I assume you saw some water in your heater. I've always heard RACOR fuel filters DO remove all water. It's been posted here on T&T that when full of water, RACOR filters will not pass water and an engine dies from lack of fuel, not ingesting water which destroys injectors. The Parker website says "...removes water.." etc.. One obvious possibility is a "leak" in your filter parts. For example, a filter washer at top or bottom might be roughed up enough to pass a tiny bit of water. On the other hand, aboard my boat I know that a small amount of water does pass through my Racors because the secondary filters (metal cannister mounted on my engine) do accumulate tiny amounts of water. These are only about six feet of mostly flexible fuel line after my RACOR primaries so I really doubt any condensation takes place there. From time to time, maybe 1,000 gallons of fuel consumed per engine annually, I may get a teaspoon over several years, usually less. During that time The Racors may have trapped a cupful or two annually. Last year, one of my 31 year old metal filter cannisters rusted thru, so I know some water was in the fuel!!! Now I check them twice a year..so far, no visible water in either secondary after four checks. These are Detroits so while I consume some amount of fuel, I pump many times that amount thru my filters. Finally, there are rebuild kits for the filter housings...I "rebuilt" mine several years ago while adding modern filter bowls which permit water accumulation alarm probes. The parts I removed looked fine, but who knows? I'd love to know what the round hard rubber ball does, but I replaced it as well since the kits included new ones. I forget all the parts involved, but you can likely see them on a Parker (Racor) website because they are illustrated in the rebuild kit package when purchased. At only nine years, it doesn't seem likely to me yours would need a new part, but maybe someone else will post with more experience. Cheers, Rob Brueckner Hatteras YF