Aquahot cabin heating

[Mitchmedford]

False alarm. By looking at the diagrams and double checking the light position, it is not the low battery voltage light that is on, it is the low temp cutoff status light. The panel cover is missing 2 of the clear plastic light pins making it hard to tell.

[bclemens]

14.7 sounds like charging voltage, not battery voltage.

[Mitchmedford]

Yes, you are correct.

[Mitchmedford]

Brian, I think you meant to attach the manual for the 400D, but you attached the one for the 400LP again.

[bclemens]

Sorry, I thought you had the LP. Now I'm the one mis-reading.

[Mitchmedford]

Ok, The plot thickens. I got an Aquahot service tech on the phone and he walked me through checking a few things. For the record, he said that in all his years, he has not seen a coach with a plumbing system installed so incorrectly that all of the living areas were all on one loop. He has seen them with the flow of the loops backwards, so he was skeptical of my theory.

First we checked all of the status lights on the control board. They were lighting up as expected. Next, the most common problem he has seen is a pinched line when the slides are extended. A restriction like that would explain why I am not getting much heat out of the living room system when I turn it on. We pulled the slides in and test again. No change.

Next we confirmed that the t-stats were wired to the correct zones. They were, but we switched then to be sure. Now the living room turns on the bedroom and visa versa. They were right the first time. Put them back and tested again.

Checked to see if the pump 2 was jumper-ed to allow the pump 2 to also act as the stir pump. It appears to be correct because both pump 2 and pump 3 lights come on when you turn on the living room t-stat and there isn't a pump 3 on the 400D so the jumper was correct.

Next I went inside the RV and removed the access panel in the floor of the cabinet under the sink and a couple of drawers so I could get a temp gun to lines running to the cosys that service the living room. The line temp running to the first cosy was 70. Seemed normal. A turned on the living room t-stat, the cosys kicked on, the status panel shows pump 2 running, you can hear something running and the pump 2 output line has a light vibration implying it is running. Back to the temp gun. NO CHANGE in the line temp. Turn off living room t-stat. Turn on bedroom t-stat. Panel shows pump 1 running, back to the temp gun. Line temp to living room cosys is climbing fast. Up to 120 real quick. Checked the bedroom vents and the cosys are blowing hot. 133 degrees air. As excpeted. Line temp to the living cosys continues to climb to 125, both in and out on all the cosys.

Net, Unless I am missing something, all the cosys are being heated off of pump 1. Tech agrees that it acting like someone plumbed all the living spaces on one loop as unlikely as that sounds.

I am leaning toward crying uncle and just going to a shop for repair. I don't want to tear the whole RV up trying to traces lines and determine where the heck pump 2 is sending all the hot water.

This theory would certainly explain why the living room is heating so poorly. There isn't enough heat left in the lines to get the air really warm for all the cosys in the front after heating the bedroom.

[bclemens]

At this point I agree. See where Aqua-hot would send you, might not be a Dynamo dealer, but maybe get you in quicker. Let them take care of it and submit the warranty claim.

[Mitchmedford]

Brian, I don't give up on weird problems. They are like puzzles, so I just did more inspection. I removed the vent under the dryer and lifted the bed. to trace the lines in the bedroom. From everything I can tell, they are on a separate loops from the living room. However, they trace back to Zone 2 on the Aqua hot which is not what the t-stat is set for.

Here is what I finally found and fixed. The t-stats and cozys are set to the proper zone and work as expected. However, someone switched the hoses on the Aquahot so that the actual zone 1 and 2 didn't match the t-stats and cozys. So, in that sense it was a plumbing problem. I know that they were switched at some point because there are clear marks on the black rubber hoses where the clamps used to be. This means that when the living room is running, it is actually circulating the hot water for the bedroom so the cosys in the living room never get hot. However, the cosys in the bedroom are getting nice and preheated so that when I turn the bedroom on by itself, I get nice hot air out of them even though the pump is now circulating the hot water in the living room. If I had left the bedroom on long enough, I would have noticed that the cosys would start cooling down because they weren't getting fresh hot water. Now I turn on the living room with the bedroom and I start getting hot air out of both of them. The air in the bed room is still much hotter because I preheated the cosys.

Instead of trying to move the hoses themselves and the mess that involves, I just switched the pump wires even though there were installed correctly. So now Zone 1 turns on pump 2 which is plumbed to zone 1. Problem solved.

The reason that the air doesn't get as hot in the living room is because I didn't run long enough while testing.

In the spring when I flush the aqua hot system I will fix the hoses to match the right zones and switch the pumps back so it is perfect.

This was a fun one!

[bclemens]

lol....oh, I understand. I'm the same way...its like an impulse. I need to understand how something works and when it doesn't work the way I think it should, i go about making sure it does. I also look at it like a puzzle, so there is a great deal of satisfaction when that last piece goes into place.

Well, let us know what you might need...looks like we owe you one.

[rskeans]

MITCHMEDFORD - - Congratulations on your persistence and identifying the problem. I lost that kind of patience.

[Mitchmedford]

It does feel good to solve and fix it yourself. If only my wife understood what I manly man I am :-) She's like, I'm cold, fix it.....What took you so long.....

[bclemens]

lol...some things are universal.

I start to explain the 20 brilliant steps it took to correct something...she stares, eyes glazed. I get about 2 sentences in and stop. She says "so its working?" Yes. "OK good"

[letsgorving]

Do you guys want to hear all about how we chose whats for dinner, each ingredient we used? etc etc? Or what we used and how we used it to clean the house! You just want to eat, have a clean house and clothes. Same thing

[bclemens]

touche

In my defense, I like to cook and so if she made some brilliant meal, I would like to discuss ingredients. But that doesn't happen nearly enough to justify hearing about the the rest (and I couldn't fathom trying to pick dinner, day in day out). I like my magic hamper. I fill it and it magically cleans, folds and ends up in my drawer. I also like my magic fridge. Especially the magic liquor cabinet. She should be able to enjoy her magic furnace, wifi, car, computer.

I will be a better man for this.

[rskeans]

As DW says it's time for me to zip it up!

[letsgorving]

Originally Posted by bclemens

touche

In my defense, I like to cook and so if she made some brilliant meal, I would like to discuss ingredients. But that doesn't happen nearly enough to justify hearing about the the rest (and I couldn't fathom trying to pick dinner, day in day out). I like my magic hamper. I fill it and it magically cleans, folds and ends up in my drawer. I also like my magic fridge. Especially the magic liquor cabinet. She should be able to enjoy her magic furnace, wifi, car, computer.

I will be a better man for this.

Originally Posted by rskeans

As DW says it's time for me to zip it up!

And we are all better for it and rskeans if you can't say something nice..

[rskeans]

ZIP