Stop filling your water heater tank with antifreeze every fall. This permanent-mount bypass kit installs once and stays in place year-round, giving you simple two-valve control to route antifreeze around your 6-gallon water heater during winterizing -- and restore full water flow when the camping season starts again.
Without a bypass kit, your RV water heater tank fills with antifreeze before it reaches the rest of the plumbing -- wasting 6 gallons of RV antifreeze every single winterization. The Valterra P23503LFVP eliminates that waste entirely. Once installed, two quarter-turn valves redirect flow around the heater tank so only the lines and fixtures need to be protected.
Because this is a permanent-mount design, there are no fittings to remove and reinstall season after season. The valves stay plumbed in line with your existing hot and cold water connections at the heater, giving you a clean, code-friendly installation that holds up to repeated use.
One bypass valve and one check valve work together to isolate the tank or restore normal flow -- no guesswork, no disassembly required.
Mount it once behind the water heater access panel. Valves remain in place all year and swap positions for each season change.
Sized and plumbed specifically for 6-gallon RV water heater tanks -- the most common size in Class A, Class C, and fifth-wheel rigs.
Bypassing the 6-gallon tank means 6 fewer gallons of antifreeze needed each season -- a straightforward, measurable benefit every time you winterize.
The kit tees into the cold water inlet and hot water outlet connections at your water heater. In normal (summer) mode, valves direct cold water into the tank and hot water out to your fixtures just like the factory setup. In bypass (winter) mode, you close the supply and return valves to the tank and open the crossover valve -- antifreeze flows directly from cold to hot lines without entering the heater tank at all.
Switching between modes takes under a minute and requires no tools once the kit is installed. This makes spring de-winterizing equally fast: open the tank valves, close the bypass, flush the lines, and you are back to hot water.
This kit is designed for 6-gallon tank water heaters commonly found in RVs, including units made by Atwood (Dinosaur/Attwood), Suburban, and similar brands with standard 1/2-inch NPT inlet and outlet connections. It is not intended for 10-gallon or on-demand (tankless) water heaters -- see the Valterra P23504LFVP for 10-gallon applications.
Installation is a DIY-friendly job for anyone comfortable with basic plumbing. Access the water heater from the exterior compartment panel, shut off the water supply, and connect the bypass kit between the existing cold inlet and hot outlet ports using the included hardware. The permanent valves are then accessible for seasonal switching without reopening the wall or removing panels.