Chinook RV

I clean the water heater a few weeks ago, and I noticed the battery compartment below it does not keep out the water that well. If it rains, the water will get inside. Do I need to replace the gasket (it looks fine...), or I need to tighten the two key latches, or both? The key latch on the right is kind of not touching the back of the compartment, so I suspect that it is why the water can get inside.

yea, its gotta be held up tight against that seal. Bunch of my locks were rusty and loose when i got mine so i just replaced them all with these kind instead of messing with the rusty old ones........ much easier to unlock than a standard key lockand they shouldnt seize up if dirt or sand get on them. I fulltime in mine and the old style key locks would always be frozen in the winter.

Yes, I find that the battery/storage compartment door can get a few drips into it after a rain. On mine I can tell it is the rain and not something else because rain is a "special occasion" here in winter.

But, a note on the water heater compartment (at least on my era): The water heater is set below floor level in a molded fiberglass "bin." That bin is the roof of the battery compartment. So far so good.

However, when I removed my original water heater, I noted that Chinook deviated from the Suburban instructions. Those instructions were for how to secure the water heater to the compartment, and in no uncertain terms said there should NOT be any holes in the "floor" of the compartment by the door. One was to use screws only on the sides or top. But, Chinook had put two holes in the otherwise-watertight molded fiberglass "bin" right by the door. Hmmph. I cleaned those holes up and filled them with thickened epoxy. Buh-bye holes.

All this to say that if you were cleaning your water heater (vs. normal outside rain) just before you noticed the water, it's possible that water got to those holes and thence into the battery compartment via gravity. Something to check anyway.