don’t wanna sound like a smartass but literally, aluminum is all I work with, and I’ve learned a lot from your videos. I’d love to give back a little ya

Just out of curiosity what im used to when aluminum welding is a higher pitch frequency any particular reason its way lower?

You can buy an RV water heater tank for like 3-4 or a whole new unit for 6-7-8…amazed it was worth it trying to repair

Tig welding uphill = tig welding downhill = tig welding flat = tig welding overhead. Since you have so much control with Tig it just simply doesn't matter. You can get full penetration any way you choose if you are just paying attention.

Am I allowed to bring a lazy Suzy? If so can I bring a wood and metal?

Ya I have used nail polish remover to clean things because it's easy to get and cheap buy but it's much weaker than regular Asatone

Couldn’t tell you about aluminum specific cut off wheels but I know that aluminum specific grinding wheels, while costing 4 or 5 times as much as steel/stainless steel wheels, are worth every penny.

That's water residue, scale.. Man is this like a million dollar water heater? I mean, did they stop making these? Lot of work.

Key hole on aluminum is just an under filled puddle. If you pause after your dab you'll watch it sink. That's your full pen. Good job though puddle stayed pretty clean despite the inside contaminant.

Reminds me of the guy who won the lotto right on TV I’m going to get hookers & cocaine

The only thing I really do differently (prep wise) when I do these is drill the end of the crack out so it stops.

About the crack i alway drill a hole at the end of it wich it fill with weld, it basically does the same, stops the cracs from further evolving, also never grind tungsten on an open wheel, that shit is toxic special small hand held enclosed grinders are made to contaminate the dust, some tungsten are even radioactive-

Yeah the E3 good an the same as the CK layzr 👍🏻

Ive had great luck using tiger hair bondo to repair these aluminum pressure tanks. Welding is for rookies - take it from a 28yr old guy who uses bondo and duct tape for everything. Never had 1 leak

If you haven’t, you should invest in some PT chemicals just for jobs like this. Another good video brother. See you next time.

little tip for that calcium crap inside. let it soak with vinegar. it will clean it just like your coffee maker. about 50/50 water. heat helps

Just curious I had the same kind of thing same kind of problem and I couldn't weld it without a keep cracking do you actually get it to work and not crack and keep cracking

So do you ever show your results? Like I personally would have pressure tested it under hot water 120+ to ensure my shit held. I watch your channel all the time and I always wait for a result on how it turned out.

I don’t believe it. Anthony does TIG. What else could happen ?

Nice work, What ARC START, current, Ac freq do you use. Please!! On 1/16” aluminum

appreciate the videos thanks for sharing just curious I had a similar repair just like that kept chasing crack after crack after crack when it cooled down was just curious did you get that to work or did it just keep cracking

What kind of camera do u use

Just passing by