Water heater switch

[MandT]

So we're getting ready for our first trip ever in our Astoria 3776.

We finally dewinterized the water system and all seemed to go well there.

My question is for the water heater...is the switch on the panel above the door where it says Water Heater and then the option for electric or gas? The book says it will illuminate and then go off when the burner is on and the water is heating. How long does it take for this light to go off? I'm trying to do it on electric.

[MandT]

So we're getting ready for our first trip ever in our Astoria 3776.

We finally dewinterized the water system and all seemed to go well there.

My question is for the water heater...is the switch on the panel above the door where it says Water Heater and then the option for electric or gas? The book says it will illuminate and then go off when the burner is on and the water is heating. How long does it take for this light to go off? I'm trying to do it on electric.

[MandT]

Ok, this is so confusing to me. Do I have a water heater bypass that allows the heater to fill with water?

I basically need someone to walk me step by step through the process. We have our fresh water tank about half full. Now how do we go about the water heater?

Thank you.

T

[lionel_046]

you will probably get many responses -

the light that illuminates and then goes off is for the gas burner. It illuminates while the burner is lighting and then goes off once lit. Your LP gas bottle needs to be opened.

The electric is most likely controlled by a simple on off switch in the bathroom.

if you have your fresh water tank full, then turn on your water pump and that should fill the hot water heater. Unless you still have it in bypass mode from being winterized. If you do, there is probably 3 valves near the water heater (inside the coach - probably the bathroom. you will need to turn all 3 in the opposite direction from where they are. the input and output lines turned straight to allow water to pass & the valve between the lines to the off position.

Hope this makes sense and is some help. Just keep asking questions til you understand.

Good Luck, Harry

[MandT]

Thank you Harry. I ended up making an appointment for our steps that are stuck (posted a different thread on that) and I asked for another walk through. They said no problem. I think that we'll understand a lot more this time around. This is our first coach (other than one we rented in Spain. I'm surprised we figured out how to work everything then being that we don't know a lot of Spanish and we were told how to operate it in broken English). Now that we're so much more familiar with the coach, I think things will click this time.

[Frankie]

I linked this thread over to solutions and aftermarket.You will get some more exposure there.

[Bill & Luz]

May I suggest that when you get your walk through that you take a video camera and record all the steps for future reference. I review my tape at the start of every camping season just to refresh my memory of how things work.

[chasfm11]

Another suggestion would be that you determine exactly what appliances you have. Few on this forum (or anywhere else) will be able to relate "water heater" with your RV. On the other hand, the same Atwood or Surburban water heater is used is almost all RVs and then it is simply a matter of knowing which model of these that you have. Every appliance has a maker and a model and sometimes even a serial number. If I had it to do over again (the PDI), I'd record each as I went.

Why? Because with that information, you can go to the manufacturers' website and download instruction and installation manuals, even if you didn't get them with your RV. I've collected electronic versions of even the manuals that I got in hardcopy. In some cases, like our dash air conditioner, it wasn't possible to get the model but I found out at least the maker (Evans). They have a wonderful diagnostic flow chart that is on their website. Even if you don't do your own work, being able to show the tech who will work on it more information may save you money and aggravation over time. Often, the installation manuals will show you more detailed breakdowns of the appliances. That is definitely true for my Atwood water heater.

Just my $.02 worth.

[Sumar]

MandyT, we have a 2007 Astoria 3773. The hot water heater is located exactly where you said, and you have the option of either running it electrically or with gas, depending on which switch you push. You can run it with both if you want to get hot water quicker.
Our light stays on when either switch is pushed letting us know it is on.

We have an Atwood heater, not sure if that is the one you have also.

When dewinterizing, there is by-pass that has to be deactivated. On ours it is two levers that are on the hot water heater itself located in the bathrrom area. (ours is close to the floor behind a removable panel.)
To winterize after you drain the hot water heater reset the levers to be in a by pass mode. When dewinterizing, the levers are switched so the heater is NOT bypassed, so the water will flow into the heater.

We bought our first motor home last July, so are somewhat newbies, but have gone to a few rallys now, and have tried to find out about everything as we were so "green".

This board is great with advice and suggestions, and another walk thru would be very helpful. Also if you could video tape it would be great, as also suggested by Bill and Luz.

Although I hope you have someone who is more helpful than we did with our walk thru. We had a young kid who seemed to know less than us, and whenever we asked him a question he would reply, "I don't know, I didn't prep this unit."

Best of luck, and happy travels,
Sue

[MandT]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Sumar:
MandyT, we have a 2007 Astoria 3773. The hot water heater is located exactly where you said, and you have the option of either running it electrically or with gas, depending on which switch you push. You can run it with both if you want to get hot water quicker.
Our light stays on when either switch is pushed letting us know it is on.

We have an Atwood heater, not sure if that is the one you have also.

When dewinterizing, there is by-pass that has to be deactivated. On ours it is two levers that are on the hot water heater itself located in the bathrrom area. (ours is close to the floor behind a removable panel.)
To winterize after you drain the hot water heater reset the levers to be in a by pass mode. When dewinterizing, the levers are switched so the heater is NOT bypassed, so the water will flow into the heater.

We bought our first motor home last July, so are somewhat newbies, but have gone to a few rallys now, and have tried to find out about everything as we were so "green".

This board is great with advice and suggestions, and another walk thru would be very helpful. Also if you could video tape it would be great, as also suggested by Bill and Luz.

Although I hope you have someone who is more helpful than we did with our walk thru. We had a young kid who seemed to know less than us, and whenever we asked him a question he would reply, "I don't know, I didn't prep this unit."

Best of luck, and happy travels,
Sue </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thank you Sue for all of the info. It will definitely help me once I get the coach back from the shop.

T