Water Heater Replacement - Work in Progress

[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! . 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