Yahoo Message Number: 91532 (http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Country-Coach-Owners/conversations/messages/91532)
So it's that time of year again.... Fall means heating season!
Just thought I'd post some pictures of what we do and can do.
Now that Aqua Hot won't repair the units and doesn't have a reasonable option we've taken it upon ourselves to do the necessary repairs.
We had a unit (Hydro-Hot) come in a couple months back that was leaking coolant out the exhaust, further inspection revealed that the heat exchanger had a pin hole leak - could only see it leaking when the unit was hot, by pulling the burner and combustion tube. Since the customer didn't have an extended warranty, didn't have an extra 10k sitting around, we opened up the box and repaired the pin hole leak, (welded up the hole) and put the unit back together and back into service. Only time will tell how well it holds up, but as of now all is good - I've personally checked the unit 2 times since, and the customer had put 27 hours on the hour meter since we put it back in on my last visit. (Sorry, can't find pictures of that one right now.)
The unit pictured is a Aqua-Hot unit that came in making coolant. Determined that the fresh water coil (the larger coil in the picture) had a sprung a leak inside, so with the pump or city water on, it would overflow the coolant out of the expansion tank, thus turned the coolant into water, and consume lots of fresh water.
After opening up the unit it was found that the fresh water tubing was rubbing on the pre-heat tubing, thus rubbing a hole in the tubing. Not sure what happened, almost would think the unit was completely drained and then traveled down a rough road? But of course the current owner has owned the coach less then a year, and as far as he knows it's always been full - as he's been using it up until we took it out. This customer does have an extended warranty, when the issue was first figured out by unhooking the fresh supply and hot discharge, capping off one side and blowing shop air thru, you could easily hear the air inside - - the warranty company found a way not to pay the 10k for the replacement unit, so the customer opted to have us cut it open and repair.
Being that the hole wasn't very big, it was decided to solder (silver solder) the hole and put it back together.
Now that I've done a couple, I've been in contact with a company who can build new coils for replacement. I'd much rather put new coils in then just doing the repair, and I'm sure it'll be what we do in the future - - If time allows.
Just thought I'd pass this along!
Jim Lewis
Infinity Coach