Water Heater Replacement - Work in Progress

[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.

[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.