Hot water heater and boondocking

In the morning I will be heading out with my Carri-Lite for a few days of off-grid boondocking at a racetrack.  This will be my first time using on board water system (yes I sanitized it twice).   My question is how does the hot water tank fill up? Would I turn the faucet to hot and the 12-volt pump on? (with the heater off) or doe it just fill when I turn the 12-volt water pump on?  Side note I had the unit connected to city water today so as to fill the water tank. ( I plumbed in a valve so I can fill directly off the city water in line, no more holding a hose or using a bucket) so I would assume that the water tank has water in it now, I just want to be sure it will refill once I turn on the 12-volt pump.  Thank you in advance for and help.

B.W.Gentry
Owner/Admin
2007 Carri-Lite XTRM5
Breckenridge, TX

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[expired-memberBlockedTopics - 86Replies - 191Total - 277]

If your water heater tank is full now, it will remain full. Leave the pump on, it has an internal pressure switch and will only operate as you are using water. When you turn a hot water faucet on, the faucet will draw water from the heater, and the pump will keep it full.

The water heater will take some time to actually heat the water. Depending on how often you plan to use hot water, you can either leave the water heater on all the time, or only turn it on 15-30 minutes before you need the hot water. I don’t know enough physics to tell you which method uses less propane.

[JohnD222ParticipantTopics - 8Replies - 518Total - 526]

EW,

The pump or city water pressurizes they cold water line pushing water into the hot water heater on demand.

there are a few questions that Papacliff is not asking.

Did you have hot water last time you used the 5er?

Did you drain the water system after that use, say during sanitizing?

Did you turn the bypass valve on and not turn it back on?

Did you drain the hot water tank itself by pulling plug on tank?

Has propane been turned off for any period of time?

 

The first group of question concerns whether you will have any water out of the tank, or how much versus bubbles.  The second, whether it will be hot.

Sometimes during daring of system for winter or sanitizing flush, the hot water heater will lose a little water.  It won’t empty completely unless you leave the system low point drain valve open for hours, pull the hw heater drain plug, or open the hw pressure relief valve.  You must pull the plug for winterization, and it is the fastest way to get chlorine out of the hot water system.  You usually turn bypass valve after draining tank in winterizing.

 

The point of repeating the above is that if the he tank is not full, the 8-10 gallon tank will never have 8-10 gallons of hot water unless you purge the tank.  If the tank is too empty, the electric element will burn out and no longer function. The only way to get tank full is turn on pump or city water and open the pressure relief valve until water comes out steadily.  Don’y do this until after the water heater has been off for several hours or the hot water will scald you!

ok full tank.  If propane has been off a while, it takes a bit to flush out the old and get a full fresh blast to the appliances.  This may take several restarts at the hw heater, so  I usually turn on the stove burner and get it working first. It uses a lot of pressure and is easy to start and give you a line full of propane almost to the hw heater.  Then the hw heater starts right up or on,y takes 1-2 restarts.

I would do all this ant test for hearing the hw heater fire up before heading to track, turning off tge hw heater before moving.  Turning off propane is also advisable if not required before heading down the road.

have fun.

JohnD222
Based in Florida except summer
2013 36FWS Lifestyle (our great 2010 Cameo 36FWS has happy owners)

[CLOC-AdminKeymasterKeymaster]

Thank You!

B.W.Gentry
Owner/Admin
2007 Carri-Lite XTRM5
Breckenridge, TX

[CLOC-AdminKeymasterKeymaster]

Update

Weekend trip went well.  Spent three nights “off grid”.  Used a portable generator for a few hours each night then at bed time we just turned everything off. I did learn that the furnace will run on 12 volt! I didn’t know that. It came on after we were in bed with generator off. I got up and turner it off.

Our water use was less than I expected. However, the coach battery drained faster than I expected and I believe I a problem with either battery or convertor. As battery is now dead even after towing rig a total of 12 hours, and now being connect to shore power here at the house for about 8 hours. Battery is a year old in December and Convertor is no even 3 years old.   Thank you for your answers to the water heater question the water system operated perfectly

B.W.Gentry
Owner/Admin
2007 Carri-Lite XTRM5
Breckenridge, TX

[JohnD222ParticipantTopics - 8Replies - 518Total - 526]

EW,  much more likely the battery than the  converter/charger, but you should check the 120 volt breaker leading to the charger and the 12-volt fuse from it.

one dead cell is all it takes to ruin any battery regardless of age, even a more deep dischargeable marine/golf cart battery.   Running any lead acid battery dead even once will also kill it.  Take it back and get a new one, upsize to max size that will fit if they will let you but that I doubt.

JohnD222
Based in Florida except summer
2013 36FWS Lifestyle (our great 2010 Cameo 36FWS has happy owners)

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