# Water Heater Problem



## RWfan (Mar 5, 2004)

This is a crazy one that has me scratching my head.

When turning on the hot water handle on any of my fauscets I do not get any water at all (I thought that if there was a problem with the water heater I would at least get cold water flowing rather than none at all) . I get cold water when opening up the cold water handle though. To check things out, I threw the bypass valve and then I get cold water flowing coming out of the faucet witht he hot water handle opened. I checked and the tank is hot too. I hit the switch for the gas and it ignites perfectly. Unfortunately I did not bring my volt meter with me camping and cannot check to see if the electrical element is energized. Is there a solenoid switch that shuts off the water located inside the tank? Sometimes when I open the hot water handle I here something akin to a solenoid switch closing. (thump) coming from the tank.

Any help is greatly apreciated. I'll call the dealer once we finish camping.

Thanks,
Dave


----------



## Katrina (Dec 16, 2004)

Sounds like the in-line backflow preventer was installed backwards.
It should be on the line coming out of the top of the water heater tank.
It's supposed to prevent water from flowing back into the tank and in this case, it's preventing water from flowing out of the tank.


----------



## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

Since this is an older unit I would suspect that the outlet check valve has failed shut. As mentioned it is the top outlet fitting in the water heater tank.


----------



## Katrina (Dec 16, 2004)

CamperAndy said:


> Since this is an older unit I would suspect that the outlet check valve has failed shut. As mentioned it is the top outlet fitting in the water heater tank.


My mistake, I initially read it to be a new unit.

open the thermal popoff valve ont he water heater (without burning yourself) and make sure you have water flow there. That will confirm that water is entering the tank.
Then replace the check valve on the top line.


----------



## RWfan (Mar 5, 2004)

Thanks

The faulty check valve makes sense, however I did not realize that there was one on the tank. I'll pull everything apart and check it out.

Really do appreciate the input.

Dave


----------



## ED_RN (Jun 25, 2006)

Could the water heater bypass valve be in the wrong position??


----------



## Scoutr2 (Aug 21, 2006)

Do you have just one bypass valve at the water heater? Or do you have two or three? There are several different configurations that have been used over the years for bypassing the water heater. My owner's manual and supporting information given to me by my dealer includes a couple sheets on winterizing and de-winterizing. These instruction sheets show three different configurations of lines/valves for bypassing the water heater.

Luckily, mine has just the one valve at the heater inlet, which turns the water to the bypass line, which T's into the outlet line AFTER the check valve. The other configurations can get confusing, especially if you are not familiar with the system and which lines are inlet/outlet.

If you describe which configuration you have, someone here can (and may already have) address your problem (sounds like just one valve - but look to see if maybe there aren't others that you didn't notice).

Just my $.02.

Mike


----------



## RWfan (Mar 5, 2004)

I purchased this camper in Aug of 2002 and it has been great! Unfortunately on this last camping trip I experienced the problem - intermittant hot water supply. Murphy's law - of course.

It was definitely plumbed correctly from the factory. It appears to only have one check valve.

I bypassed the water heater and got cold water out of the hot water side of the faucet (could even pulled/siphoned a little hot water out of the water tank through the cold water side of the faucet). Both the electrical and gas heating of the tank seems to work correctly. I'll pull the check valve off this weekend and see if I can replace it with something similar from Home Depot - otherwise I'll order another from the dealer as it can't be very much $.

Once again, thanks for all of the help from this site. I should have realised that it had a check valve on the inlet side from the get-go. Maybe it was all of the pressure of the DF watching and expecting the problem to "go away"









RWFan


----------



## W4DRR (May 17, 2005)

Once while camping, our hot water just suddenly quit flowing. I tried all the faucets....not a drop. I suspected a blocked check valve, so I removed one of them (ours has 2) and the spring part of the valve had apparently gone on holiday, because it was no where to be found. And the plunger part of the valve was jammed in there in such a way as to prevent any flow. I simply removed the plunger from the valve, and re-installed it on the hot water tank, and all was fine. The camping trip was saved. Once we returned home, I got a replacement valve at CW and installed it.

Bob


----------



## RWfan (Mar 5, 2004)

This sounds exactly like what happened to us.

Does anyone know if this is an off-the-shelf item at Lowes/Home Depot or do I need to go through CW or my RV Dealer?

Thanks,
Dave


----------

