New Beaver Owner - Hot Water, Generator and Jacks issues - All Resolved Now.

[Adam Hicklin]

Tim,

If I recall, under the cover of the AquaHot (421/12) there is a standard gate valve on one of the lines.  I don't recall exactly what it's for because I've never had to turn it.  This is just from memory, and I may be completely wrong, but it might be worth taking the cover off the AquaHot and taking a look. 

[Tim Schafer]

My service tech figured out the generator and jack issue, apparently the idiot the police department hired to put in new batteries left one of the battery cables unhooked and either stashed it behind the batteries or it fell back there.  But the fact it wouldn't start after putting in new batteries, you would have thought he would have gone back and figured out he missed the cable.

So my generator will stay running now, I can start the coach off the chassis batteries now and my jacks work.

Still having an issue with my aquahot, after emailing them with what it was doing, their response was that it sounded like their was corrosion or some sort of blockage in the system and wants us to run vinegar thru the system under pressure.  I bought my service guy 5 gallons of vinegar, just need to get him to find the time to rig up some pipes a bucket and a sump pump to try to get the vinegar thru the system.

Anyone ever have any issues with an aquahot plugging up?

Thanks,

[Orman Claxton]

Hello Tim
Yes, I have ran into plugging of the older units, the use of vinegar is about the only safe way to remove the blockage.
Notice I said  (SAFE)

[Tim Schafer]

Is it safe to run the vinegar thru the whole water system? or should we try to only run it thru the aquahot system.

If it's safe to run thru the whole system we could just dump the vinegar in the fresh water tank and turn on the pump.

Otherwise we have to rig up pipes, buckets and sump pumps......

Thanks,

Tim & Ann

[Bill Sprague]

Is it safe to run the vinegar thru the whole water system? or should we try to only run it thru the aquahot system.

If it's safe to run thru the whole system we could just dump the vinegar in the fresh water tank and turn on the pump.

Otherwise we have to rig up pipes, buckets and sump pumps......

Thanks,

Tim & Ann

My "easiest way" woud be to do it the way one would winterize any RV.   You need two buckets and one hose.  You may even have a winterizing valve on your water pump from a previous owner.  If not, get a hose from the hardware store with a 1/2 inch female fitting on one end.  It will screw onto the inlet side of your water pump.   Put the other end in a bucket with the vinegar (or RV antifreeze).  Put another bucket under the outside shower, turn on the hot water valve, fill the bucket part way, stop, empty the second bucket into the first bucket and repeat.  I don't know, but it may work better if the HydroHot is on to heat the vinegar.  When you are done, hook the pump back up to your tank and run fresh water through the pump to rinse it.   A small amount of vinegar will get into a the rest of the system.  You can use city water and flush out all the other faucets. 

An alternate would be to make an "adapter" fitting at the hardware store.  It should have 1/2" female on one side for the pump inlet and 3/4" garden hose on the other.   Then you could use any piece of garden hose as your feed to the pump from the same bucket the outside shower is pumping into.   It would run conterminously until the vinegar does it's work.

Attached is a picture of the type of hose I use. 

[Edward Buker]

Tim,

It is safe to run it through the whole system. I would not put it in the tank, it would be hard to get out and the solution would get diluted by residual water. I would pull the water pump inlet hose and rig that to go into a gallon jug of vinegar. I would only open the hot on your outside water panel if you have a faucet there and catch what is coming out. If you have a mixing valve at the heating unit and there is a way to turn off cold water inlet to it I would do that so you would not dilute the solution. After water is out of the loop and vinegar is coming out, when it is reasonably clean, then pour it back in the jug at the pump and keep looping the solution adding fresh as needed.

Later Ed

[Frank Towle]

Congrats on taking on this challenge.  You'll learn a lot and have a sense of accomplishment when 'all systems are go' - sort of like setting up for a space launch  . 

Re: Battery cut off - we owned a '96 Patriot which did NOT have any battery shutoff except for the 'big boy' relay controlled by the 'demo' switch just inside the front door.

Re: washer/dryer - had same experience with our '96, would go thru all cycles but drum didn't spin.  spent an hour or so getting the unit out of the cabinet (after taking off doors), 5 minutes putting on a new belt and another hour sliding the unit back in.

Re: Aquahot - only thing I can think of is the hot-water mixer valve in the back of the unit.  Sounds like it might be plugged (intentionally or otherwise) preventing any hot water from passing thru.  Fortunately didn't have to get at mine in our current '01 Thunder.  Looks like a 2+ hour job to remove entire boiler assembly for access.

Hope I haven't repeated any prior posts - didn't take a lot of time to read in detail.  You will be able to launch your own service business after solving all of the above.

Cheers,

[Tim Schafer]

Ok, got my coach back tonight, I have hot water pressure now at the faucets, but the water isn't hot.....

The aquahot is running, we can hear it run and hear the burner ignite, it gets hot like it should, but the water isn't hot.  I did get about 10 seconds of warm water earlier, but nothing since then.

Does the aquahot need to have the burner burn for a certain amount of time before it heats the water?  I thought on demand meant as soon as the burner ignited it would start producing it almost immediately.

Again, forgive my basic knowledge of the way things work.

I'm afraid to leave it running without knowing how long it should run before water is ready to be used.

I do have it plugged into 50amp, so the electric heater will probably heat it up some, but would like to know the correct way of using it before I leave it running for any period of time.

In my kitchen there are the two switches, one for the heater and one for the pump, since I'm hooked up to city pressure, do I need to turn on the pump too to get hot water?

I also have the pump control up front where the tank gauges are.

I ended up having to replace the radiator cap on the aquahot, the repair shop had the aquahot running when I got there tonight and it was leaking antifreeze from around the cap, when we took the cap off it came apart into 3 pieces.  So I went and bought a new one, however it doesn't have the safety release switch on the top, the only one they had that had the switch was the 16lbs model, it had a 13lbs cap on it, so I wanted to match that.

Anyone know if the 16lbs one would be fine? or should i stick with the 13lbs one and just not worry about the safety release switch.

Thanks for any advice you can provide.  We are going to sleep in it tonight and I was kinda hoping for a hot shower in the morning, but I guess I can walk over to the showers at the campground.

Thank,

Tim & Ann

[Bill Sprague]

Tim,

"I thought on demand meant as soon as the burner ignited it would start producing it almost immediately."  No.  This is not an instand demand system.  It is a continuous system, but only when up, running and hot.

"I'm afraid to leave it running without knowing how long it should run before water is ready to be used."  You have to leave it running for the boiler fluid to get hot.

"since I'm hooked up to city pressure, do I need to turn on the pump too to get hot water?"  Most turn the pump off if hooked up to city water.  The pump runs only when it senses low pressure and a need for water.  So, if you have the normally higher city pressure the pump will never run even if you leave the switch on.   If the city water pressure drops, the pump will respond by pumping water from your tank.  It will not boost or "suck" water through the city's spigot.

The Aqua/HydroHot units heat a fluid in a contained tank to somewhere around 180 degrees.  While driving the engine does it, there is a small electric element that does it and there is a diesel burner that does it.   Any or all can be doing it at the same time.

The fluid will get up to around 180.  The hot water gets hot by circulating through the hotter fluid.  Once the fluid is hot, the diesel has about 50,000 BTUs of power to keep it hot continously if you shower that long.  It does not work at all like a continuous houshold water heater.

Our "normal" way of running it was to leave the electric on 24/7.  Since the electric element is about 5,000 BTUs of power it can't keep up with a long shower.  Short showers are possible on electric only, but far less fun.  If you have long, beautiful hair, there may not be enough hot water to completely rinse from a thorough shampoo.  The hot water cools the fluid it circulates in faster than the element can warm it.  So for normal showers, we would turn the diesel on.  Diesel stinks.  If you don't smell it your neighbor does, so when the shower was over, we turned it off. 

If it is cool outside and you are using the system for heat, the electric element can keep up if it is about 50 or 55 outside.  The electric element has about the same power as a single bathroom space heater.  Below 50 you have to have the diesel on to get enough BTUs of heat.

To keep from gassing ourselves and neighbors we ALWAYS connected an exhaust extension called a Genturi.

Starting from stone cold, it could take up to a couple hours for the electric element to get the fluid hot enough for hot water.  The diesel should do it in about 15 or 20 minutes. 

Leaving them on all the time hurts nothing except nasal passages.  In fact, there is a reasonable theory that infrequent use does more harm than regular use.

[David T. Richelderfer]

My coach is a 2004, a bit newer, so my opinions here are relative to what I know about it.  I have an AquaHot.  I can run the diesel burner and electric water heater element at the same time.  The thermostats for the water heater element are set about 10 F hotter than for the diesel burner.  The electric element turns on and off at 185 F and 210 F, respectively.  The diesel burner turns on and off at 175 F and 200 F, respectively.  Thus, if the electric element can keep the water at operating temperature, then the diesel burner will not turn on.

It takes awhile for the electric element to heat water.  It is not a fast water heating device.  On the other hand, the diesel burner is designed to keep water hot for continuous use... like an extra long, hot shower.  Thus, the diesel burner will heat water in 5 to 10 minutes.

If you are connected to shore water and its pressure is sufficient for your liking, then you do not need to operate the onboard water pump.  Sometimes if the shore water pressure is low, then turn on the pump... but you will need water in the fresh water tank because I believe the onboard pump pulls from the onboard fresh water tank.

Your AquaHot will have a tempering valve which mixes the heated fresh water with cold fresh water at a preset ratio to reduce the risk of scalding.  Obviously, 175 F to 210 F water is way too hot to use at the sinks and shower.  I have read several threads on this Forum where the tempering valves have been a problem and required replacement.  If you know your diesel burner and/or heating element are working and you're not getting hot water at a faucet or the shower, then the tempering valve could be defective.

[Steve Huber Co-Admin]

Tim,
Following up on Dave's comments re the "tempering" or mixing valve. There is an adjusting knob on it. Sometimes you can get it working by turning the knob back and forth, but be sure to set it back to it's original position.
Steve

[Tim Schafer]

Anyone got a picture of what the tempering valve looks like?  I'm wondering if my mechanic "fixed" my hot water pressure by just opening that knob up all the way and what I am actually getting at the faucet is just all the cold water that is going around the aquahot.

They didn't end up running the vinegar thru the system, because they thought they had resolved the issue.

Thanks,

Tim & Ann

[Bill Sprague]

Have you let the diesel burner run until it cycles off?

The one on our 2003 HydroHot looked like this. 

It would not adjust so far that you would get no hot water.  It would go from warm to scalding, but not cold.  On ours it was in the back near where the water entered cold and exited as hot.  To get to it you crawled under and removed a dozen screws from a sheet metal protection panel.  If you have long arms and there is space I could reach over the top of the HydroHot and feel it in the back.  It was on the forward side.

Older HydroHots did not have separate thermostats for what was considered "better" AquaHots.  A single thermostat turns on both the electric and diesel at the same time.  They can still be run together or separately. 

[Tim Schafer]

I found a valve underneath the burner unit that is next to impossible to reach with the burner in place, it seems to connect the hot to the cold line.  I'll bet that might be it.

I'll see if I can reach it with a long screwdriver and see if it will turn.

Thanks,

Tim & Ann

[Tim Schafer]

I turned it all the way one direction and had cold water, I turned it all the way the other direction and I now have luke warm water.

Not enough to shower with, but it's definitely warmer than what's coming out of the cold side of the faucet.  I have the diesel burner turned on but it's not running, assuming because it's already at operating temperature.

Tim & Ann