Hot Water Very Low Flow

[jawtin]

Hello,

We are new owners of a 2019 248RBS Ultra Lite. First time camper owners as well. We've camped twice and the hot water pressure is very low flow. I'll let the water get fully presurized, turn on the hot water at a faucet, hot will come out but then eventully after several seconds will become a trickle. This is the same symptom at all faucets. Some notes:

>Cold side is normal pressure.
>After hooking up to city on the first trip, and water tank/pump usage on the second trip the flow is the same.
>When using the pump the hot tank will eventually fill up, with the pump 'burping' every few seconds, and the 'burping' timing becoming longer and eventually stoping once the hot water tank finally fills up...taking a couple hours.
>After our first trip I drained the hot water tank and the water looked clean, no sediment. I did this again after the second trip using the tank and still looked clean.
>I'm thinking the low flow is before or after the hot water tank because the same symptom of low flow happens at every faucet...no sediment at the faucets.
>No visable kinks to pipes or water damage while inspecting after I took the panel off at the pump and water heater.
>I attached a pic of the plumbing currently at the hot tank. Are the valves in their correct direction? I'm not familiar how the bypass works.

Please provide any additional troubleshooting tips that I could try for this situation.

Thank you much !
Tony

 

[Iwritecode]

I'm pretty sure that valve on the bottom of your picture needs to be turned 90 degrees so that the handle is towards the tank.

I'm surprised you're getting any water into your water heater tank.

 

[wmtire]

I'm pretty sure that valve on the bottom of your picture needs to be turned 90 degrees so that the handle is towards the tank.

I'm surprised you're getting any water into your water heater tank.

X2, jawtin see Post #4 in this link below that we keep as a sticky in the plumbing section, please:

https://www.forestriverforums.com/f...ter-please-read-first-103381.html#post1826511

 

[Mr. Dan]

I'm pretty sure that valve on the bottom of your picture needs to be turned 90 degrees so that the handle is towards the tank.

I'm surprised you're getting any water into your water heater tank.

Right.
I had to enlarge the pic to see that the valve in question was pointing LEFT.

 

[sailorsam20500]

I'll agree, bottom valve is set wrong... I'd also bet the valve attached to the red pipe isn't completely blocking water flow coming in from the curved pipe. So the WH is slowly filling from the top instead of the bottom opening.



FWIW, when first filling the WH and before starting to heat water, I fill the WH by opening the pressure relief valve. When water comes out the relief valve, I close it and switch on the heating, electric or propane.
If you check the owners manual for the WH, you should find that they recommend testing the relief valve at least annually by opening it manually and then flipping it back closed. You should also be doing this for your homes WH. The relief valve can fail by either not closing completely which is easily remedied by replacing it, or they jam closed and don't open when pressure builds. Did you ever see the episode of Mythbusters where they disable the safety features of a WH and then turn it on? WHs don't fail this way often but I've seen reports where they turn into a rocket and blast thru the roof of a house....

 

[Larry-NC]

X2

I'm pretty sure that valve on the bottom of your picture needs to be turned 90 degrees so that the handle is towards the tank.

I'm surprised you're getting any water into your water heater tank.

X2! Exactly

 

[jawtin]

Thank you all for the feedback. Turned the one valve and good to go. We’re on our last trip of the season and will be using those valves when we winterize before we leave.
Tony