Hydro Hot Woes

[Stan Simpson]

We are on the coast of Oregon. When hooked to shore power, I generally turn off the diesel burner on the Hydro Hot for overnight so my next door neighbor doesn't get fumes, and leave the electric element on. In 2+ years of ownership, the HH has been serviced regularly, and has always performed well.

This morning, I turned on the diesel burner as usual and..nothing. I took a shower that got progressively cooler as the hot water supplied by the electric quickly went down the drain.

I talked to Orman Claxton and he talked me through some rudimentary trouble shooting. Eventually, we got to the point where removing the burner was the next step. I don't have the tools with me necessary to do that, and I'm not sure I could put it back together correctly. Orman has suggested that the motor is dead. Someone else has suggested that it could be the thermostat.

I'm just north of Gold Beach, and the closest service center with certified HH techs is Carrier RV Service in Eugene. The soonest I can get in there is Tuesday morning, hopefully after a quick visit to Crater Lake NP.

Does anyone have any input regarding Carrier? Any experience with these same symptoms? I didn't even consider BCS knowing how busy they are and how long we would have to wait.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Stan

[Gerald Farris]

Stan,
There is something that you need to be cautious of, and that is the practice by many RV repair shops to advertise that they have Aqua Hot certified technicians when they may only have one and he may not be the one working on your coach. I have seen shops advertise certified technicians in a certain field, and that technician was actually the shop foreman who never worked on the vehicles.

Gerald

[Stan Simpson]

Gerald,

Thank you for that advice. I have heard that before, and I made sure to ask if the tech who will work on our HH is actually certified. The owner's wife assured me they will show me the certification from Colorado, where they sent three employees for training.

I promise to be cautious.

Thanks,

Stan

[Stan Simpson]

Update!

First, let me start by saying that when we arrived in the campground on the 30th of July, the host put us in a site that had a couple of trees blocking our satellite reception. We discovered it AFTER hooking everything up. We asked to move to a site that looked like it would work, and they were gracious enough to let us move.

I noticed when hooking shore power to the new site, the 50 amp receptacle had not been used in some time. It was covered with spider webs, etc.

It was the next morning that our HH failed to fire. During our stay at that location, a breaker for the overhead galley light tripped, and we reset it without a problem. In addition, a breaker (not sure which one as it happened to Becky and she doesn't remember) also tripped while using the hair dryer, and was reset without further incident.

We left there and are now at Diamond Lake RV Park just outside Crater Lake NP. We arrived on Sunday night, hooked up and just for the heck of it I turned on the diesel switch for the HH. Fired right up! Has been performing perfect since!

Could the problem (as most of you know by now, I'm severely electrically challenged but learning!) have been the 50 amp shore power at the previous campground? I can't imagine how a 110 volt requirement would have any effect on the 12V that starts the HH. Unless the 50 amp failed to charge our house batteries to a sufficient level? I admit, I never looked at the screen while we were there. We never use the inverter, except to watch TV while dry camping.

Right now, all is well, and the house batteries are shown on float on the inverter charger. I checked the water levels and all are fine.

Any ideas on my idea? Or am I way off base?

Thanks,

Stan

P.S. Heating water in the microwave to use for showers is not a good thing!   Also, if there's any doubt, raise the satellite dish before you hook up water, electric and sewer. Everyone else probably already does that. Live and learn.

[Gerald Farris]

Stan,
I can not answer your question without knowing the charge state of your house batteries when the HH malfunctioned. If the house batteries were fully charged, the shore power should not effect the HH unit.

Gerald

[Orman Claxton]

Stan
Like I said,
It sounds like the motor has a dead spot. It may not happen for several days, It may happen the next time you turn it on.
But, it will fail, at the most inopportune time.

[Stan Simpson]

Update!

As mentioned back in August, our Hydro Hot mysteriously started running again after it mysteriously stopped running. It ran fine until we arrived at Amana Colonies RV Park in Amana IA on the way home. Suddenly it stopped running again.

We have been home about 2 weeks, and today I took the coach to my Aqua Hot guy in Janesville WI. He discovered an open circuit on the high temperature sensor, replaced it, and we are all good again!

Shop rate is $86.00 an hour, and total bill with the new sensor was $189.00. Great to be back to where I can have it diagnosed. Orman suggested the same thing as a possibility back in August when we spoke on the phone. Just had no way to troubleshoot the problem. If knew anything about electricity, I probably could have found that open circuit...eventually. But I don't, so its great to have a tech 35 miles from home.

[Robert Mathis]

On our last trip to Alaska, we tripped the high temperature sensor twice, both times after driving in the mountains, and resetting it corrected the problem. I beleive it was caused by higher than normal engine coolant temps. I suspect the sensor is too sensitive or getting weak, and probably needs to be replaced. It never tripped while the unit was working off the burner. The coach is on consignement at Alliance right now, and I had forgotten about this until I read this post.