Water Heater How To?

We just bought our TM last fall and have only taken it out once. Water was already in water heater container, put there by dealer. We "thought" we emptied all water containers when we stored it for winter. But maybe we didn't. How do you fill the hot water heater tank? How do you know if there is water in it? How do you empty it? I have my manual but don't understand what it says about filling. We are taking our TM out for an Easter camping trip and have it hooked up in our driveway now, testing everything, and learning how to use it all. Any help would be greatly appreciated. We are first time RV owners and know nothing about anything at this point.

[Bill]

Jon and Sherry -

To fill the water tank, you need a source of water. This can be a garden hose connected to a spigot on the house or in the campground, or water in the fresh water tank.

If you will use a garden hose, connect it to the hose connector on the side of the TM, and turn on the spigot. If you will be using the fresh water tank, make sure it is at least half full, and turn on the water pump (switch on the front apron of the kitchen sink).

Turn on the hot water faucet in the kitchen sink. If the tank is already full, water will come out of the faucet, just as you expect. If the tank is not already full, air will come out, along with some spits and spurts and burps of water. When the tank is full, the spitting will stop, and clear water will come out.

To empty the water heater, disconnect the garden hose from the side of the TM, or turn off the pump if it is on. Open the four valves under the street side of the trailer - two in front of the tire, and two behind the tire. Three of these valves open with a quarter turn - the other requires 2 or 3 turns. Turn on both faucets in the kitchen sink - this lets air into the system as the water drains out. All the water in the camper, including the water heater, will drain out onto the ground.

Bill

[mcgyver210]

Oops Bill typed faster than me Oh well all that matters is you received help Good Luck.

Originally Posted by Sherrylynnc

How do you fill the hot water heater tank?

It fills when you hook up to water or use your storage tank with water pump.

How do you know if there is water in it?

If you have pressure from the Hot Water valves at your faucets your WH is filled.

How do you empty it?

First the TM needs to be leveled IMO

Next you have to open the low point valves under the TM on what would be the Street or Drivers side just in front of the wheel well & aft of it. This actually drains the whole water system including the WH. I believe the valve closest to the front side of the wheel well is the WH if I remember correctly. Also you would have to open all faucets in the TM to assist in complete draining of the water system.

One more extra step you could take is to remove the Anadode rod which would accessed thru the WH panel outside near the bottom center of the WH. Sorry I Don't remember socket size.

Thanks for all the info. If I'm understanding this correct, once we fill the fresh water holding tank (the big one under the kitchen sink), it also fills the hot water container? I know we followed all the insturctions on how to drain all the water to winterize it, we opened all valves, and fauct handles were left in open position all winter as we stored it.

Today, we hooked up our garden hose and filled the fresh water tank. We do have water pressure from both hot and cold water faucets.

So at this point, we should have water in the hot water compartment? I tried to turn on the switch to start heating the water, but turned if back off because the red light kept coming on and off and I was afraid I would burn up the heating element. From all that I've read, they seem to burn up very quickly. When we bought the TM, our dealer filled up the water tank, and turned on the heating element and the only time we used it, I just switch on the heating element and it worked great.

Opening it up from winter storage, I didn't want to make any mistakes and burn up the element. We want to heat water by electric, and if I'm reading the instructions right, we turn on the switch outside of the TM, and then turn on the hot water heater switch inside. Is this correct?

NO!! Filling the fresh water tank does not fill the hot water tank. Once you fill the fresh water tank, you must run the water pump with the HOT faucet open until water comes out. It may take some time and pump air for a while so don't worry. Then you can turn on the Hot water heater. If you drain it under the trailer, you need to turn off before you do so and refill again before turning back on. Your post is a little confusing if you hooked the hose to the threaded connection on the side of the TM, you were on shore water and were not filling the fresh water tank but were filling the hot water tank. If you used the hose to fill the fresh water tank then ran the pump to fill the hot water tank with the HOT faucet open, you are OK. Not sure what red light you are talking about, my HW heater switch is not iluminated.

OK, I just read a previous post about turning on the switch to heat using electric and not gas. In it Bob says the only switch you need to turn on is the external one. I was trying to turn on both, internal one (now I know this is only for gas). You folks are totally amazing on the knowledge of these TM's. We are such novices I don't know if we will ever "get it". We do love our TM so hopefully you can "teach an old dog some new tricks".

It's just different not hard. Before you know it you will be setting up with your eyes closed and helping the next new owner here. Keep asking questions and enjoy your new TM.

Bob, we did put water in the fresh water holding tank thru the non threaded hose compartment. It filled up the holding tank under the sink. Then I switched on the water pump and turned on the faucest, both hot and cold, to get the air out of the lines. I then turned on the water heater switch, next to the water pump switch, and it kept clicking. From one of your other posts to someone having water heater problems, you told them the only switch we needed to turn on to heat the water, using electric, was the external switch. I think we are OK now. I do have water coming out of the hot water faucet, the water pump is on, the fresh water tank is full. We are not hooked up to the city water, the threaded connection.

The red light indicator I was talking about, was to the gas ignition. It would come on and then go off. I know now that I didn't need to turn on the internal hot water heater switch, if I was going to heat with electric.

I know these things probably seem so small an issue, but to newbies, it's a biggie until we learn what to call things, and what to turn on. The dealer goes through it so fast.

This is actually our first time to open and turn everything on by ourselves. We took it out in November and someone that owned a TM, came to our site and helped us turn on everything.

We do appreciate all the help.

[MudDog]

Welcome to the forum!

As you've discovered, this is a great forum and you'll learn a lot here.

Sounds like you are OK now...but just to summarize some of the other posts and piece it all together:


There are two water connections on the street side of the Trailmanor.

One has a rubber snap on cap and has metal threads to connect a hose - this is for running on water supplied by an external spigot (from your house, the campground, etc). When you are connected to 'city water', the fresh water tank will not fill. You do not need the pump, as the pressure from the external source is enough to pump water thru the system - as a matter of fact, in many places the pressure can be too high and you should use a water pressure regulator on one end of the hose (I usually put it on the water spigot side). Most dealers include a pressure regulator in a starter kit.

The other water connection has a plastic screw on cap and there are no threads to firmly connect a hose. You can stick the hose down the tube a bit, or get a special water filler nozzle for the end of your hose that has a shut-off valve and clear plastic tube that will go further down the filler tube. This is how you fill your fresh water tank.

If you do not have 'city water' (a hose connected to an external spigot), you'll need water is your fresh water tank. Since there is no pressure from the tank, you need to turn on the water pump in order to push water from the tank thru your system to the faucets.

To fill the hot water heater tank, you just turn on the hot water faucet at the kitchen sink (regardless of whether you are on city water or the fresh water tank with the water pump running) until water comes out without air/burping.

Once the hot water tank is full of water, you can heat it one of two ways:

1) turn on the propane tanks and turn on the hot water heater switch inside the TM just below the kitchen sink (next to the water pump switch). You'll hear clicking as it tries to light. If you don't have the propane tanks on or there is no propane in the tanks, it won't light

or

2) you can run the hot water heater on electric. To run on electric, leave the water heater switch inside the TM off and go outside and remove the hot water heater access panel on the outside and turn the small rocker switch to the on position. There may be a small cotter pin in the switch that will need to be removed in order to turn it on.


We've always used the propane side of the hot water heater as it is easier to remember to run it off (the switch is on the inside and we always shut off the propane tanks when we fold down). We're propably spending a bit more on propane, but we leave it off unless we need it. It will usually heat up enough within 5-10 minutes and then we turn it off again when we are done.

Thank you all so much for the help. We have hot water. It's so much better to set everything up in our driveway before we get to the camp site and see if we can open it up, and set it up and get everything running. Tomorrow we'll tackle the other things, like AC and furnace. Tonight we have hot water and that's good enough for me! I do appreciate all the help. I'm looking forward to the day when I can be the one helping the next newbie!