Help! No Hot Water

[acadianbob]

We are brand new to our Surveyor 235RKS. This weekend we were trying to get everything sorted out and loaded. Trying to figure out all of the systems and get them working. We filled the water tank, turned on the pump. Flushed all of the hot and cold water outlets. We turned on the water heater. It ignited and ran for only a couple of minutes and shut down. No hot water. We assumed the water heater would be full after running all of the taps. But I think it is empty. Does this trailer have a water heater bypass? I think it does but I can't find it. Or maybe I don't know what I am looking for. My guess is that the dealer may have left the bypass on after winterizing. Ideas?

[NDJollyMon]

Prolly the bypass. DO NOT TRY TO USE THE WATER HEATER IF IT'S EMPTY IN ELECTRIC MODE. You can burn the element up in short period of time.

The bypass is usually located right behind the water heater itself. It's usually a series of 2 or 3 levers. It stops all water from entering the heater tank. (it keeps the pink stuff out so you don't need so much)

Similar to this pic:

[NINA]

In our Cherokee Grey Wolf we had I believe the same problem u have.
Not only does the bypass have to be open, their is also a on and off button.
Our's is located on the outside of the camper. The button is in a location
almost hidden. When we turned this on we had hot water. In your post
you say you turned it on, are you talking about the wall switch inside the
camper. If so then this button I am talking about may be your trouble.

Nina

[NINA]

In our Cherokee Grey Wolf we had I believe the same problem u have.
Not only does the bypass have to be open, their is also a on and off button.
Our's is located on the outside of the camper. The button is in a location
almost hidden. When we turned this on we had hot water. In your post
you say you turned it on, are you talking about the wall switch inside the
camper. If so then this button I am talking about may be your trouble.

See photo below, white door on rear side that is showing at the very
front of the camper is where the switch is located. Is that the switch you turned on?

SORRY ABOUT THE DOUBLE POST.

Nina

[rockwood06]

You said it ignited, were you on gas? if so make sure the propane tank is open. If you were on gas you may air locked. The best place to bleed the system is the stove, just need to turn on one burner until you smell gas, then trun it off, then try again, but yes make sure there is water in the hot water heater.

[acadianbob]

Thanks for the pix. That helped solve the problem. The tank was under the dinette seat. I had to take some screws out of a plywood sheet and remove it (from where you sit at the dinette). And there it was. Turned the valves and could hear the water enter the tank. Bled is out a little again through a faucet and fired it up. Worked just fine. Thanks everyone for the ideas.

[KyDan]

You were lucky!!!
Turning on a water heater with no water in it can cause
damage in only a few seconds!!
Learn from this and --don't do it again!!

Glad you had a happy ending!!
KyDan

[acadianbob]

Yes, you are correct. And I did everything that the manuals said to do! But it turned out, there is a heater bypass that was set to bypass. Since none of the manuals referenced a bypass, I flowed water and assumed the heater had to be full. Not only that but there was no reference as to where to find the bypass. I finally found it under a sheet of plywood that was screwed down under the dinette. It wasn't exactly obvious to me.

In retrospect, this was really simple. It certainly could have been made a lot more obvious in the materials. As a novice to some of this stuff, it made it a lot more difficult than it had to be. And with the potential for damage, you would think that they would do a better job of communicating.

[wildwood]

glad you found your water heater and the bypass valves

as mentioned, always make sure your heater is full of hot water. a way to do this i open hot water valve, or pop the pressure relief and if water comes out the tank is full, do not do this if heater has been on, only if heater hasnt been on. after confirming water heater is full, ;

propane mode= turn on tanks, push switch on front face of sink to on so igniter will light gas in water heater. if it is a dsi with electric/propane, you can leave electric off and use propane by leaving the small breaker inside the water heater turned off,or you can use electric, or electric and propane. we had a problem our first camping trip this year, the dealer left bypass open after dewinterizing, it worked ok after the bypass valve was closed. we have found with a six gallon water tank conservation is important, the on/off shower head is helpful to save water

enjoy your camping, there are some helpful rving dvds at the following, enjoy

http://rveducation101.com/traveltrailer.htm?siteID=0