Hot Water Only Luke Warm

[lloyd&pamela]

We have a stacked set of hot water heaters in the bay with the propane tank and the air compressor. Today the warm is only luke warm. The fresh water heaters are on. The circuit breaker is not tripped. We are plugged into 50 amps. All the meters look right. Before I pull off the covering and examine the heaters (which are new Nov 2008) I was wondering if there is anything someone can think of that might be the issue. Thanks.

[LarryB]

Lloyd, is the problem just the electrical side of the heaters? Do you have hot water with propane or diesel?

One of my heaters stopped working on the electric side while taking delivery of the Bus. The breakers were OK and all connections SEEMED OK until the Tech pulled on one of the electical leads to the heater, it came out of the 'crimped termnal' with little effort, as if it had never really been crimped. That fixed the problem.

Wish I could offer more help.

[lloyd&pamela]

Thanks Larry, I guess the next steps is to remove the cover and check the connections. Thank you, Lloyd

[garyde]

If 1/2 of the 220 volt is not working, you won't get any hot water if the heaters are 220 volt. But if they are 120 volt each with two seperate circuits it may be one heater working and one heater not.

[MangoMike]

Lloyd as I recall on mine there is also a small circuit breaker on the side of the hot water heater next to the element. I found one popped on mine which cut the circuit.

Mike

[dale farley]

Lloyd, I don't know if your configuration is like mine or not. I have two 10.5 gal heaters. Either of them will provide plenty of hot water for most applications. I seldom ever run both of them at one time. There is a reset button on the thermostat behind the panel on each heater. There may be a fuse between the switches and the relays that turn on the water heater. I don't know if yours is the same or not. If it is like mine, when you push your switch to turn on the water heater, the fuse for the relay may be blown or the relay may be bad and not supplying power to the heater.

I would pull the small panel off the water heaters and see if there is 110 power on the wires going into each one. If not, I assume you do have a relay and fuse in the line. If you have 110 coming into each heater, just check voltage on each side of the thermostat, the overload switch and the heating element until the power is no longer present and that will be the bad component.

[lloyd&pamela]

Thanks all I am going to pull the panel tomorrow.

[LarryB]

Lloyd, help me out here. You started this thread on 6/4 it is now 6/8 and you say you will pull the panel tomorrow----Pamela must be away visiting family or you would have pulled that panel 2 days ago. Just guessing, that is the way it would happen on my Bus, my Traveling Mate wants HOT water <G>

[lloyd&pamela]

It may be 6/8 somewhere, but not in Canada it is only 6/6. We had luke warm water the first day and she found the showers in the campground. But if it is not fixed by tomorrow, I may be in big trouble.

[LarryB]

I stand corrected! It is 6/6. Makes a better story though if it's 6/8. Sorry 'bout that.

[lloyd&pamela]

A better story, though I would have really been in "cold" water...

[lloyd&pamela]

Finally discovered the problem and solution.

NEVER LET YOUR FRESH WATER TANK GO TO 0%.

We burned up the thermostat on the lower hot water heater. The top heater's heat sensor popped out like it should and protected the unit. The bottom one failed and the terminal burned up and shorted out. The Replacement Kit for the Atwood heater is only $12 and requires only two bolts be removed to replace. The $60+ shipping to get Pamela warm water faster is inexpensive.

Thanks Everyone.

[Ray Davis]

Really good point! I am careful to turn off water heaters when storing the coach, but never thought about impact of letting water get too low when the bus was in use ...

[jack14r]

Ray,I believe that it would be impossible to deplete the water heater in a Liberty unless you drained it.