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Re: Hydro Hot Horrors

Reply #25 –
Yahoo Message Number: 35277
Gordo,

We do get out with young people but not the way you think. If you had ever attended a CCI rally you would know our name since we run the raffles for the Children's Miracle Network. At Jekell Island in March we collected $23,000 and at this summers class reunion we raised $33,000. We can always use more volunteers if you are interested. When we are not doing this for the Club we volunteer several days a week at "Give Kids the world" working with kids with life treating illnesses who want to see Disney World before they leave this world. So sometimes at night we enjoy relaxing in our coach rather then play games outside and we really don't care how noisy you are. We believe it is important to give something back to this world we have enjoyed for 70 years.
We did not sign our note about bugs and heat because it was meant to be a "tongue in cheek" remark to add a little humor to this site which at times becomes much to serious. We know the rules having been on the site for 4 years however sometimes it is hard to get people to lighten up.
Take care and enjoy your "old guy's toy", my wife calls it her "check book sucker".

Bill G. 2005 Magna #6425

Re: Hydro Hot Horrors

Reply #26 –
Yahoo Message Number: 35280
Here, here! Thanks for taking care of the kids Bill! We`were at the Jekell Isand Rally too.

Larry 03 Allure, 30856

Re: Hydro Hot Horrors

Reply #27 –
Yahoo Message Number: 35283
Wow. That's good to know. We are going to the CC rally in Tucson. Maybe I can get mine serviced too.
BTW, Aqua Hot Systems says the electric element doesn't do much, but we rarely have to use the diesel burner. When we have full hookup we have it on electric and take two consecutive showers without any problems.

George Harper
04 Allure Seaside
31093
Rome, GA

Re: Hydro Hot Horrors

Reply #28 –
Yahoo Message Number: 35288
Hi everyone, we have been looking at several motorhomes with the Hydro Hot system, but after reading about all the problems the
question is: Is this system really worth the cost and problems? We have always had propane and never had a single problem. What is the
groups opinion?
Thanks
Wayne

Re: Hydro Hot Horrors

Reply #29 –
Yahoo Message Number: 35290
Bill, thanks for all you guys do. It's appreciated and would not be as successfull without people like you both.
AL

00 AFFINITY #5851

Re: Hydro Hot Horrors

Reply #30 –
Yahoo Message Number: 35301
Wayne,

Hydro Hot uses a Wasbasco burner which is a German burner which has been around for many years.
Hurricane used a burner they made which was supposed to be more environmentally friendly, but it never worked well. Our coach is all electric so we need a Hydro Hot. I prefer it over propane because we do not keep our unit on all the time. When we get up in the morning we turn the Hydro hot on and get hot water right a way, then we turn it off. Keeps the noise down for our neighbors if they are close by.

Bill g. 2005 Magna #6425

Re: Hydro Hot Horrors

Reply #31 –
Yahoo Message Number: 37031
George,

I found this post from you last Oct. I found that my Hydro Hot is now leaking coolant from around the exhaust pipe area. It drops about a quart a day and seems to be getting worse. I pulled the cover and I believe that I see the drain that you are talking about. What I am seeing is a white plastic valve that appears to have a pull handle tilted about 45 degrees down and a plug on the right hand end facing the unit. It comes out of the tank on a short piece if plastic tube that wedge fits into a nylon bushing in the tank.

The problem is that I do not see any leaking happening there unless it is in under the fiberglass insulation. Did you see any leaking when you had the problem? I guess that generally it is the nylon bushing in the tank that is the problem. Does look like a lot of trouble to get it out. Any advice will be greatly appreciated

Thanks,
Don Seager

2004 Allure 31046

Re: Power spike horrors.

Reply #32 –
Yahoo Message Number: 37111
Afternoon list... Gordo here.

While staying at SF RV park (in Pacifica Ca.) at 1:28 am I awoke to a loud pop and then the smell of burned wire.

After getting my wits about myself, I removed the power from the coach and then removed the breaker panel cover. Just some black smoke residue at the top. I then removed the side cabinet wood panel (above the bed storage area) to get a better look see.

What I found was a small (4"?x5"?) white surge protector installed above the breaker box and wired to the top 2 power lugs and the ground lug. It was hit by a mighty large power spike (the units was blackened and had a 2 inch crack on the side)

I guessing that CC installed these priceless babies to save our coach's power system. Since I have no manual for my unit I was wondering if indeed CC installed these.

In any event I drove to Camping world (130 mile round trip) and bought a portable 50 amp surge protector and metal locking ring for the end plugs (not sure how safe this whole getty-up is, as now they have to take my 300 dollar power cord also if they want the surge protector)

I am sure a happy camper someone had the insight to install one of these.

I had been warned by a few very dear friends to buy one, but was always put off by the high cost of near 500 bucks (say goodbye to the chrome mirrors I was going to buy)

Just food for thought... This could have cost me untold thousands in repair costs...

Gordo

99 Allure 30344

Re: Hydro Hot Horrors

Reply #33 –
Yahoo Message Number: 37114
Don

Sorry for the delay. I am in Texas.
My insulation where the nylon pipe goes into the tank was quite wet. If you can run your finger along the pipe up to the tank and your finger does not get wet, I don't think your drain pipe is leaking at the tank. That location is where the failures are that Aqua Hot has had trouble with.
Yes, the pipe is hard to get to and work with. On mine the sections of pipe fit together like Chinese handcuffs - the harder you try to pull them apart, the tighter they get. Push the pipe sections together and hold the collar in and they will come apart. Try to unscrew the pipe from the tank. It may break off which OK. I used a large screw extractor which gripped the nylon very well and the broken piece came right out of the tank.

Good luck

George Harper
04 Allure Seaside
31093
Rome, GA

Re: Hydro Hot Horrors

Reply #34 –
Yahoo Message Number: 37124
Hi George,
 
Thanks for responding. Actually Bill Smith came to my aid with your being unavailable. he had gone through a similar process a while ago. He convinced me that it was very likely the plastic nipple even though I could not find the source. You are correct as I did slide a screwdriver back it to the tank and it came back wet but not by much. Anyway I emailed Bill off line giving him the detail of a successful fix. Below is a copy snipped out of that email. The 'he' in the details is a maintenance friend that works here at the Wildlife Refuge in Eufaula. AL. He is very good and actually he did most of the job.
 
Quote
I certainly won't say that it was a piece of cake. The shutoff just pulled out after we drained the tank. The plastic nipple was a different story. Unlike yours it did not fall apart and I was unable to locate a 7/16 Allen wrench anywhere. So he had to break it out which left some of it jammed in the threads. Eventually with the help of a machinist pick he got the threads cleaned out. I had a easy-out for plastic pipe but he was too afraid of hurting the tank threads to try it. We had a little scare early on when we first got a look back near the tank. There was a lot of rust there and he thought that it might be the tank leaking. Once we got the plastic nipple out we could see that was not the case.
 
The plastic tee showed little sign of deterioration and may have been leaking because it had loosened up. However it had to go. What I ended up doing was using a short brass nipple into the tank and the went back to PVC with a 1/2 inch PVC threaded to glued fitting. A short PVC nipple was used to connect to a 1/2 PVC gate valve, the white ones that typically have a red valve handle. Another short nipple was used to add another 1/2 female PVC glued to male threaded fitting. I then put a 1/2 threaded to standard male garden hose fitting into the PVC fitting to finish up with a drain that would connect to a garden hose for future drain outs. We assembled the entire thing outside the case and simply screwed it into the tank outlet. The reason that I went back to PVC is that it was the only valve I could find locally that would rotate and clear the bottom of the unit. There is so little room in there that you really need the valve already attached in order to tighten the brass nipple into the tank. This is not a job for someone like me that has continuous focus glasses and has to tip his head back to focus on close objects. I would never have been able to see well enough in there to clean out the threads etc. I was very glad that my friend was willing to do it for me. He saved me a bundle and I immediately took him to lunch.
 
I got a bit of a scare later in the afternoon when it seem to be leaking again. What had happened is I raised the front of the coach off level several days ago to control where the drip was happening. When it let it down some of the spillage ran forward and dripped for a while. Happily this am there is no sign of leaking.

Just hours before discovering the leak my Thetford Aria II electric toilet flushed with a snap and the slider did not return. The manual override knob on the back was no help. Also I could see a nylon worm gear sticking out into the waste pipe. To make a long story short, I had to order the slide mechanism from Thetford ($169 including shipping) and replace it. That did turn out to be a piece of cake once I got the part some 6 days later. Fortunately there are bathrooms close by but it is still a pain.
 
So I guess that we are back in one piece for a while at least. Again thanks for getting back to me, appreciate it.
 
Don Seager
2004 Allure 31046
 

Re: Power spike horrors.

Reply #35 –
Yahoo Message Number: 37130
Gordo,

Can you replace the factory installed Surge Protector? Then you wouldn't have to worry about someone stealing your external one. Our 2000 Magna, and our friends' 2001 Intrigue have the CC installed "Surge Guard", which, I believe, is standard on CC coaches. The Surge Guard Model 34550 is the 50 Amp version in our coach. I think Camping World sells them.

Brad Ward

2000 Magna 5916

In Ogden, UT, for the ski season.