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Old 09-01-2021, 08:04 AM   #1
Winnebago Camper
 
Join Date: Oct 2019
Location: Darien, GA
Posts: 15
hot water heater help needed

In a perfect world, we woulda been able to take that initial shakedown cruise on our new-to-us 2019 Minnie Plus 27 RLTS 5th wheel. Instead I was still packing and fixing things the morning of our supposed early start. Nobody said life was fair.

So here we are on day four of our trip from GA to CO/UT/AZ with no hot water. I've tried gas and electric. When I crawl around in the basement, making sure that my blood thinner is working by monitoring my external bleeding, I can feel that the PEX coming out of the back of the heater is hot. When we turn on a faucet in a few seconds the water warms up and in a few seconds more it goes cool again. I went outside under the cover and tried the relief valve for a few seconds and the water was warm. Maybe hot if I ran it longer. It's like the tank has a four ounce capacity instead of 10 gallons.

What can I try next? Any help would be mucho apreciado.

TIA,
Nancy & Phil
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Old 09-01-2021, 08:50 AM   #2
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Join Date: Nov 2018
Location: Pflugerville/Austin, Tx
Posts: 7,370
First guess might be that the thermostat is not working right and shutting down way too soon. But that is first GUESS! Needs checking!

One point is that the small water heaters are designed to heat water warmer than the home heater, so that the small capacity does last longer as we mix it with more cold. That means if you open the pressure relief valve as I think you did, the water may feel REALLY hot, like 140 degrees and it is coming directly off the top of the tank, so ouch!

Two things to look/consider might be how the flame is acting. When you fire it up from cool, it should stay on until the water reaches the HOT stage, not on/off or shut down when the water is only warm. A thermometer might be good to get real numbers but it sounds like yours is not close enough to bother with numbers. If you can keep a hand in the hot, it's not hot enough!

There should be a label on the heater with specific make, model info and the thermostat is not usually hard to find and replace but before that, do some easy checking like wiggle the wire connections to make sure they are not corroded. They set outside in/near rain where it gets semi-wet and corrode pretty easy so you may get lucky with just knocking off the corrosion a bit?

For parts and location to ID, look online for the specific make, model go from there, perhaps and there are often troubleshooting charts online as well.
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Old 09-02-2021, 02:55 PM   #3
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Originally Posted by Morich View Post
First guess might be that the thermostat is not working right and shutting down way too soon. But that is first GUESS! Needs checking!

One point is that the small water heaters are designed to heat water warmer than the home heater, so that the small capacity does last longer as we mix it with more cold. That means if you open the pressure relief valve as I think you did, the water may feel REALLY hot, like 140 degrees and it is coming directly off the top of the tank, so ouch!

Two things to look/consider might be how the flame is acting. When you fire it up from cool, it should stay on until the water reaches the HOT stage, not on/off or shut down when the water is only warm. A thermometer might be good to get real numbers but it sounds like yours is not close enough to bother with numbers. If you can keep a hand in the hot, it's not hot enough!

There should be a label on the heater with specific make, model info and the thermostat is not usually hard to find and replace but before that, do some easy checking like wiggle the wire connections to make sure they are not corroded. They set outside in/near rain where it gets semi-wet and corrode pretty easy so you may get lucky with just knocking off the corrosion a bit?

For parts and location to ID, look online for the specific make, model go from there, perhaps and there are often troubleshooting charts online as well.
Thanks, Richard. My model the GC 10A 4G but the problem is probably a valve open between the hot and cold supply. We'll see...
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Old 09-15-2021, 05:22 PM   #4
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This may sound ridiculous, but..... Check to see that your outside shower faucets, and interior shower, are turned off... If the water stop on the handheld nozzle is off, but the valves are open, it will continuously cycle cold water into the hot side of the system and you will never get hot water......
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Old 09-16-2021, 02:32 AM   #5
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Originally Posted by sgtstriker View Post
This may sound ridiculous, but..... Check to see that your outside shower faucets, and interior shower, are turned off... If the water stop on the handheld nozzle is off, but the valves are open, it will continuously cycle cold water into the hot side of the system and you will never get hot water......
Along this line of troubleshooting, make sure that the "City Water / Fill" valve is set to City Water. As I recall, if you are only getting a few seconds of 'warm' water from the spigot AND the tank is full of 'warm' water, then this is an indication that you are NOT getting water from the tank. (Or you would be getting a continuous flow of 'warm' water.)

Also, the check for hot water by opening the Pressure Relief Valve is a good test. Crack open this valve for several seconds. The water should be very Hot.

Next, be sure that your hot water tank bypass valves are set correctly. If you are on 'bypass', you would not be getting hot water from the tank.

The last thing I can think of is that there is a malfunctioning check valve, but this doesn't seem likely at this point.

Again, check the water temp at the Pressure Relief Valve after the tank has normally cycled from cold to a 'Hot' shut off. During the heating cycle on electric, you should see an increase in Amps on your amp meter....maybe up to 12 amps. When this returns to a normal 1 - 2 amps 'resting' , then the heating cycle has been completed.
Check the pressure relief valve for hot water. Let it run for a few seconds to get an idea of water temp.

Please advise where you end up with the checks presented above.
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Old 09-16-2021, 06:52 AM   #6
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Check that the water heater is not in 'bypass' mode. In theory you shouldn't get any hot water but hey, it's a simple check.
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