Luke-warm water heater

[Bonnie B.]

I have a '92 17' Bigfoot--new to me.
In this power outage stuff we have going on Western Washington I have had to use the Bigfoot for cooking and a shower.
I fired up the water heater--which seems to run fine, except that the water is never more than luke-warm.
It does fire up and shut off as you would expect in a normal operation.
Before I take it to the rv center, I though I would ask your opinions on this problem.
Anything I can fix myself-new thermostat or?
Thanks!

[Chester Taje]

I assume you did look at thermostate setting to see if it was set high enough.

[Bonnie B.]

I assume you did look at thermostate setting to see if it was set high enough.

Hi Chester,
Yep--I tried it on both the high and low settings (just in case it was backward or ?)--and no change in temp.

[Chester Taje]

Hi Chester,
Yep--I tried it on both the high and low settings (just in case it was backward or ?)--and no change in temp.

I had to ask. .Could be thermostate setting to low which you have already checked or main burner orifice too small or clogged.

[Bonnie B.]

I had to ask. .Could be thermostate setting to low which you have already checked or main burner orifice too small or clogged.

I was just back out there to heat something on the stove. I ran the hot tap for awhile---then the burner on the water heater kicked in---nice big blue flame--(sounds strong)

[Chester Taje]

Lets hope the problem is solved.

[Gina D.]

Kick Start!

I have to let the burner on the stove run sometimes, to get the flow going to the heater

My heater is the longest gas line in the rig.

[Bonnie B.]

No--sorry. I guess my last post wasn't too clear.

This water heater fires up and seems like it is working fine--just that the water is never more than luke warm. I figure it should be really hot.

I did a little reaearch on it on the Atwood site.
Possibly there is a partial blckage in the tube or ?
I'll have to wait until I am home during daylight hours to try and figure how to check for that.

This is day #4 with no power here in Seattle!

[Donna D.]

Sorry to hear you are one of the MANY people affected by the power outage Bonnie! I just responded in Buck62's topic about why I rethinking removing the propane system in my trailer...you've just reinforced that thought. How fortunate us molded lightweight fiberglass trailer folk are...we can be relatively comfortable if Mother Nature throws her fury at us.

To get back on topic, I can't offer any solution that hasn't already been mentioned...my water heater is electric only

[Roger H]

On electric-ignition models of water heater, the thermostat(s) are just little disc-thingies that attach to the tank and are held there by a black foam blanket about 4"x4" or so. They are easily replaced, and not terribly expensive; about $20 for the electronic ignition variety. The pilot style gas valve/thermostat will run about $100. If you get a solid blue flame, there's likely nothing wrong with your burner, or anything in the tube. The slightest obstruction gives a sickly yellow flame with lots of soot. You'd spot that pretty quickly.

Atwood water heater parts

Most RV dealers carry the thermostats in stock and it's only an easy couple of minute job to replace them. That'd be the first thing I'd do. There really isn't anything else to go wrong.

Roger

[Bonnie B.]

Sorry to hear you are one of the MANY people affected by the power outage Bonnie! I just responded in Buck62's topic about why I rethinking removing the propane system in my trailer...you've just reinforced that thought. How fortunate us molded lightweight fiberglass trailer folk are...we can be relatively comfortable if Mother Nature throws her fury at us.

To get back on topic, I can't offer any solution that hasn't already been mentioned...my water heater is electric only

Thank you Donna.
Yep--tonight starts the 5th night without power. I love having the trailer---even if the main house runs out of propane for the fire--I could move to the Bigfoot and be quite comfortable. All except for that nasty cold shower!!

[Bonnie B.]

On electric-ignition models of water heater, the thermostat(s) are just little disc-thingies that attach to the tank and are held there by a black foam blanket about 4"x4" or so. They are easily replaced, and not terribly expensive; about $20 for the electronic ignition variety. The pilot style gas valve/thermostat will run about $100. If you get a solid blue flame, there's likely nothing wrong with your burner, or anything in the tube. The slightest obstruction gives a sickly yellow flame with lots of soot. You'd spot that pretty quickly.

Atwood water heater parts

Most RV dealers carry the thermostats in stock and it's only an easy couple of minute job to replace them. That'd be the first thing I'd do. There really isn't anything else to go wrong.

Roger

Thanks for the info, Roger. I appreciate it.
This is a pilot --manual lite unit. I'll go over to the RV place tomorrow and see if they have a new thermostat. Hopefully I will be able to install it myself. The flame is very blue, no soot and seems quite adequate---so hopefully it is the thermostat.
It is still hovering in the high 20's--low 30's here at night---so you have to be pretty desperate to brave the shower bit!
Thanks again!

[Bonnie B.]

Update!

OK--I spent most of the day troubleshooting this with the RV people.
A very nice parts guy spent a lot of time looking the water heater over--adjusted the airflow etc. etc.

I purchased a new contoller to install, since after much testing there was still just lukewarm water.

They originally asked me if a bypass valve had been installed on the trailer---so I went home to look for that--no I didn't see one.


I started to get ready to install the new controller. I noticed when I went to dump the water in the tank it was VERY HOT!
That led me to another search for THE valve--which is of course there (part of the original installation.
Turned the valve and voile! All the hot water you want.

After spending the whole day getting ready to take a hot shower--got everything set up, walked in the door of the house and after 5 days of no power the lights came on!

[Roger H]

Bonnie, First I'm glad you figured it out! Second, I'm sorry I didn't suggest that you check the bypass valves first... I had just presumed... oh well...

Glad that's all it was! Enjoy your hot showers, and I'm glad you're power is back on!


Roger

[Donna D.]

After spending the whole day getting ready to take a hot shower--got everything set up, walked in the door of the house and after 5 days of no power the lights came on!

Well of course that's the way it works...but, if you hadn't gotten around to triple-checking stuff and spending lots of time with the RV folks troubleshooting until Friday...it would have been Friday before the power came back on The Power People were just waiting for you to figure it out before they thru the switch for your home

Isn't it nice to know you've got everything working properly and Mother Nature isn't going to get the best of you next time

Plus, if in the future someone asks the same question, we've now got [b]another thing to tell them to check FIRST...lots of first things!

[Bonnie B.]

Well of course that's the way it works...but, if you hadn't gotten around to triple-checking stuff and spending lots of time with the RV folks troubleshooting until Friday...it would have been Friday before the power came back on The Power People were just waiting for you to figure it out before they thru the switch for your home

Isn't it nice to know you've got everything working properly and Mother Nature isn't going to get the best of you next time

Plus, if in the future someone asks the same question, we've now got [b]another thing to tell them to check FIRST...lots of first things!

Isn't that the truth, Donna!
I am ready for it all next time. I still have one leaking window to deal with on this trailer. And then I will be ready!

[Donna D.]

I still have one leaking window to deal with on this trailer.

Hopefully you'll find a roll of Butyl tape in your sock Christmas morning

[Bonnie B.]

Hopefully you'll find a roll of Butyl tape in your sock Christmas morning

Well--the tarp that I had on the trailer blew off in last nights storm. (usually I have this trailer parked under cover, but I had moved it to the front door so I could get to it more easily)
I had worked on the window a bit. Re-caulked the top with silicone and cleaned out the little drain troughs. It didn't leak! and it rained pretty hard last night.
So at least Ithink it will hold until I can pull that window and do a proper job on it.