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Old 07-15-2003, 08:18 AM   #1
Civil_War_Buff
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Default ANOTHER Water Heater Question

We spent the past couple of weeks having a great time in our TrailManor and this was the longest stretch that we have spent consecutively, and everthing went better than I had anticipated.

I did have something happen that I want some opinions on....I run my water heater on gas and electric, and after about 5 days, I noticed that the water was starting to make a noise like the element was boiling the water in the heater...it would happen at different times of the day and would last about 5 minutes then go away.  I tried opening a faucet to see if this stopped the noise, but it did not.  I have never noticed this noise before, and because it was a new and unfamiliar noise, it actually woke me up a couple of times at night.  Does anyone else have this noise? Any thoughts?

Other take aways from the two weeks....the fridge is not real efficient when the temps are consistently over 100 degrees.  I had to run it on MAX with the fridge fan running most the time to keep things cool and ultimately I could turn it to near 6, but it was never as cool as I like it.  The other issue was with the Air Conditioner...I learned not to leave for the day with the unit in Cool High and the temp dial at max...I iced up the compressor and it stopped cooling....once I figured out what I was doing, I put the unit on cool low and the temp at the mid point..that kept things nice and cool inside.  

Other than these things...everything went perfectly!! I hated to have to come home!

Larry
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Old 07-15-2003, 09:05 AM   #2
RockyMtnRay
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Default Re: ANOTHER Water Heater Question

The sounds you were hearing from the water heater may be the result of a build up of scale on the electric heating element if you've been using hard water in the system. Because the scale is both an insulator and somewhat porous, it's possible for there to be localized boiling right on the element's surface. The periodicity of the sound is probably correlated to the cycling of the electric element. I remember hearing something similar when I lived in areas that had very hard water and had an electric water heater in my house.
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Old 07-15-2003, 09:06 AM   #3
mjlaupp
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Default Re: ANOTHER Water Heater Question

Water heater noise:
W1) Are you hearing the gas burner flame rumble and thinking this is a boiling noise? I can hear my gas burner every time it lights.
W2) Are you using the gas water heater and the electric water heater at the same time? You could actually be boiling the water if the pressure is low in the water supply. If the water pressure is ok, try heating the water with only one of the two options and see where the problem is.
W3) The electric element could be cracked and letting water contact the internal 110vac heat wire. Replace the electric element. The fuse may not blow even though the internal wire is exposed to water.
W4) A buildup of scale on the heat element(s) can cause the boiling noise when the water next to the element flashes to steam. Clean (flush) the hot water tank and check and/or replace the anode rod.

Fridge:
F1) The fridge can only cool to some limit below ambient temp. 100 degrees is probably pushing the limits.F2) How level the TrailManor (fridge) is will affect cooling efficency.
F3) A 12v electric auto radiator fan with or without a thermostat and hung on the outside or inside of the outside fridge vents may help fridge cooling when the TrailManor is set up.

AC:
AC1) The 'High/Low Cool' setting should not affect the icing problem. It only changes the fan speed.
AC2) The book says to turn the AC to 'fan only' to de-ice the coil.
AC3) I haven't looked in the book, but I thought the AC unit had a coil icing dector and cutout circuit.

MJL
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Old 07-16-2003, 04:40 AM   #4
2619PDX
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Default Re: ANOTHER Water Heater Question

Larry:
You might try pulling the annode rod on your water heater and then rinsing the water heater out. I too had some of the same noises and so the other night I pulled out and replaced the annode rod, and using my new water wand from Camping World, I rinsed out the water heater!  

What a mess! You can't believe all of the white grit and hard water deposits that came out. Looked like sand.

After draining and replacing the annode rod, I refilled my tank and turned on the water heater (gas too) and voila - noise is gone!  

As far as the a/c goes - I iced up my a/c unit in Tucson last year too. Mike's right, it quit's cooling.  :P

I thought it had more to do with the recirculation setting on the a/c unit. When it iced up on me, I had the recirc set on internal. No air flow from outside...

I'll see if that makes a difference in two weeks going to Arizona...

Gregg
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Old 07-16-2003, 03:20 PM   #5
grkman1
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Default Re: ANOTHER Water Heater Question

Larry,

Do you have the roof a/c of the side wall unit?  I had a 2002 with the side unit and had some trouble icing up also.  The solution was to run the fan only to melt the ice, then back down on the temperature.

My 2003 TM has the roof a/c and havent had a problem yet with icing.  Actually I can only keep it on low fan because the high fan seems to be too high, especially at night trying to sleep......Good Luck
George
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Old 07-17-2003, 01:18 AM   #6
Civil_War_Buff
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Default Re: ANOTHER Water Heater Question

Quote:
Larry,

Do you have the roof a/c of the side wall unit? I had a 2002 with the side unit and had some trouble icing up also. The solution was to run the fan only to melt the ice, then back down on the temperature.

My 2003 TM has the roof a/c and havent had a problem yet with icing. Actually I can only keep it on low fan because the high fan seems to be too high, especially at night trying to sleep......Good Luck
George
George,

I have the roof air, but as I stated, I left it on max cold for the entire day.  I don't usually leave it on, so this was an experience that I wasn't quite ready for.  It seems that I am learning new things all the time with this trailer...but I guess that I always have room to learn.

Yes, the fan on high does make a lot of noise, and Veronica would never let the unit stay on much at night, but here in California, we have mild (cool) nights, so all night ac is not required.

Larry
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Old 07-17-2003, 06:36 AM   #7
bbeckham
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Default Re: ANOTHER Water Heater Question

AC:

We haven't had trouble with the side unit AC icing up since we gave it a good cleaning. Took it out and vacuumed the fins etc.  When it was dirty, backing down on the cooling temp worked. Now I can run it at max. Are any of you have icing problems with clean or new units? If so, what were the outside temperature ranges? Humidity high or low?

Betty Ann
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Old 07-17-2003, 07:30 AM   #8
DancinCampers
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Default Re: ANOTHER Water Heater Question

Hi all,

I'm not an A/C expert (but I did spend the night at a Holiday Inn Express)

Usually, an A/C unit will ice up on the evaporator due to insuffecient airflow (ie: dirty filter or dirty evaporator coil.  This prevents the freon from removing heat, and thereby the coil just keeps getting colder. ( An A/C evaporator coil will normally run at 40 deg F.)

If the coil iced up at nite, it was probrably due to the outside air temp decreasing to the point that with the unit set on the lowest temp setting the freon was staying in the outside condenser, and whatever freon was reaching the evaporator was boiling off much too fast, thereby lowering the evaporator coil temp to 32 deg F or below.

The temperature control on a window unit is different than the thermostat in a home central air unit.  It is a capillary tube filled with freon that reacts to the temp across the evaporator coil, rather than a coil spring (or digital thermocouple) that is in a home central unit.  It might be that when the TM unit is set to max it will never shut off.  I would recommend backing off just a little, to allow the unit to cycle on & off.

Another reason an A/C might freeze up is a low freon charge.  A car system has a low pressure cut-off switch to prevent damage to the compressor if you have a low charge, but a window or home unit does not normally have this protection.  Unless the window unit (IE: TM) has a service valve, it is sealed & you don't usually lose freon unless you have a catastrophic failure (ie: compressor electrical connection failure or punctured condenser or evaporator coil or copper tubing line or solder joint).

Maybe we should start another thread, as this is not even remotely related to water heaters.

As an aside, if you are having problems cooling your TM with a side mounted A/C, check to see if the intake & exhaust air for the condenser are separated & not mixing together.  Especially if you have replaced the original unit.  I saw one at the Jubilee which was replaced with a unit that was not as deep as the original, & did not extend all the way to the outside grill.  The air is pulled in on the sides & exhausts out thru the condenser coil.  I recommended  the owner place some kind of cowling around the condenser which extended to the grill (which he did & the unit was cooling better).  This helps to prevent the hot air from the condenser coil being recirculated back across the coil.  


Have a great day & stay cool.

Dan
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Old 07-17-2003, 08:24 AM   #9
2619PDX
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Default Re: ANOTHER Water Heater Question

Wow, Dan. thanks for the info.    I'll look at my a/c tonight and clean off the coils.

While I'm in Arizona, I won't set the control up to MAX either.  

I'm also going to keep the air exchange lever set on outside air exchange. This also seems to help.

thanks again for that great explanation.

Gregg
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Old 03-25-2008, 07:31 AM   #10
micbeth1981
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Default water heater

Do You Have To Light The Gas Water Heater?or Does It Come On Automaticly,how Do You Go From Elect To Gas?thanks-mike
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