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2003 Allure Hurricane issues heating domestic water

Yahoo Message Number: 113331
Our Hurricane is doing a great job of heating our cabin and the hot water...as long as the cabin t-stat is calling for heat. Otherwise, the hurricane is not firing when the hot water in the sink or the shower runs for a bit (and exhausts the 110v supplemental heat.

Am I assuming that the 110v won't produce enough water to run a shower? I don't think so...so, we need to have the Hurricane fire with the hot water is running. RIght?

I would love to get this fixed....because we are going to be in the motor home for another 3 weeks.

Thanks for any help!

John

Re: 2003 Allure Hurricane issues heating domestic water

Reply #1 –
Yahoo Message Number: 113332
Have you had it tuned up in the last year? Should be done yearly.

Re: 2003 Allure Hurricane issues heating domestic water

Reply #2 –
Yahoo Message Number: 113333
We have the Hurricane XL45 in our 2003 Intrigue, and we must intentionally turn on the hot water switch on the main control panel over the front door to get hot water. There is only a gallon+/- in the furnace, but unlimited supply when asked to. Safe travels.

Jeff Thurston
11630
Intrigue 42ft Ovation

Re: 2003 Allure Hurricane issues heating domestic water

Reply #3 –
Yahoo Message Number: 113334
John,

The thermostat only controls the circulating pumps and the heat exchanger fans and has nothing to do with the domestic hot water. The burner is controlled by an aqua stat inside the boiler and comes on an off when the boiler coolant drops below or rises above a predetermined value. That is also true for the auxiliary electric element in the boiler. The hot water is created as you use it by a coil of tubing immersed in the coolant in the boiler. Cold water enters one end cold and comes out the other hot. Heating the water cools the boiler coolant and turns on either the burner and/or the electric element to attempt to maintain the coolant temperature at the desired level. Attempt is the key word here. If you run the shower full tilt the coolant temperature drops pretty quickly. The electric element has a slow recovery rate and cannot keep ahead of a running shower. The boiler recovery is much faster but even then I have had the shower get ahead of it. So we found that we had to exercise some conservation measures when it comes to the shower. First don't run the shower fully open. Slow it down to only what you need for a reasonable shower. Don't plan on 20 minute showers like you could at home. Use the on/off button on the shower head to only use water as you need it. With these measures we could get by with only the electric element on but could not take two showers in a row. It takes a quite a while for the electric to recover so one of us took a morning shower and the other took an evening shower. If you need two in a row you will have to turn on the burner. Even then a fully running shower can out run even the burner but recovery is much much faster.

Hope this helps
Don Seager
Former CC Owner and full timer for 11 years

Re: 2003 Allure Hurricane issues heating domestic water

Reply #4 –
Yahoo Message Number: 113335
Yes you are correct the elect side of your hurricane heater will only produce a small amount of hot water. If you want to compare the diesel to the elect just multiply the wattage times 3.414. That will give you the btu output. You then can compare it to the btu output of the diesel

Re: 2003 Allure Hurricane issues heating domestic water

Reply #5 –
Yahoo Message Number: 113336
Thank you all for the wonderful and speedy responses. I do still have a question. I understand that if we are plugged into shore power and turn on the "water heater" switch, the 110V will give us 1-2 gal of hot water. However, my question is...if we turn on the water heater switch AND the central heat control....should not the aqua stat in the XL45 tell the hurricane to fire the diesel side to compensate?

I'm thinking that the aqua stat is faulty. Sound right?

Again, thanks!

Re: 2003 Allure Hurricane issues heating domestic water

Reply #6 –
Yahoo Message Number: 113337
For questions and advice: I have had excellent advice over the phone from ITR: http://itrheat.com/products/rv-trailer-mobile-heating-system/

After having Lazydays in Tampa work on my Hurricane for 10 days only to have it break down within 3 days from leaving them, ITR helped me out famously.

One spot of advice, if I may, make sure you do the annual maintenance (ITR sell a complete kit for that).

Our Hurricane produced non-stop hot water when needed.

Dick
ex '03 Country Coach Allure, 40' tag, #30905

Re: 2003 Allure Hurricane issues heating domestic water

Reply #7 –
Yahoo Message Number: 113338
I know that heating will also create hot water as a side effect, but if the goal is strictly hot water then the hot water switch is all that's needed. Leaving the thermostat on will not trigger the furnace to produce hot water. Let me also suggest checking the mixing valve. We've replaced 2 in the last 14 years, and our symptoms were that the furnace ran but the water never got more than lukewarm. Hope this helps. Safe travels.

Jeff

Re: 2003 Allure Hurricane issues heating domestic water

Reply #8 –
Yahoo Message Number: 113339
The aqua stat is the only device that can cause the burner to fire up and shut down during normal operation. If the burner fires up when calling for cabin heat then it can not be completely faulted. It is theoretically possible for it to lose its temperature settings causing the burner to fire at a much lower temperature than normal. The high to low range of the aqua stat is not very many degrees. The manual may tell you what it is. It should be easy to test the aqua stat range by opening a couple of hot water faucets and testing how hot the water is when the burner fires. If the water temp significantly drops without the burner firing then set the thermostat to a high temperature forcing it to call for cabin heat. If the burner does fire up then you have an unusual problem and I also suggest that you contact ITR. They likely can suggest further tests.

Don Seager
Former CC Owner

Re: 2003 Allure Hurricane issues heating domestic water

Reply #9 –
Yahoo Message Number: 113342
Thank you, Don, for such a clear and well-constructed explanation.
As a newbie, it's a great help to read posts that are complete and well-edited.
Thanks for making operation of the Hurricane understandable.

Re: 2003 Allure Hurricane issues heating domestic water

Reply #10 –
Yahoo Message Number: 113343
We had a similar problem with our Aqua Hot recently. The electric element will keep the coach interior warm, but can't keep up with hot water, and the fuel burner wouldn't ignite. Turned out that the unit had tripped offline due to low voltage (I left the rig unplugged with the house bank switched on, and totally drained the house batteries). Our tech reset the burner and it's now running fine again.

Don Hutchins
'08 Allure 470 #31613
Don Hutchins
'08 Allure 470 #31613
40' w/tag, Cat C-9 & Cat tranny