Water Heater Replacement - Work in Progress

[truk4u]

My leak was in fact the water heater. I pulled the water tank, pump, accumulator and water heater today. If your water heater is old like mine, 16 years, you can bet a leak will be coming your way. It took about 3 actual hours to get everything out and now I can dress up the bay while waiting for parts.

6351
Original Heater
6352
Water Tank - 135 Gal
6349
Leaky Heater Bottom
6350
Empty Water Bay

[Jon Wehrenberg]

While you are in there Tom verify the plywood floor is intact and not damaged due to the leak. Now is the time to deal with that.

[truk4u]

Thanks Jon... It's all good except for the spot under the heater and the very top layer of the plywood is wrinkled in a few places. I probed around and could not find any soft wood. I thought about making some small holes and fill in some wood glue and place something heavy on top to take out the wrinkles. Any thoughts on that?

Also for you Liberty owners, I found a fuel tank access door after removing the water tank.

6353

[HarborBus]

Good post Tom, I had not idea that you Liberty boys had a small residential type water heater. Do they still install them, and how many gallons is it?

[phorner]

Would you consider a tankless heater, or would the power requirements be prohibitive?

[truk4u]

Elliott,

It's the same size as your Marathon, 20 gallon, but one tank with a heat exchanger instead of the 2 stainless 10 gallon that you have. It's a Marine heater sold by Raritan and can be replaced for about 775.00 and they are pretty much the industry standard for boats. They don't make them out of steel anymore and claim the new plastic covers last much longer and not subject to rust and corrosion. They are very fast recovery tanks, we never run out of hot water.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I think the fuel access varies depending on the equipment and bus vintage. Mine is located in the OTR bay, passenger side.

Assuming the plywood will dry adequately I would consider using some sealer on it, perhaps a good marine varnish or even Thompsons Water seal and to compensate for the lost layer perhaps a masonite panel, perhaps something like a tub surround material under the new tank.

I have my water bay floor covered with a single aluminum sheet although I doubt if it would do much to protect the plywood since there are holes bored through it and the plywood for water drains and the items like the pump mounts and water tank hold down bolts. I don't believe any of the holes have been sealed so water can get under it.

[jack14r]

Paul,I have a tankless water heater as well as the Raritan 20 gallon,the tankless only works on the generator and can use 38 amps on both legs,but I never run out of hot water.

[truk4u]

Paul,

I doubt you could get a tankless heater with the heat exchanger for engine coolant, but who know's.

[phorner]

Yeah, that was my thought too. The tankless would reduce your heating options to electrical power only, no Webasto or engine heat as a supplement.

[truk4u]

Here's the finished product. Total cost including new copper fittings and hardware, $840.00. The new heaters vs the old are somewhat plumbed different, so re-routing the copper was required.

6402

If anyone wants a sand filter that Liberty installs, just pay the shipping and you can have it.

6403
6404

[rfoster]

Looks "Professional"- Looks like a great job. No more "Busless" Trips for the Trukster.

[phorner]

Great job!

Only thing left is to finish polishing that copper....:)

[jelmore]

Tom, I think my tank just got the same leak that yours had. Unfortunately, we're in the bus all the time so I don't have a shop to work out of. My symptoms ... water pump ran every two minutes. Water bay is wet inside. Turned off the water-in valve at the water heater. Water pump works normally. The copper is beyond my skill set so I'll have to find someone. Some questions: Does the fresh water tank have to come out? When you disconnect the copper from the coolant in and out lines, what then? Anything else? This looks huge.

[Charles Spera]

We replaced our Raritan water heater in about 4 hours while at Pelican Lake. I had a couple of helpers who were courageous and we did not remove the water tank. We did no soldering, used the push on fittings for the heat exchange tubing and all other fittings were absolute match ups with the old tank.
The Raritan people in Ft Lauderdale were easy to deal with and provided the return customer discount bringing the cost of the tank down to about $780. We replaced a couple of hose clamps and bought the push on fittings so the total hardware cost was around $810. The courageous helpers cost is up to you, perhaps some amber fluids will be enough.
Now that the heater is new and tight, I have noticed a slight leak in the Groco water pump seal. Anyone know a recommended parts place for these seals?

[jelmore]

Thanks Chuck. Hope my XL is as easy as your H3. I found a marine service company that had the right heater in stock, plus a tech that wanted to work on Saturday. The perfect combination for spending a lot more than you did.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Beware...Chuck has an H3 and I think his installation may not require the holding tank to come out. But not to worry. The holding tank on an XL comes out pretty quick and with it out access for removal and replacement of the tank is very easy.

[jelmore]

Jon, you make everything sound easy.

[truk4u]

Hi Jim,

Hope you and Linda are doing well, despite the water heater!

First, call Raritan, they will give you a 25% discount on the heater if you give them the model and serial number of your old unit. There is no way the heater would come out of mine without removing the tank. The tank is not a bad job to remove, 4 hoses and the tank level sensors and out it comes. I did have to remove part of my shower PVC drain pipe, but that was easy since it's just joined with hose clamps. I could now have it out in about 1/2 hour.

The coolant lines should have shut-offs on them coming out of the cross member inside the bay. I'm too concerned about leaks, so new copper and solder was a must for me. I also replaced all the fresh water shut-off valves, they all had a little rust indicating some leakage at the packing nut. You won't lose much coolant, I drained out about 1/2 quart from the heater and lines. Your probably much better off than I was because of your bus age and the new heater may match up perfect with the old one. Be sure to mark the in/out coolant lines, for some reason Raritan says they have to be correct, but I have my doubts. It's just a loop inside the heater with no restrictions, so it shouldn't really matter. I think Jon agree's with me on that one.

I also had to change out the cooper water lines and drains because the new heater was just too far out of alignment from the original. I had no choice, if Brian saw old nasty cooper in the pictures, I would be in trouble!:p

If you need some moral support, don't be afraid to call me at 770-634-7530.

6446
Almost done....

[jelmore]

Tom, yours looks so neat and tidy. I don't think the Headhunter pump in mine is Liberty original. I think the previous owner's truck guy installed it. It works, but it is a really ugly install. Picture attached. Maybe the marine tech coming by can rework it all. I hope I'm not in trouble on this one.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Confession: I was always a fan of a manifold type plumbing arrangment for conversions. It was my opinion that was one area Liberty could improve their coaches. It makes so much sense to have all the water system shutoffs in one area, clearly marked so a leak or need for service could be dealt with as easily as it is turning off a specific electrical circuit.

But I have gone through repairs on our old coach, just like Truk has on his in the water bay and while Liberty plumbing may not look particularly artful it is an absolute breeze to work on. There is a shutoff valve for every circuit, and there is nothing that would need to be repaired that would be difficult or take a lot of time. While I still like the looks of a manifolded water system and the concept, when it comes to major repairs like a water tank or HW heater or pump replacement I will take the Liberty set up because it puts function over pretty.

I'm not so happy with having to crawl on my knees to see and connect the sewer hose however.

[grantracy]

Question: it sounds like all of you rely on your electric heater for hot water. I was told by the vantare folks to use the diesel heat( aqua hot) as primary and the electric as back up. Does that sound right?

[truk4u]

Granvil,

The Aquahot and Webesto we have are two different systems. Your Aquahot has it's own dedicated coolant reservoir and our Webasto's are using our engine coolant. I had several Aquahot's in plastic coaches and the electric function would give you hot water, but not enough for say two showers. With your diesel selected instead of electric, the hot water supply is endless.

Our 20 gallon tanks do a great job on electric, are pretty quick to recover and we have never run out of hot water. I use the Webasto for engine and cabin heat, but the side benefit is heated water at the same time. If I'm dry camping, I turn on the hot water heater when the gen is running and that pretty much takes care of the water needs.

The exception to not running out of hot water would be Mango with 4 women aboard, he would run out of hot water even if he had a commercial boiler installed.:cool:

[Jon Wehrenberg]

To add to Truk's comments the HW heater in both my Libertys was 20+ gallons. When heated by the engine while driving the water is very hot subsequently we could park early in the day dry camping, and the next morning we still had more than enough hot water for 2 showers without running the generator or Webasto.

[truk4u]

Jim,

It's for sure different than mine, but all that stuff will come out of there without too much difficulty as Jon has pointed out. If you have to change out any of the plastic lines, you'll probably have to convert over to Pex Tubing. The grey poly is no longer available, at least where I live, but you can adapt with Pex and use Shark Bit fittings if necessary. I did find a single piece of grey poly locally and Home Depot had a few fittings left in a bin, but all that stuff is being discontinued.

You should be able to match up a new heater without any problems, as I can see in the picture your heater has the same style in and out for the diesel as the new heaters.

[garyde]

Tom, yours looks so neat and tidy. I don't think the Headhunter pump in mine is Liberty original. I think the previous owner's truck guy installed it. It works, but it is a really ugly install. Picture attached. Maybe the marine tech coming by can rework it all. I hope I'm not in trouble on this one.

Hi Jim. I have the same water pump however the water pump faces the opposite way facing the back with the inlet and outlet. I will get a photo and post.

[ToyMan]

Chuck,
The repair kit for your Groco pump is a P-9000. It typically sells for just under $200. boatersworld.com sells it for $192.28. You can see a diagram of the motor and pump at
http://www.groco.net/SVC-MAN-07/Sec2/pdfs/PSR-DC.pdf

Boaters World link is http://www.boatersworld.com/product/MP80818760.htm

[jelmore]

You should be able to match up a new heater without any problems, as I can see in the picture your heater has the same style in and out for the diesel as the new heaters.

Julio came by with the heater, took a look at the water bay and said it would be 12 hours. So, I have a heater in hand and the labor is back to me.

Curious thing ... the plumbing layout on the heaters match, but the top of the heater in the bay is 26" from the floor and the new heater is 24" tall. The thin base (black plastic) on the heater in the bay is 2" below the main body (white plastic) and the base is screwed to the floor. Does any of that sound familiar? I don't see how it could be this way.

[phorner]

Jim,

For what it's worth, the top of my heater is 24 1/4 inches from the floor of the bay.

[jelmore]

Paul, thanks ... I'd guess yours is the way it's supposed to be. I can't imagine how mine got that way. It doesn't look like the copper pipes and fittings for the coolant lines have been modified. All the solder joints look like Liberty's original work. So, I just don't know yet.

[truk4u]

Jim,

It may be possible that Liberty placed a 2" pedestal under your heater, reason unknown. The 20 gallon Raritan is 24" tall, so it must be a platform of some kind. Any chance it could be a pan of some sort to catch water?

Where are you? Someone may have a suggestion as to who could help you out..

[jelmore]

Tom, it looks like the base has been separated from the case intentionally. Maybe Liberty or someone added a riser where I can't see it. Have no idea why. Won't really know until it all comes apart. We're in San Diego for about a week. I talked to Steve Bennett and he recommended Vision Coach, which I think he said is now Premier Coach. Since I have the heater in hand, maybe they can rework this whole water compartment. Isn't Ray Davis out here? Maybe he would have a contact. I'll check with him, too.

[Charles Spera]

Thanks Ron,
Looks like I only need a couple of seals and possibly an o-ring but the information is now in my archives and I will order up parts on Monday.
Happy Easter to everyone.

[jelmore]

Ray Davis . . . many thanks for calling me with the Marathon recommendation to replace my water heater. Talked to Roger there and they will take care of me. Nice to know that resource is out here and they will work on any converter's coach. I would guess they will be good. I'll report back.

[jelmore]

Another disaster averted. Do hot water tanks explode? I suppose that over the years the pressure regulator had stuck closed. The metal tank had swelled 2 inches taller and was wedged up against the coolant valves. We had to cut the copper pipes to the tank to get the dang thing out. Marathon has done a good job on getting this repaired, though they were humored by Liberty's system design.

[truk4u]

Wow, you dodged a bullet Jim, the bottom of that tank should be flat! It's hard to believe the thing didn't burst open and flood your compartments. Good timing on your part and sounds like your in good hands.

[phorner]

Wow!! That is scary stuff!!

Yes, hot water tanks can, and occasionally do, burst due to failure of the pressure relief valve.

For what it's worth, the pressure relief valves used in the Raritan hot water heater are readily available and easy to service.

Sure glad I did mine last year ......

[sawdust_128]

Water heater drip tray $16.78 at Grainger. Coat all penetrations with a generous dawb of silicone calk. They come in various sizes. Here's one.

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/3VU59

Or an HVAC sheet metal bender can make up what they install under attic AC units.

Either can be made to support a standing water alarm.

Experience with wet ply as in your pictures leads me to believe that the laminations will seperate a bit more as the ply completely dries. If it bothers you, pierce it with a drill bit and pour thinned polyeurethane into the holes. The poly will expand, fill the void, and it cures with moisture. Thus, it helps dry the remaining wood as well.

Good luck

[truk4u]

Dust Bowl,

Good info, but I decided against the drip pan. The water heater needs to be secured to the floor with screws and that kind of voided any pan or tray use. I also didn't have enough room to accomodate a pan since space is so tight and would have required more plumbing re-route.

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Jim, please show pictures to show Marathons better solution to plumbing the hot water tank.

Thanks, JIM

[jelmore]

Jim, please show pictures to show Marathons better solution to plumbing the hot water tank.

I missed out on taking pictures. They use two 10 gallon tanks. They are rectangular and polished stainless. The fittings are chrome (I guess) and they use braided hose. If there is any pvc, like for drains, it is painted black. All is behind a high quality panel with a clear plexiglass door. Some of the vertical surfaces inside the cabinet were polished stainless. I think the one I saw was maybe a 2007. It was nice, very tidy, nice materials.

Maybe some of our fellow members could post pictures of their water cabinets.

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Jim, I meant their solution to your plumbing situation.


JIM

[Jon Wehrenberg]

A rectangular pressure vessel??????? Am I the only one that cannot envision a rectangular HW heater? Maybe the outer case is rectangular.

[jack14r]

I think that the Marathon water heaters are made by Atwood,they do have a rectangular case,the two are wired so that only one element is on at a time,they have a heat exchanger to work from the DD or Webasto,the valve must be adjusted carefully or the over temperature will kick out the electrical element and you will discover it when the wife is in the shower.The pop off valve is not the standard size and I could only find them at Atwood.IMHO The Liberty designed system is much simpler,with less opportunity for failure.

[jelmore]

Jim, I meant their solution to your plumbing situation.

My plumbing situation? They just installed the new water heater like the old one was installed. They used hose and clamps to rejoin the cut copper pipes. As for the water pump in front of it, they just put it back the way it was. They suggested that re-plumbing that little piece of ugly work (not Liberty's work, the previous owner's work, shown in post #20) would be best left to me to do and thought stainless or brass fitting with flexible braided hose might work nicely. Their easy solution for the white plastic pipe was to paint it black. Of course, this isn't Marathon's engineering department talking. It's the tech trying hard to get me back on the road by 3pm. And he did. Great job.

[Mark3101]

A rectangular pressure vessel??????? Am I the only one that cannot envision a rectangular HW heater? Maybe the outer case is rectangular.

I have TWO of them in our bus. Also one in our boat. I will attach a picture if I can get it to work...

[jelmore]

Mark, that's a very nice looking water cabinet. Is there an accumulator tank? What type of water filtration do you have? Does your system run off of city water pressure or water tank and pump only?

[Mark3101]

Mark, that's a very nice looking water cabinet. Is there an accumulator tank? What type of water filtration do you have? Does your system run off of city water pressure or water tank and pump only?

No accumulator tank, and the filtration is one Culligan HD-950 after the pump, and one headhunter strainer type prior to the pump to catch the large chunks! <g>. I use the filters that do both taste and grit, the RFCBBSD. I also have a filter in the JennAir for the ice maker and door water. That one is the Maytag UK8001 and does taste/odor too. My city water connection only fills the tank. It is somewhat automatic...on at 20% off at 80% according to the documentation. So far, it seems to work that way. It is slow to fill though, and it is much faster to use the gravity feed on the passenger side..you can see that in the picture. The hose reel for the city connection is on the drivers side along with the dump valves and all the water shutoffs. All stainless clad on the other side too...makes for a nice looking water bay.

[jelmore]

I think that the Marathon water heaters are made by Atwood,they do have a rectangular case,the two are wired so that only one element is on at a time,they have a heat exchanger to work from the DD or Webasto,the valve must be adjusted carefully or the over temperature will kick out the electrical element and you will discover it when the wife is in the shower.The pop off valve is not the standard size and I could only find them at Atwood.IMHO The Liberty designed system is much simpler,with less opportunity for failure.

Jack, with regard to to the water being heated by the engine coolant, I don't find any way to regulate that heat unless it is closing the coolant delivery valves. I don't know what effect that will have on the the overall system coolant circulation. Now that I'm paying attention to the heating of the water, I find that the water is very, very hot after running down the road. Much hotter than the electrical heat. I would guess it is heating to the coolant temperature, like 192°. What do you mean by "kicking out the electrical element"? Is my hot water being dumped due to high temperature as I'm driving? I haven't noticed it.

[gmcbuffalo]

Jim the Atwoods that I have have two wires coming out of the Thermostat area that active or deactive a solenoid that closes the coolant flow thru the heater if the water get too hot. I still have hotter than normal water after I stop driving also.

Greg

[jack14r]

When I had my Marathon I cheated by insulating the over temp sensor with a thick piece of paper and solved the problem.Jim,what I mean by kicking out the electrical element is that the high temperature that the water gets to during travel will activate the over temp sensor and then once you use up the hot water it will not allow the 110 volt element to work,and must be reset.You can verify this by touching the pipes at the heaters as the hot water flows.I always had a problem with one of them and I replaced both sensors.The ultimate protection is the pop off valves,which I have seen spewing a small stream of 190 degree water.

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

When I had my Marathon I cheated by insulating the over temp sensor with a thick piece of paper and solved the problem.Jim,what I mean by kicking out the electrical element is that the high temperature that the water gets to during travel will activate the over temp sensor and then once you use up the hot water it will not allow the 110 volt element to work,and must be reset.You can verify this by touching the pipes at the heaters as the hot water flows.I always had a problem with one of them and I replaced both sensors.The ultimate protection is the pop off valves,which I have seen spewing a small stream of 190 degree water.

Jack you said, ",and must be reset." Where and how is this reseting done.

JIM

[jelmore]

Jim, there's a red reset button under the cover. Mine tripped on the first use after running a couple of hundred miles. Thought my new water heater was broken. I reset it that one time, have gone 1500 miles over several days, experienced some very hot water, and the electrical portion still works fine. It hasn't tripped since.

Anyone know the effect of turning off the coolant valves to the water heater? Will the entire circulation system still work fine?

[phorner]

Jim,

I have had the coolant valves to the hot water heater heater turned off with no apparent problems. The remainder of the Webasto coolant circulation system seemed to be fine. I just didn't heat up the hot water tank while driving down the road, so it meant waiting a bit for hot water when we stopped for the night, as we then had to rely solely on the electric element for hot water.

In my case, these valves had been turned off when I changed out the engine coolant, and forgot to turn them back on after the job was done.

A never ending learning experience!

[jack14r]

The valves should be labeled with a hanging tag,I have been told that you can turn them off but you won't have any heat in the coach,and the webasto will not circulate the water.The valves on my coach are gate valves and only open a little,call Troy and I bet he can tell you how much to open them.

[flloyd]

Funny that I just read this article again today while researching a solution to my headhunter toilet issue. It looks like I have the exact same problem as Jim Elmore, e.g. a 26" tank.

http://www.qrz.com/gifs/IMG_2471.JPG

http://www.qrz.com/gifs/IMG_2469.JPG

So far, no leaks and hot water works fine. I'm not sure if the heat exchanger is turned on or not, the valves didn't want to move in either direction. The base is definitely lifted up, just like Jims. I also checked the overpressure valve and it operates freely. My guess is that the heat exchanger probably causes this condition, along with age.

I'm on the road now in Minnesota and guess that I'll have to keep an eye on it for leaks until I can get it somewhere for repair. It's a long drive to Coach Worx, but I might get down that way in about 6 weeks. Although I'd love to fix this one myself, as in Tom's example, I just don't have the shop to do the work at home. So, it's off to find a qualified mechanic to do the work.

I, too, have the big ugly "sand filter thing" that Tom had. Should I get rid of it as well? My water pressure was lousy until I changed the prefilter which had a 0.5 micron carbon filter. Looking down the barrel of that cartridge there was a 3/16 orifice, no wonder the showers were a bit weak. I replaced it with a 10-micron sediment filter and am running the "sand filter thing" too. I'm not sure what the best practice is with regard to filtering. I normally drink bottled water and don't worry much about the taste.

I was working in the water bay to resolve a headhunter toilet problem. I had anemic flushing action and when I called HH they advised that I check the accumulator tank. Sure enough, it had zero pressure. I inflated it to 30 psi and - oh - what a difference! Not only does the HH flush like a champion now, there is a lot more tap water available before the pump comes on. I guess this means I'll probably need a new accumulator tank as the bladder is probably toast, but we'll see.

By the way, the Headhunter flush valve looks awfully like an ordinary garden sprinkler valve. Do you think one would work as a replacement? The HH version goes for around $240, which is highway robbery IMHO.

I sure wish I had auto-shutoff on the main tank fill. I've overflowed onto the campgrounds twice now in a week.

I also made a dumb mistake (turned off the holding tank alarm) and learned what happens when it gets full. Fortunately, the shower didn't overflow but I did have quite a sanitary situation to disinfect. All is well now.

Say John - does the Liberty operate off of city water or only by pump? When I'm hooked to city water and turn the pump off (and the tank fill off), I get nothing.

[truk4u]

Fred,

When I'm hooked to city water, I have to manually open the brass valve to allow water to flow to the bus. Mine is located in the plumbing bay (driver side). You can see the valve on the very bottom right side of this picture.

7049

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Fred,

A few comments. The accumulator tank has multiple purposes. As you now realize one of its purposes is to give a good steady flow to the Headhunter. But it also acts to relieve the expansion of water in the HW tank. Water expands when heated and unless it has somewhere to go it goes out the pressure relief. When the bladder is unpressurized as yours was the accumulator tank was merely water without an air cushion to handle that expansion. Additionally that accumulator eliminates the short cycling of your pump. For anyone with an accumulator tank in their coach, keeping it properly pressurized will allow the pump to run longer, and then rest longer as water is being drawn.

The flush valve is almost bullet proof. It is merely a rubber bladder with a small pinhole whose purpose is to equalize pressure on each side of the bladder. Short of a diaphragm failure or the inability to replace the flushing solenoid its only service may be an occasional cleaning of the pin hole if the toilet fails to shut off.

As to auto fill, I admit to being anti auto anything. Just like I hand fly climbs descents and all approaches, I manually fill my water tank and manually start my generator. As to the water tank fill, I want to know that not only is my fresh water filled, I also want to be assured the holding tank is emptied at the same time to eliminate the problem you describe.

Yes we can run from city water (open the valve at the fill pipe) but then you have to be certain you not only can trust the holding tank monitor, but that you pay attention to it. It is mechanical and mechanical stuff breaks. You already know the risk. My reward is I have never had to deal with an overflow on the holding tank. For that I gladly never rely on auto fill.

As to the benefits of operating on city water. In a Liberty there are none. The Liberty pump is big and delivers a strong flow and its purpose is to allow the use of the toilet while running other water. Not all city water supplies can deliver the flow so rather than guess if it will be adequate (it needs both good pressure and volume, both regulated by the campground water pipe installation) I just rely on the pump. Your decision may be different than mine.

[flloyd]

Fred,

A few comments. The accumulator tank has multiple purposes. As you now realize one of its purposes is to give a good steady flow to the Headhunter. But it also acts to relieve the expansion of water in the HW tank. Water expands when heated and unless it has somewhere to go it goes out the pressure relief. When the bladder is unpressurized as yours was the accumulator tank was merely water without an air cushion to handle that expansion.


Thanks. I never thought of that. I see clearly now that an accumulator with no charge pressure could possibly cause the water heater to swell. Good catch! Its amazing as well to consider how well the grey poly tubing holds up under pressure.

I don't know why my city water is so weak but now that the accumulator is charged, I have to agree that city water isn't very useful. On my coach, one cannot actuate the Tank Fill relay from inside the coach. Therefore, it might be handy to use city pressure since there is a Dump switch on the dash. This might be good, perhaps, for someone staying for an extended period in one spot.

[Charles Spera]

[QUOTE=Jon Wehrenberg;66125]

A few comments. The accumulator tank has multiple purposes. As you now realize one of its purposes is to give a good steady flow to the Headhunter. But it also acts to relieve the expansion of water in the HW tank. Water expands when heated and unless it has somewhere to go it goes out the pressure relief. When the bladder is unpressurized as yours was the accumulator tank was merely water without an air cushion to handle that expansion. Additionally that accumulator eliminates the short cycling of your pump. For anyone with an accumulator tank in their coach, keeping it properly pressurized will allow the pump to run longer, and then rest longer as water is being drawn.

I just had another "AHA" moment. I payed no attention to the short cycling of my water pump for some time now. After reading your message I went down to the shop and tok a pressure reading on the accumulator. Nada, zip, zero pressure. Hmmm. Sooo, a quick burst with the air line and now it seems happy. One question though; is 40-45# about right for the precharge?
Thanks for the insight.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Chuck, The procedure I use is as follows.

Turn off the pump and let the water system pressure drop to zero. I then open a faucet and pressurize the tank to the water pump cut in pressure. On mine I used around 20 PSI. I then close the faucet and turn the pump back on.

BTW, we are heading back up to Jamestown after Labor day in the hopes we can get some decent local corn. The corn down south doesn't cut it.

[Will Garner]

Hey Jon,

Carole and I are in Hershey PA right now. The campground is almost surrounded with corn fields. Their corn looks good so I might just go "sample" a few ears!

Good to see you in Maine and thanks again for your sage advice.

[flloyd]

I just had another "AHA" moment. I payed no attention to the short cycling of my water pump for some time now. After reading your message I went down to the shop and tok a pressure reading on the accumulator. Nada, zip, zero pressure. Hmmm. Sooo, a quick burst with the air line and now it seems happy. One question though; is 40-45# about right for the precharge?
Thanks for the insight.

It's my impression that the accumulator static pressure should be just below the pump cut-in pressure. The Headhunter man recommended 30 psi. My pump cuts in at about that level and off at 50 psi. Worked perfectly for me. Having it at 40-45 sounds like it could be problematic if your pump cuts in at 30 like mine does.

-fred

[truk4u]

Nothing better than upstate NY corn grown in Muckland!

King - That's rich black soil for you eastern TN boys!:p

[rfoster]

Truk, That thar sourthern corn been making great squeezings for years. Just ask Jack Danels.

[Charles Spera]

Thanks guys. I will use your procedures.
Something about the climate in Upstate NY and Michigan, the corn just tastes better.
If not in Jamestown, we'll see you in Kerrville.
Thanks again.