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View / Navion Truma Water Heater Bypass
Hi – Three years ago, during the first winterization of our new ’21 View, I came to realize that the Winnebago hot water heater bypass installation on the new Trumas ... doesn’t really bypass. I posted my findings on the forum, with the intent of getting to the bottom of the issue the following spring. That initial post has now closed, so having just realized that I never reported my follow-up ... here I am with a new post and my opinions on the topic.
It looks like when Winnebago transitioned to the new Trumas, they didn’t take into account the recirculation line that Truma uses to keep hot water sitting ready to go at the faucets. If you follow the coach winterization procedures from the owner’s manual, you will end up with an empty jug and a driveway full of the pink stuff.
I did some testing the following spring after our inaugural winterization, and discovered that the bypass valve from the cold water line did indeed divert and stop fluid from entering the heater, the check valve at the hot water outlet does indeed protect the Truma from a backflow of fluid, but the RV antifreeze will head off to the faucets and then return to the Truma via the new recirculation line that Winnebago forgot to deal with. As a result, you end up flooding the Truma with antifreeze – and if you have followed the owner’s manual procedure – the antifreeze pours out of the Truma onto your clean driveway.
The solution was pretty straightforward – the installation of a shutoff valve on the recirculation line, just before the Truma. If you install a shutoff valve, you can completely isolate the Truma from the coach, similar to what was in place prior to moving away from the legacy hot water tank. With the added step of closing this new valve, the owner’s manual procedure works as intended.
Any home store will have a ½” PEX shutoff valve and the crimping tools to get the job done.
In addition to making the winterization process straightforward, there are another couple of good reasons why a shut off valve on the recirculation line has worked well for us. With the current View / Navion Truma water heater plumbing, there is no simple way to isolate, and protect, the heater when driving in freezing temperatures. With a shutoff valve on the recirculation line, you can throw the Winnebago bypass valve, throw the new shutoff valve, drain the heater from the outside, and carry on using the cold water system in your warmish coach. This makes temporarily driving in cold temperatures - when you don’t have the use of propane to keep the heater warm – a no-worry event. When you get to your site and can once again use propane, return the valves back to normal and carry on again with hot water.
Before we got a Truma Electric anti-freeze kit for our heater, we used this trip procedure several times.
Another reason to install a shutoff valve to allow the total isolation of the Truma would be for some sort of failure in the Truma that was causing concern. In that event – isolate the Truma and carry on with cold water operations.
Three years ago when I discovered that the factory bypass does not bypass, I referenced Lichtsinn’s video on the winterization process and noted they acknowledged that - what ever they did with the bypass valve - the Truma was going to fill up with RV antifreeze. When I reached out to Winnebago, they confessed they just direct interested owners to the Lichtsinn video, but stated they would look into the issue.
I recently checked a ’23 model year View / Navion owner’s manual and saw no evidence that Winnebago has added a shutoff valve to the recirculation line.
I’ll post a picture of where we installed our valve. Valve 1 is the factory bypass valve, number 2 is the one-way check valve on the hot water outlet, and Valve 3 is the shutoff valve we installed three years ago. For the hour it took to install and test, it has been a very worthwhile mod for us.
I'll also post the Truma recommended valve installation diagram; Valve E is the valve we installed.
If you’d like more info, drop me a line and I can send you some additional stuff.
Cheers,
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