General Boards > Technical Support

Aqua-hot system leaking

(1/3) > >>

Mike Sulley:
Wishing you all a very Happy New Year from Alaska.

I need the combined wisdom of the group.  I did a google search of AH leaks but didn't find a solution to my problem.

I am a relative 'newbie" to RV'ing.  I bought a 2001 Beaver Marquis Amethys a few years ago with no previous RV experience.  We are just seasonal campers.  And our season is short.  So for the last couple year, every time we started the coach the Aqua-hot fired right up.  No problems, my moto is "If it works, don't fix it".   I just kept the overflow jug filled and all was well.  Well the last trip of the season it did not fire up.  (We still had hot water.)  Thankfully, we were not far from home and our son brought a couple electric heaters so we could finish our weekend trip.

Our Aqua-hot is an AHE-100-01  SR # 047, so no modern "bells and whistles".  Once home I found the AH reservoir empty.  So I added a couple gallons of fluid and used the three zone pumps to attempt to fill the system.  I pressure tested the system and kept getting different results.  Some time it would hold and sometimes not.  I then proceeded to do an annual maintenance, Pinched the fuel lines, replaced Racor filter ( the one with the clear sediment bowl/ drain), and opened up the burner assembly.  It was all covered with soot.  Cleaned up the tube, vac-ed out the jacket, replaced the photo disc and nozzle.  Noticed the diesel lines to the burner pump were cracked so i replaced them too.

 There was evidence of boiler fluid on the AH cover, so I pressure tested the rad cap.  It only held 3-4 psi so I replaced it with a new 13 psi cap.  Suspected it might have over temped so I Ohm tested the 2 high temp shut-offs and other 2 temp sensors as well.  All 4 had continuity.

I was ready to test the system.  Added a couple gallons more to the tank and put 10 psi. on the AH tank just to watch.  Started the coach and turned on the thermostat.  Checked the burned for the motor whine.  No temp increase.  No indication of burner firing.  Started looking around and noticed about a 1 quart leak of boiler fluid the cement under the driver's seat.  Crawled under the coach, just barely and saw boiler fluid leaking from under the floor down around the steering shaft and on to the steering box.

This surprised me as the front zone heater is on the floor behind the passenger seat.  I am guessing there is a leak in the Pex? tuning.  No idea why it's routed under the drivers side of the coach. I have not opened up the front zone radiator which behind the passenger seat.  I guess that's my next move.  Has anyone replaced a plastic heater line?  Are there any floor plan drawings of the heater zones?  Is it possible to snake a new line in to replace it without cutting up the floor?

One other surprise, there is no diesel in the Racor diesel filter so the burner couldn't fire up.  Those lines are pretty hard so I used metal threaded clamps, but they don't appear visually to be collapsed.

I apologize for being long winded.  It's a handicap of being an engineer.

Would appreciate any and all thoughts,

Respectfully,
Mike Sulley
Nikiski, Alaska

Carl Boger:
Mike,

I don't have a Aqua-hot but have a Hurricane instead.  If you can find a place in the line before the leak you can run a new pex line to the front heating zone bypassing the old line and running it the easiest way possible.  The old line can be left in place and abandoned.   The line itself may be a plastic that was used before pex, but pex fittings can be used with it.
Good luck getting back on the road.

Steve Huber:
Mike,
I'd check the connections at the front heat exchanger. The leak may be there and the fluid is then running down the pex tubing and dropping off at the low point. Pex is pretty tough and the fluid is an antifreeze, not water, so unless the tube got badly worn due to chafing, I'd classify a bad section of tubing as a fairly low priority.
Steve

Mike Sulley:
Gentlemen thank you for your response and your ideas.

While climbing around on my hands and knees checking out the radiator behind the passenger seat, I noticed another radiator on the floor under the center dash/ entertainment console.  I could then remove the drawer above the radiator for a better look.  Still not enough room to do any work on the ends of the plastic lines.   There were no visible signs of a leak stain.  This makes more sense of the leak coming down around the steering shaft.  So the leak must be under the floor between the radiator and the Aqua-hot.

I can only see a few inches of the line before they disappear under the floor.  As I see it, I will need to remove the console in order to perform any work on this end of the lines.  With access to the lines I can disconnect the lines from the radiator and pressure test each line to identify which is leaking.  Hopefully the lines are not clamped in place and the damaged line can be pull out and replaced with a PEX line.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to proceed, or how to remove the console?

Thanks,
Mike Sulley

Carl Boger:
I am not sure if your front radiator is set up like mine, but after removing the top of the console and the drawer I was able to radiator and get a little access to the area.  I really doubt that you will be able to easily remove either line so I would add air pressure and try to locate the leak.  Then cut it before the leak and run pex from it to the radiator.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page