General Boards > Technical Support

thermostat Beaver Patriot Thunder

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Steve Huber:
Ante,
To follow up on Joel's excellent advice.... In your other post you said the Aqua Hot tank was only about 1/4 full and asked if the water and AH were the same. No. The only AH tank is the small plastic expansion tank above the AH unit. It should be at the Cold level when the AH is not on and cold. When hot it will be near the Hot indicator on the tank. The fluid is boiler antifreeze and is red in color. The AH heats water from the fresh water tank as it flows through it.
Furnace heat is generated by the AH heating the boiler antifreeze and then pumping it through the heat registers on the floor of the coach. The fans of the heat registers should not start running until the hot antifreeze reaches them.
You do not have to have both the Diesel and Elec switches on. Select 1 or the other. Diesel will heat faster but electric is quieter.
It sounds like your AH may be malfunctioning. If you haven't, check the AH control panel for any error indicators. Even if you don't see any, press the Reset button. You'll have to use a toothpick or paper clip to reach the button.
Steve

Ante Peros:
Good call on the AH - the low fluid level fault is on - I looked up a couple of you tubes to see how to add the coolant and when it is light tomorrow we will try that - and look for leeks. There were all sorts of ideas on the internet so hopefully we can get that taken care of. Thank you so much for answering all of these newbie questions. Such a learning process...Appreciate it all - Ginny and Ante

Joel Ashley:
You can search older threads here for AquaHot or HydroHot (the smaller hydronic model) leaking issues.  A not uncommon leak is from a deteriorated filler neck atop the unit, and fixes are discussed.  Check for loose fluid around it. 

But there are a number of outbound (hot) and inbound (cold return) hoses to and from exchangers, so unscrew exchanger escutcheons so you can see, and check hose connections.  Check the one in one of your bays. Unscrew the metal cover on the front of the AquaHot (it can be tricky) and check pump connections and the area around the drain valve.

Also it should be mentioned that the float switch in the tank can deteriorate and break, making the control board assume the fluid is low.  Newer switches aren’t as subject to breaking.  As I recall you may be able to jumper board contacts to bypass a faulty switch until repaired, but it’d have to be only temporary… you need the switch to protect operations in case of a real leak.

Joel

Ante Peros:
Thank you! We added the fluid we had - almost a gallon -  but it was Sunday so we couldn't buy more. The light went out and we do have hot water and the furnace is working. We didn't see any leaks but the fluid is not going in from the reservoir so we will continue to work on it. All of the suggestions have been extremely helpful - and we have great neighbors where we are staying. One that is in a Monaco and has some experience. Ginny and Ante

Eric Maclean Co-Admin:
Ante
The aqua hot reservoir tank is supposed to function as a expansion tank . The way the system works is the aqua hot boiler starts out full to the filler neck cold (ambient temp ) and the reservoir filled to the cold mark then when the boiler comes up to temperature (190* to 200*) the fluid in the boiler expands the radiator cap on the boiler has a valve built into it that maintains a pressure on the fuild in the boiler for each pound of pressure the boiling temperature of the fluid is increased by three degrees. At the when the pressure reaches the set pressure of the cap as the fluid expands the valve in the cap opens allowing fluid to move to the expansion reservoir where it is held .
Now when the boiler cools down and the fuild shrinks back to its original Volume the pressure in the tank goes away and it creates a vacuum in the boiler tank at this point a second valve built into the radiator cap opens allowing the fluid in the expansion tank to be sucked back into the boiler.

In theory this works great however if there are any leaks in the system ( ie  a cracked filler neck or leaking fitting somewhere ) the tank will suck air back in instead of boiler fluid as air is lighter which defeats the system any time the cap is removed the boiler tank should be topped up with fluid.

These rad caps valve springs get weak with age and according to aquahot should be replaced annually ( I'm not sure I agree with the annually part )
But it should be check occasionally or in this case replaced to restore the the function of the tank

The rad cap will have the pressure marked on the top you should be able to match it at any NAPA or O'Brien parts store

Caution don't remove the cap on a hot boiler as the pressure will spray hot fuild and you can be burnt badly

Caution the low fluid float switch is there to shut down the boiler if the tank gets low if this switch is by passed the system will run and if the fluid gets down low enough that the diesel combustion chamber is not in the fluid the chamber housing will over heat and crack allowing the fuild to leak into the chamber and exhaust.

Hope this helps
Eric

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