All,
Wanted to share an experience. We use our 2000 Marquis for weekend trips and to attend college football games. This weekend, we were at the Arkansas - Missouri game and it got a bit chilly. We flipped on the switches for the heater and all seemed okay. After an hour or more we started smelling wire burning and discovered smoke coming from the bay with the heater and water heater. We quickly turned off the batteries and hit the breaker for the water heater. As we removed the cover plate on the water heater the insulation caught fire. Luckily I had one of my fire extinguishers in hand and we quickly doused the fire. Scary stuff!
Thinking through what had happened (picture attached), my guess is that since we had winterized the coach there was no water in the water heater and the element overheated. I was not aware that the heater control for the coach heat activated the water heater. Seems very odd that they would not have a sensor that would shut down the unit if it sensed no water was present.
Only one complaint about the Beaver brand and that is the extremely poor documentation of the coach systems. I was lucky enough to "inherit" most of the appliance manuals, etc., but the booklet put out as an owner's manual is a bit of a joke for such a complex system.
Mike
