Another water heater question

[Dreamsongs]

Hello all!

Well I did it.

I turned on the electricity to the hot water tank.

I thought I had water to it, but I did not open the pressure relief valve to make sure. I heard the hot air escape out of the pressure relief, and then discovered there was no water in the tank.

Lesson learned!

The electric hot water still works, but the water is lukewarm. It works on gas too, but does not seem to come out as hot as before and does not last as long.

Question: perhaps the circuit board is bad or the thermostat is bad? Is there a way to check?

I will definitely buy a new heating element, they are only around 10 dollars.

What do you think?

Thanks everybody!

Dave



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[AlbertaRvMan]

Hi,
Thanks for sharing. I hope to avoid this from happenning to me. Do you know why there was no water in the HW tank? Why did you hear the air release?

Thanks

[Festus2]

If you turned on the electricity and there was no water in your tank, it is highly likely that the heating element is toast. It doesn't take long before the element burns out. If you are still getting lukewarm water, is that because you filled it up and tested it first on propane then on 110VAC afterwards?
Not sure why the water isn't heating up normally when using propane ....... the tank should still operate normally on gas even if the element is burnt out.

[Dreamsongs]

Thanks,

Alberta, my tank has a three way valve behind the hot water tank. It is accessed through a hatch inside of my camper.

In one position the valve allows water to enter the hot water tank, or in the other position by passes the hot water tank. This allows us to winterize the unit.

Last season when I winterized my unit, I placed the valve back into the position that allows water to enter the tank.

So this season when I went to de- winterize my unit, I placed the valve back into the bypass position by mistake. I then opened up all the hot water faucets in my camper and I had water however, water was not going through the hot water tank. I guess I fooled myself :-)

Before you turn the electricity on your hot water tank, open the relief valve located in the top of your access hatch outside of the camper. This will allow air to escape and make sure that you have water in the tank.

Festus,

I always have lukewarm water when turning the electricity on first. I know that the heating element is at least partially operating.

I'm sure that the heating element is toast.

I do wonder why the propane does not heat the water up the way it used to.

Thanks for everybody's replies!

Dave

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[Javi]

Thanks,

Alberta, my tank has a three way valve behind the hot water tank. It is accessed through a hatch inside of my camper.

In one position the valve allows water to enter the hot water tank, or in the other position by passes the hot water tank. This allows us to winterize the unit.

Last season when I winterized my unit, I placed the valve back into the position that allows water to enter the tank.

So this season when I went to de- winterize my unit, I placed the valve back into the bypass position by mistake. I then opened up all the hot water faucets in my camper and I had water however, water was not going through the hot water tank. I guess I fooled myself :-)

Before you turn the electricity on your hot water tank, open the relief valve located in the top of your access hatch outside of the camper. This will allow air to escape and make sure that you have water in the tank.

Festus,

I always have lukewarm water when turning the electricity on first. I know that the heating element is at least partially operating.

I'm sure that the heating element is toast.

I do wonder why the propane does not heat the water up the way it used to.

Thanks for everybody's replies!

Dave

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Just as a note: The HW tanks are designed to have an air pocket at the top of the tank. Opening the pressure relief valve during filling will evacuate this air pocket filling it with water and decrease the operation of the tank. Generally the first sign that you have lost the air space is a leaking pressure relief valve as the tank heats.

Water expands as it heats and must have somewhere to go, thus the need for the air space. To properly fill the tank it is important to open the hot water faucet which is the farthest distance from the tank as the tank fills. When the spitting and sputtering of air and air/water mixed has stopped and you get a steady stream of water you can turn off that faucet. At this point I generally open the other faucets in the camper one at a time to bleed any air which might be trapped in the lines.

If your HW tank is empty to start it is easy to hear the water entering the tank as it fills.

One of my de-winterizing chores is to fill the HW tank, and I start by hooking up the city water before replacing the HW tanks drain plug, I like to back flush it a bit before I put the plug in to wash out any sediment that may be left from last year.

[Dreamsongs]

Thanks Javi,

I usually bleed the air out through the faucets, however, I did not think about needing the air in the tank for thermal expansion.

Thank you for sharing!

Dave

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