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No hot water…problem fixed in less than an hour
While at Road America this past weekend I read the post by the Prevost who didn’t have hot water and no water pressure to the shower and thought how lucky I was to be dry camping with hot water.
Until Saturday evening when I went to take a shower and NO hot water. The generator was running and the Water Heater breaker was “ON”.
So upon my return home I plugged into shore power, turned the water heater on, confirmed it was still plugged in (Liberty uses a twist-lock plug for the water heater and the water pump), and that were was power to the receptacle. Still no hot water.
So I called Jeff Rowe and he started me out at the shore power panel and confirmed that we had power and everything set correctly for the water heater to heat. Explained how to check the thermostat and the heating element. I determined that the element was probably bad, figured out how to remove it, got it out, was still in one piece, Jeff suggested I “ohm it”, and sure enough there was no continuity.
While Jeff said I could find replacement heating elements on-line and varioius places, he said I should try the local hardware store so off to Ace I went. They had an array of heating elements from about 1440 watts up to 4500 watts. The one I took out ofthe water heater was a 1250 watt element and doing my electrrical math I determined that the 1440 watt element should be OK on the 15amp circuit water heater circuit (1440 watts/120 volts = 12 amps which is right at 80% of the 15amp capacity of the breaker, wiring, and outlet).
I’ve replaced parts and pieces of natural gas water heaters, but this was my first eletric one. Replacing the element looked much easier than replacing the thermostat. Pretty simple and straight forward. While we should expect the new element to last a long time, I’m probably going to buy a space and carry it along. Turn off the water heater breaker, pull the plug, drain the water heater (use the pressure relief valve to allow air to get into the water heater and drain the water out).
In the picture posted below you can see I bought a tool at Ace to make removal and installation of the element easy. The tool is much easier to work with then the Channel-Lock I used to remove the old element with. The old element was caked with lime, longer than the replacement.
DO NOT test the new element until you’ve filled the water heater with water and purged ALL the air out. Use the pressure relief value to purge the air along with opening the hot water faucets. Once you have water coming out of the pressure relief value (which is on the top of the water heater), you should be good to go. If the element is energized without water, it will likely fail very quickly.
Least expensive repair on the Prevost so far: $12 for the element and $10 for the tool. I’ll be checking the water bay periodically to ensure there isn’t any leaking. My neighbor suggested I wrap the thread with pipe tape to prevent galling over time. I might do that too.
So if you end up without hot water, don’t let that ruin your trip. Replacing the element is easy.
Tool list:
- Low mechanics seat on casters.
- Flashlight
- 1/4″ nut driver
- Multi-meter
- 120volt test light (optional, I didn’t use one)
- #2 stubby Phillips screwdriver
- 1 1/2″ water heater element socket
- Various size #2 Phillips screw drivers to use to turn the socket
- Pipe thread tape
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15 Replies
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Good job Dick.. If your water heater is the standard Raritan that Liberty used, keep your eye out for any leaks and if it starts to grow (expands in height) change it out. I had to do 2 of them.
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If it starts to expand it is not the fault of the water heater, but of an accumulator tank that has failed or has lost its initial air pressure which should match the cut in pressure of the pump minus 2 PSI.
But if it has expanded and has not yet wedged itself in between the ceiling and floor a precautionary change out should be considered because once it expands to that point, removal is as simple as getting a politician to tell the truth.
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Great job Dick!
I don’t mean to hi-jack Dick’s posting, but if your Bus has two water heaters, like mine, and one of the elements goes out, I assume the second element would still heat the one tank, producing hot water, mixed with the cold water from the faulty water heater.
I would assume other than pulling both the elements, this may be the only way to know if one of your elements went bad if you have two water heaters.
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My waterheater swole up (is swole a word?) so big it mashed the copper pipes into the top if it. Jeff Changed it out the first time I was there….
It also cost a bit more than your fix did!! -
Steve: Does your coach have an accumulator tank? I don’t think ours does. Can’t find it. Thinking adding one to protect the plumbing and water heater.
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As coaches age some owners get creative and at some point in the history of a coach an owner might have chosen to eliminate the accumulator tank. A second issue is if the temperature / pressure valve on the tank was leaking and owner may have replaced it with one from a big box store. Both actions are dangerous.
The valve on a Raritan type HW tank is rated at 75 PSI and the valves from big box stores are typically rated at 175 PSI. They look identical and someone not paying attention does not see the difference and makes the change.
That alone is not a problem as long as there is an accumulator tank and the tank is properly installed and pressurized. If it is water logged it is no good and will not absorb any increased pressure.
As we drive with the HW tank being heated via coolant the water in the tank gets hot and expands. That expansion of the water volume has to go somewhere and in a system that is correct the excess volume pushes back into the accumulator tank. If the tank is water logged then the pressure builds and it eventually opens the pressure relief valve. If the correct valve is installed the excess water spills onto the ground. If the wrong relief valve is used the excess pressure pushes against the ends of the hot water tank and it swells up to the point where it wedges itself firmly between the bay floor and the bay ceiling.
Free advice to all who have a Raritan type HW tank………check to make sure the relief valve is 75 PSI, and check the pressure on the accumulator tank bladder (house water system pressure at zero) is approximately the same as the water pump kick in pressure.
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Dick,
There is no accumulator tank on my coach, I think someone had the wrong pop-off
valve on it. -
Steve, are you sure there is no accumulator tank?
If the pressure in it is not correctly set or is down to zero it is hard to know, but it could be hidden. I still haven’t put an eyeball on mine, but I know it is there because with the water pump turned off the water will run about a minute or so.
I will definitely take the trouble to find it as soon as I sense the pump is kicking on quickly after I open a tap, or if the water will not run with the water pump cycled off.
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Jon,
No sir I am not sure, it’s not in the water bay. I assumed Jeffro would have had a conversation with me
about that at the time we changed the hot water heater.
It could be hiding somewhere.. -
If your water heater was swelled up as you describe, and it had the 175 PSI pressure relief valve it is possible that is the reason if your coach does not have an accumulator. I’m on my 3rd Liberty equipped with 2 different type pumps and pressure control switches and all three had (have) an accumulator. Yours is in the middle of my age range so I am assuming yours has one, or worse, had one and someone removed it.
I know some conversions have the Headhunter pumps and some of those do not have an accumulator, but act as demand pumps. And that is likely OK unless the coach has an RO water system such that when the RO system is building RO water the pump runs almost continuously, or cycles often enough to drive folks nuts.
If your coach has an RO system I would surmise it has or had an accumulator.
If Jeff missed that he was probably thinking hard about his oil change prices and should be forgiven for overlooking that.
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Tim,
Electric elements can be checked in place by VOM meter on ohms for continuity or clamp on amp meter for current flow. -
I have the Headhunter pump. I don’t think Jeff missed a thing, he told me the wrong pop off was probably installed at one time..
Now have a new heater, and all is good! -
Steve,
My 01 Liberty did not have an accumulator tank, so not uncommon with Liberty. I did add one.
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Tom,
Do you think I should add one? -
Add one. It not only absorbs the expansion of water while it heats, it greatly reduces the amount of start-stop cycles on the water pump. An additional benefit, depending on where it is located is the Headhunter toilet has a better flush cycle also, but it needs to be close to and almost in line with the toilet flush valve.
To absorb the HW tank water expansion the check valve installed in the tank water supply line needs a very small hole drilled in it (1/32″ or similar size) so the expansion of water can get back to the accumulator. Jeff can easily handle this if you don’t want to tackle the installation.
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