BAC Forum
General Boards => General Discussion => Topic started by: Justin Youngren on September 12, 2014, 07:09:21 PM
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This will be our first winter using the aquahot system. We are going to be needing out coach during below freezing temps and was wondering if all will be ok as long as the heater is running. We have both electric and diesel switch and are not sure which does what as far as heating the coach. We have only used the heat once and it seems like it only worked as long as both switches were on, is that right? Also when we do get ready to winterize it how is the best way to get the antifreeze poured in? Sorry if my questions are dumb I just don't want to freeze anything up. Will the basement where the holding tanks are be heated as well?
Thanks Pam P.S. We have the 2006 Monterey
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Pam,
Your coach will be fine if the heat is running because all of the coach is heated including the basement. The electric switch heats the coach on shore power if you are plugged in to power. The diesel switch heats the coach with the diesel boiler using battery power for the fans and pumps. So you need to keep the batteries charged if you are dry camped. This is of course dependent on the system properly operating and the thermostats set to heat the coach.
There is a limitation when running the system on electric only because the electric element only produces about 1/4 as much heat as the diesel boiler. Most owners find that if it gets much below 45 degrees, the diesel boiler is needed to properly heat the coach to a comfortable level.
You can not pour RV antifreeze in to your lines. It needs to be pumped in until you have pink running at all outlets, both hot and cold. Also be sure the icemaker and washing machine are properly winterized.
Gerald
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Others here may likely expound further, Pam, but as long as your HydroHot is on your bay heater outlet will kick on anytime the thermostat down there senses about 40 some degrees. Your diesel HydroHot switch will provide the most energy to the system. The electric switch can save some diesel fuel, especially if you are hooked up to park power, but it is less effective than the diesel burner, and is mostly for helping to maintain a heat level that the diesel has already attained for the system. If hooked to park power it is best to leave both switches on, but with very low demand you can get by with just the electric side alone. Also, while on the highway the engine exchanges heat with the HydoHot automatically so the HydroHot's burner doesn't have to use fuel then, and upon arrival at a camping spot your system is already hot by way of the engine. And before you leave a campsite, if you turn on the Engine Preheat switch next to the Diesel and Electric switches, about 15 to 30 minutes before leaving, the HydroHot will pump fluid to warm the engine for a more efficient startup - especially useful in winter or on cold mountain mornings; remember to turn that switch off just before pulling out.
If you want a lot of hot water, such as taking a shower, you will want to be sure the diesel burner switch is on, because the electric side alone won't keep up with enough hot water. Also be aware that hot water has the priority over space heat. So if you hear your floor vent heat exchanger fans running and then turn on and run a lot of hot water somewhere, you'll likely notice the vent fans shut off to make sure there's plenty of hot water. Water circulates through the HydroHot to be heated before going to your Hot spigots. The engine's hot coolant similarly delivers heat via an exchanger in the HydroHot, and when the engine is cold a pump in the HydroHot returns the favor. Additionally, a special antifreeze circulates via pumps through blue and red tubing you may have seen here and there in bays and under cabinets. The red tubes carry hot fluid to your floor heat vents where small fans extract heat and blow it into the room. The blue tubes return the cooler fluid back to the HydroHot for heating again. So your HydroHot is your furnace and hot water heater all in one.
In cold weather your electric side may not be able to keep up with heating the coach by itself, and/or if you are using much hot water. So that could be why the one time you used the furnace you needed both diesel and electric switches on.
If your '06 is like mine, there should be a winterizing kit already installed in with the water pump, which is behind a small removable carpeted panel on the left wall of the main curbside storage bay. If you have trouble locating it, I will be glad to supply a photo to help. You need of course to drain everything first by way of the valves in your waterbay and its manifold. Shutoff valves on the lines in with the water pump can be opened to let water drain out also, including the one next to the filter for the fridge icemaker. The hose from the kit goes into jugs of pink RV winterizing antifreeze, the valve from the water tank is shut off, and by turning on faucets, shower valves, water bay shower, icemaker valve, and toilet valve, the water pump moves the antifreeze through your tubes. As the "pink stuff" shows up at each outlet, turn it off and move on to the next. Be sure you do both cold and HOT! It is almost imperative that you pump RV antifreeze through the HydroHot to protect its coils - many winterize by blowing air through their water lines, but that may not be enough to secure the HydroHot's coils, so use antifreeze at the very least until you see it exit at least one hot water faucet.
Two areas that are special (beyond protecting the HydroHot from freezing) are the fridge icemaker and any washer/dryer. You should learn how to manually cycle the icemaker to insure protective fluid gets through it. But the coach should already have from the factory a foil heat tape around the icemaker's valve above the solenoid in the back of the fridge; as long as your 12 v. batteries aren't depleted, the heat tape should keep any undrained water in the valve from freezing and breaking it. The tape comes on at 38 degrees and goes off at 48. As for our washer, we simply follow Splendide's directions in their manual and add a cup or so of antifreeze in the drum and spin cycle once.
Alternatively, if we think we might use the coach during the winter sometime, rather than have to dewinterize and rewinterize during storage, I've just gone out during cold snaps here in the Willamette Valley and turned on the HydroHot on electric and set the front thermostat at 40 degrees. I might add a small space heater on low, but rarely. As long as the HydroHot is on, electric or diesel or both, the bay thermostat and vent protects waste tanks and lines down there; the HydroHot protects itself and adjacent water tank by virtue of just being on. My tanks aren't really at risk anyway since they are usually empty, but any residual water elsewhere won't freeze. All that said, there is always a chance of a power outage, either at your park power source or on the coach, so the electric side of the HydroHot wouldn't run. Even if the diesel were on, without a 120 volt battery charger the batteries would eventually run down to where the burner might fail. So if you don't winterize the rig, and rely on onboard heating during storage, you should keep it where you can regularly check on things, daily if possible during subzero weather.
Joel
I see Gerald beat me to it, and with a much more succinct reply to your questions. He is much more efficient with words than this old windbag :P
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1. The electric element requires either shore power or generator power to operate; it does not operate at all from the house batteries.
2. The diesel burner will operate from the house batteries.
3. Whether using the electric element or diesel burner, or both together, the pumps that move heated solution throughout the coach to the four heating zones and to preheat the engine will operate from the house batteries.
4. The furnace heating registers located in the four heating zones have fans that will operate from the house batteries.
Bottom line is
5. Either shore power or the generator will be needed even if using the diesel burner, and not the electric element, because the diesel burner in combination with the pumps (moving heated solution) and the furnace fans (blowing heated air) will pull hard on the house batteries... requiring the house batteries to be recharged at regular intervals throughout the day during cold outdoor temperatures.
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Pam,
Gerald and Joel are certainly correct however I want to add a more northern perspective....
In my opinion, my coach and I suspect most are woefully inadequately insulated. What this means is while, yes, the hydro hot/aqua hot does provide heat to the basement blower, there isn't a lot of insulation to keep that heat in the tank bay. On my coach, the bay heater is on the curb side, while the pump and all other plumbing lines/ manifold are on the driver side. There is also NO insulation below the tank bay, none on any exterior side save for the poor light duty foam insulation in the doors.
What does this mean....it means that in climates that Beaver/Monaco designers felt most owners would operate in, the system is adequate and I suspect it is as I have had no problem at temperatures just below freezing - probably due to the fact the aqua hot is running which is in the bay beside the water bay.
However, and this is the fun part, when cold weather is encountered (say -18C/ 0F) then there can be problems. As I said on mine the heater is (for all intents) a fair ways from the pump. Last year when venturing south in January and leaving in -22C, my water pump started to ice up (others may remember me posting about no water). I attributed it to the heater just not being able to heat the bay adequately, especially with little to no insulation. Also there are some small holes in the floor for drain tubes etc, which when driving down the road act as vacuum to suck any heat out of the bay.
I have started to add more insulation - replaced/added better styrofoam in the bay doors; spray foamed any visible areas, but it is really hard to get the areas that need it. IF it would have been done when manufactured, easy, now not so much.
Also, depending upon your coach, my coach's basement heater is only for one bay; the other two bays are on there own.
As I prefaced it with the statement that most owners never intend or will use their coach in cold temperatures, I suppose some latitude can be given to the Monaco designers, but in reality when coaches are list priced at 3,4,5, 600+K, you'd think a little insulation wouldn't be a big deal. I also looked at my brochure and see that there is no insulation mentioned in the floor - no wonder the tile feels cold on cool mornings (I don't have the infloor heat).
One last thing, while the engine is running, it does provide heat as if the aquahot is on But insufficient in cold weather. I have started turning on my diesel aqua hot even while driving when encountering cold weather. With all the blowers running, the engine side isn't able to keep up.
Fortunately I usually only have to encounter 1 or 2 days like that a year.
A little Canadian perspective.
Jeff
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I write this story about once a year when "cold weather use" comes up.
BJ and I accidentally tested our Monterey at -15F and 50 mph winds on a "spring" trip through South Dakota. Because of the winds, we kept the slides in. I-90 was closed. We could not go anywhere, so spent three days in a small campground. It was snowing so hard, we could see little. We did see an awning blow off, picnic tables roll by and other campers try to drive to find propane.
We do try to avoid blizzards but don't mind camping in cold weather. With due respect to Jeff, our motorhome seems insulated well enough. With a little searching there are plenty of Monaco product owners that enjoy winter use for activities like skiing and snowmobiling. I'm sure extra insulation would help, but we've not needed it.
Our HydroHot produced enough heat to keep everything, including us, warm and comfortable during the blizzard.
However, during our blizzard stay, the HydroHot started making odd noises that turned out to be a pending bearing failure in the Webasto diesel burner. The noises lead to me worrying about failure of the HydroHot. If the HydroHot and it's bearing had quit during our unplanned blizzard, we had no backup plan. Not only would we have frozen, but various motorhome systems would have been damaged as well.
The electrical energy from 50 amp service or a 7500 watt Onan can produce enough heat to replace the output of a failed Hydro/AquaHot. I now keep a collection of Wal-Mart two speed space heaters in a back corner of the "basement" and have figured out how to plug them all in without overloading circuits. However, all but the washer/dryer outlet is on the inverter circuit so only about a third of the available electricity is usable without making some changes. In our case I've added outlets to circuits that are not on the inverter circuit. The two key circuits are the ones used for the air-conditioners.
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I agree with Bill about keeping slides in or at least in while you don't need them. You never know what might happen overnight - snow, freezing rain - which is more than a just a nuisance to get off the slide topper awnings.
My 05 was better insulated than this one (at least around the bays) and its bay heater seemed to heat a bigger bay without issue. I don't mean to suggest they won't stay ok, it just bothers me after seeing how other manufactures insulate the bay and floors of their coaches. A piece of plastic and/or fibreboard doesn't equate to insulation in my books - sorry for the rant.
Jeff
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I agree with Bill about keeping slides in or at least in while you don't need them. You never know what might happen overnight - snow, freezing rain - which is more than a just a nuisance to get off the slide topper awnings.
My 05 was better insulated than this one (at least around the bays) and its bay heater seemed to heat a bigger bay without issue. I don't mean to suggest they won't stay ok, it just bothers me after seeing how other manufactures insulate the bay and floors of their coaches. A piece of plastic and/or fibreboard doesn't equate to insulation in my books - sorry for the rant.
Jeff
I've not kept track of various model Beavers, but I was told that models made in Bend around 2000, plus and minus a few years, had a lot more insulation. In ours, I used a hole saw to cut access for an small shop air compressor hose and was impressed with the "core" I removed.
My winter use rant is about the silly slide toppers that collect water in a big puddle when it rains. And, where we spend a lot of time, it does rain. When the temperature drops those puddles become big chunks of ice. When that happens you can't bring the slides in for travel. Even if it warms up, the ice takes a long time to melt without help. You can buy or make a replacement to the outdoor shower head that will connect your water hose. Since the HydroHot makes continuous hot water, you can melt the ice if you don't mind climbing an icy ladder or standing on the icy roof spraying hot water! (The "adapter" is 1/2 inch male pipe thread with 3/4 inch male garden hose. The shower head unscrews and you replace it with the adapter.)
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I was thinking the inverter passed through power from 12v and 110v sources to 12v and 110v fixtures, respectively. The inverter limitation is only found when it's inverting, that is, when it is producing 110v from 12v. Otherwise, whatever 110v amperage is available from either shore or generator sources is fully usable in the coach at 110v fixtures and receptacles found throughout the coach. And likewise, whatever 12v amperage is available from the batteries or alternator is usable to run 12v fixtures found throughout the coach. Again, I was thinking the inverter limitation, in my case 2500 watts, only applies to 12v battery power going into the inverter and coming out as 110v (which goes to most 110v fixtures, but not all, such as the roof airs, for example).
Please correct me if I am wrong on this. I guess my point is with adequate shore power or while the generator is running at least one space heater could be plugged into each 110v circuit found throughout the coach. In my case that would amount to four or five space heaters - two or three in the living room, one or two in the bedroom, one or two in the basement, etc.
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David,
These coaches try and make the 120v available in many locations so most of the outlets are tied to the inverter. You can test that by plugging in the coach to 120V at the pole and killing the main inverter breaker on the 120V panel in the bedroom and having the inverter off see what outlets are live. There is a single usually 30 amp 120V feed going to the inverter. You can check that by the inverter circuit breaker size in your 120V panel. The main issue is that the inverters tend to be made with a rather undersized somewhat cheaply made set of relays to handle the transfer end of the business. I would probably put no more than one or two 750W heaters on the outlets fed from the inverter enabled outlets. As the contactors get older and surface resistance caused by oxidation, arc pitting from making and breaking contacts under load, as well as inductive load arcing degrade the contacts. The current handling capability diminishes, resistance goes up and they tend to overheat with heavy loads. Constant resistive heater load near capacity would be pretty tough to handle with small contactors as they age. Some inverters also have the little push button breakers built in that should never be used with resistive heater loads.
Some of the newer heavy duty better built inverters may handle this job better but cost constraints do limit the components and one would bet that the relays do not have gold contacts in todays market place.
If you go through the inverter off/breaker off test you may be able to find outlets that do not go through the inverter which would be my first choice outlets for a heater. Bill's approach adding outlets that do not go through the inverter is a good sound approach to the back up electric heating issue. The main transfer switch may be a good source to wire in and add another breaker box for the extra outlets.
Later Ed
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The electrical energy from 50 amp service or a 7500 watt Onan can produce enough heat to replace the output of a failed Hydro/AquaHot.
Bill,
I'm confused. Did you mean to say the electric element CANNOT produce enough heat to replace.....
Stan
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Bill,
I'm confused. Did you mean to say the electric element CANNOT produce enough heat to replace.....
Stan
He said the electrical system was enough to support SPACE HEATERS to replace the hydro-hot output, not that the electric element would replace the hydro-hot output.
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I guess I took at face value the statement that "the inverter passes through 110v power" from two sources, shore and generator. You are saying the power passed through is limited by a single feed and its breaker? That would mean only one leg of the two-leg 110v power supply goes to the inverter, and only a minority proportion, say 30% or less, of the shore or generator power is allowed to even get to and pass through the inverter. This interpretation being (mostly) true means Bill is correct in that to use multiple space heaters means they are best plugged directly into one of the two legs coming from either shore or generator sources, such as the roof circuits as Bill pointed out.
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He said the electrical system was enough to support SPACE HEATERS to replace the hydro-hot output, not that the electric element would replace the hydro-hot output.
Got it. I misunderstood.
Thanks,
Stan
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It's not that the coach's "electrical system" can support multiple space heaters, because as a coach system it will not apparently at all receptacles. What Bill meant is the electrical sources consisting of 50 amp shore or generator power will usually support multiple space heaters. What I am learning is that the "system," downstream from the shore and generator power sources, is bottle-necked before it passes through the inverter. The trick, as Bill pointed out, is to find and access circuits to power the space heaters that do not go through this bottle-neck.
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David,
You are right there is a single position 120V 30 amp breaker from one of the legs of the 120V feed that goes through a 10/2 wire with ground to the inverter. So most all of the coach outlets are fed by this line through the inverter. The lightest duty component in the chain is the built in transfer relay contactor set in the inverter and that is an item you want to preserve by not putting the maximum possible load on it for really extended durations. Most of the smaller 120v loads added together in the RV that intermittently go on and off are fine. The point being do not add three heaters to that normal load that contains most everything we use and expect the transfer relay to last.
Later Ed
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The electric element requires either shore power or generator power to operate; it does not operate at all from the house batteries.
Not true, The relay that supplies power to the Electric element is DC powered
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Orman - I guess I do not understand... again! My electric element is turned on and off by a single breaker in my 110v panel, right beside breakers for the three roof airs, inverter, etc. I assumed from that the electric element is a 110v fixture. I have a separate 110v panel - beside the 12v panel in another cabinet - that controls what I thought are circuits coming through the inverter. Or, is what you are saying the electric element uses 110v to heat but is turned on and off by a separate 12v relay? So the AquaHot requires both 12v and 110v to turn the electric element on?
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David,
I'm certainly not going to suggest you are wrong! Our motorhomes could be wired differently. I'm at the condo, so I can't double check the panels or wiring diagram. But, I think if I plugged in two space heaters into convenient outlets in our motorhome I would overload the single breaker for that circuit. It is not the inverter limitation, it is the limitation of the 120v circuit itself.
Part of the challenge is that, even with adequate shore power, it is divided into two circuits of 50 amps. Our genset supplies only 30 amps to each circuit. If our theoretical cold weather HydroHot failure is in the mountains, the genset might not produce full output.
As near as I can tell, the inverter "pass through" is 30 amps based on the breaker panels in the back. The primary panel feeds a 30 amp sub panel. The subpanel has three circuits with 15 amp breakers: entertainment, microwave and "everything else". The everything else circuit has all the easy to access outlets and 120 lights on it. In other words, I have a single 15 amp or 1800 watt outlet circuit. The rest of the available electricity goes other places besides the convenient outlets. I goes to places like the block heater, the air conditioners, the refrigerator, the washer/dryer, the very limited electric part of the HydroHot and the microwave.
(On a side note, the electric element built into the Hydro/AquaHot uses about the same amount of electricity as a single space heater on high. But, the heat it produces has to keep the Hydro/AquaHot warm and is distributed with liquid through tubes to heat exchangers hidden behind cabinetry. So even though it uses about the same as a single space heater, the heat and comfort you get is far less due to ineffecient heat loss.)
Typical space heaters and hair dryers draw 8 amps on "low" and 12 amps on "high". In other words, you can run only one on a standard 15 amp household circuit set to high with a 3 amp "safety" margin. You might run two on low but it is past the theoretical limit of the circuit.
Our most used motorhome heat source in "normal" weather is a baseboard style space heater in the living room. It is set to low (8 amps) and we know where to set the knob to maintain about 68 to 70 degrees. It works fairly well down to about 50 degrees F outside.
In "abnormally cold" weather, the baseboard heater does not keep up. 8 amps turned into BTUs is not enough. I think that is about 3000 BTUs. I recall the HydroHot is capable of 50,000 BTUs.
My suggestion of using space heaters as a HydroHot backup is aimed at solving the problem of being in very frozen circumstances with complete HydroHot failure. In other words, somewhere below 25 F outside air temperature! I would want heat in my tank bay at 8 amps, basement storage at 8 amps, perhaps the HydroHot itself to prevent freeze cracking at 8 amps, bedroom at 12 amps and living room at 12 amps. That's 48 amps total.
I've installed 4 additional "utility box" outlets in circuits that do not use the "everything else" circuit. In my emergency plan, that circuit will heat the tank bay and basement. The additional utility box outlets in each air conditioner circuit power the two living space heaters. The electric element in the Hydrohot should keep it from freezing and provide some heat if it is only a diesel burner failure.
I freely admit that my freezing weather/HydroHot failure plan is complex and the best solution is the same as always shows up in the winterizing threads --- stay south in the winter! However, our South Dakota blizzard lasted three days. By the second day, the wiring diagrams started to become interesting! The screeching noise in the diesel burner was growing louder. At the time, I had only one space heater. At that moment, I wanted a backup plan! My heaters and utility box outlets cost about $100. On my motorhome, there was easy access so it only took a few hours to put them in.
In summary David, I think you could plug in one space heater in the basement on low. Another into a convenience outlet inside, also on low. A third, in a convenience outlet should trip the breaker UNLESS you have two convenience circuits with their own breaker. You may be able to plug one into the microwave outlet and another into the washer/dryer outlet -- if you can get to it. You would certainly get by down to about 25 degrees outside as long as you can keep the Hydro/AquaHot from freezing. I have a smaller genset than you and would run into the 30 amp limits to each leg.
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Bill,
I'm confused. Did you mean to say the electric element CANNOT produce enough heat to replace.....
Stan
Yes, Stan, that is correct. The replacement part for the electric element in your Hydro/AquaHot is 1600 watts, sometimes less depending on model. Therefore, the electric element in the AquaHydro/Hot cannot produce more total heat than a hair dryer. It is distributed well, but there is not much there. The diesel burner made by Webasto that is used in the Hydro/AquaHot is at least 10 times more capable of producing heat.
If it is much below about 60 degrees outside, you will not stay warm on electric only from the HydroHot. Unless.... you have one of the rare models that has TWO electric elements in it.
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.......Bill's approach adding outlets that do not go through the inverter is a good sound approach to the back up electric heating issue. The main transfer switch may be a good source to wire in and add another breaker box for the extra outlets.
Later Ed
Ed, the easy place for me was in the A/C units. On our Monterey, the A/C air return is hinged to make filter cleaning or replacement easy. There is a standard utility or "J" box close inside where the A/C unit is wired into the motorhome system with standard household wire nuts. It was easy to replace the closed "J" box cover with an outlet cover and outlet.
One surprise was that the wire nuts were taped with plastic electrical tape. Oddly, the nuts were wrapped in the opposite direction of the wire nut threads. The elasticity of the electrical tape loosened the wire nuts as the tape naturally shrunk. Had the tape been wrapped the other direction, it might have kept the nuts tight in a high vibration environment, but it was wrapped in the wrong direction for that purpose. I've never seen electrical tape used on top of a wire nut before, so I have no idea what the installer was trying to do.
Bill
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He said the electrical system was enough to support SPACE HEATERS to replace the hydro-hot output, not that the electric element would replace the hydro-hot output.
Yes, that is what I meant.
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LEGAL DISCLAIMER AND SAFETY ALERT!!!!!
Normal heating with space heaters is a known cause of fires. Lots of them. They tip over, blankets fall off of sleepy laps, cords are tripped over and they fail. Perhaps worse, when operated at full output, the cords, plugs and THE WIRING BEHIND THE OUTLET AND INSIDE THE WALL CAN GET HOT.
My theoretical discussion about multiple use of space heaters is about surviving (comfortably!) in extremely colds weather in the unlikely event of a total primary furnace failure.
I confess to personal use of a baseboard style space heater that is NEVER SET ON HIGH unless I'm sitting next to it. Since it is a baseboard style, no single part of it gets hot enough to "glow" or cause combustion. Compared to my "emergency" space heaters, it was very expensive. Used on low, it is a comfortable and quiet boost to the normal heating system, the Hydro/AquaHot.
DO NOT USE SPACE HEATERS FOR NORMAL HEATING! It can be extremely difficult for us old people to get out of the emergency exits when there is a fire. (The emergency exits are the windows with the red latches.)
Besides, the more you use the Aqua/HydroHot, the more reliably it works.
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20 degrees is what I remember. The problem is I don't remember if it was the electric element/furnaces or the three roof airs that held the coach to 20 degrees warmer than outside. Maybe it was both. It's hell getting old, isn't it? Anyways, I usually use the roof airs (heat pumps) to warm and cool the coach. I rarely turn on the diesel burner for heating. It gets operated more for exercising than for heating. I think I carry one space heater, and haven't used it yet.
I just looked in the coach. The main 110v panel has a main and seven sub-breakers. The other cabinet has a 110v panel with its main and five sub-breakers, and the 12v panel has no main with 12 sub-breakers. The inverter sub-breaker in the main 110v panel is 30 amp.
This has been a very interesting discussion, and I for one have learned a lot. Thank you all. Now it's off to the river for an afternoon boat trip and dinner. Toodles...
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Orman,
On my Aqua Hot 100-2s the 120V Romex is wire nutted to wires that go to a high limit and a control button thermostat that feed the electric element directly, no relay in this version anyway. The heating element in this unit is fed directly by the breaker panel, no relays or switches, just thermostats.
Bill,
It is common practice to tape wire nuts in applications where vibration is possible or exposure to any possible weather. I had not thought of shrinking tape possibly loosening them, interesting.... My microwave outlet is fed by the inverter so it is not separate. I guess the lesson is, do the test I described and see which outlets are not fed through the inverter and if you are worried and do not have enough then add several as needed to handle heaters. Maybe just one heater on one outlet that feeds through the inverter would be rational when it is in pass through mode of 120V and not inverting.
Later Ed
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Edward, you are right for your model.
Also
On my 2005 Monterey, Heat pump will operate quite well until around 45 deg, then will automatically switch to Aqua-Hot, all depending on your settings.
Interesting, to say the least!
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Orman,
So many configurations out there, I do not know how you masters with your sleeves rolled up keep them all straight. Beyond that most of them are in compartments that are not easy to work in. My hats off to the few of you that go there for the rest of us...
Later Ed
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I am right there with you, Mr. Buker. One distinction I would make though is you are one of them. I am grateful for all the help and lengthy explanations I read here on the forum. This group of a dozen or so "doctors," some specialists and some GPs is just like going to a medical clinic. I feel like I am in med school yet... albeit the first year.
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Wow! That was a load of information! Thank you all so much. We should be able to prepare ourselves to go to SD the end of Oct. and to Las Vegas in Dec.. We have been caught in blizzards before and know what that is like.
We still have yet to learn how to service the hydrohot diesel ourselves too so if anyone has done that we would greatly appreciate any advise. Thanks again! This forum has been so awsome! :)
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Justin,
Unless you are a contortionist, or the PO of your coach changed things, it will be difficult for you to service it yourself. If your Hydro/AquaHot is in the bay directly behind the curbside steer tire, like ours, its stuffed in to a small space, with most of the components that have to be serviced in the rear of the box. Just changing the diesel filter (ours is way in the back of the bay on the wall) is tough. Some owners have moved the filter to the front of the bay, as long as they have long enough fuel lines. The Webasto has to be removed in order to change the fuel nozzle, which must be done annually.
Those who have shop space, the tools, and the know-how, likely do their own. I wish I was in that group!
Good luck,
Stan
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.....We still have yet to learn how to service the hydrohot diesel ourselves too so if anyone has done that we would greatly appreciate any advise. Thanks again! This forum has been so awsome! :)
My suggestion would to be watch Orman Claxton do it. If you are not near where he is, there are lists of "trained by the factory" technicians scattered around the country. Be forewarned that some shops may claim they are "authorized" but the tech they sent to school may have moved on.
The reason I suggest you watch someone first, is that the HydroHot is a very complex system made up of German and USA made components. Normal service included a filter and nozzle change, but also some sensor cleaning and igniter adjustments.
One of Orman's competitors maintains a website and an online parts business. If you subscribe, you have access to service and troubleshooting checklists.