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Desdinova · 12-21-2022, 11:28 PM

It's 18 degrees out, but I have the heat on, hot water heater on, and TANK HEATERS on. It's about 60 degrees in the salon. My furnace ports into the belly so I thought I was safe. I turned on the water and nothing from either tap in any location. Just a little pressure relief and I didn't hear the pump come on. I believe there is about 1/3 tank of water in the freshwater tank.

This is a 2020 26RK Vibe. Does anyone know for sure which tanks are covered by the tank heaters? As there are two switched, but three tanks.

I turned off the pump as I assume the water in the hot water heater will stay there for a bit. I was going to turn off the hot water heater, but figured any extra heat in there is better than nothing.

I'm not sure what to do next. Should I hook up to the water supply and see what happens and if that works just use the low-point drains?

I'm just kinda stumped.. I did look into the toilet what little that is in there is definitely not frozen, but that is also closest to the heat duct in the belly. The freshwater tank is right near it as well, so I'm kinda surprised things seem to be frozen.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated, especially if you are familiar with a 26RK Vibe.

Thanks in advance.

Oregonpharme · 12-22-2022, 01:20 PM

Locate your pump and take a hair dryer to the pump end just enough to get it warm, not hot. Then try power it on. The pump end is the thinnest component and tends to freeze water first.

Once it is pumping, I suspect the water will flow is the area near the plumbing is above freezing. Then turn up the furnace for the duration of the cold weather.

BonS · 12-22-2022, 01:36 PM

In addition to the factory heat, I have a small 200 watt space heater near my water pump in the wet bay. It won't melt anything @ 200 watts and doesn't care if it's laying down while in operation. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...e?ie=UTF8&th=1

Desdinova · 12-22-2022, 04:22 PM

Thanks for the replies so far... I did a little poking around and a line must be frozen underneath the rig. I'm making this educated guess based on the following TWO observations, although as you will see the observations would support them NOT being frozen.. but... they must be because I have visual access to everything else.

I opened up the panel under the fridge where the hot water heater and water pump are located. Much to my surprise, it was about 50 degrees. I then slipped a temp probe under the floor and was surprised it was over 40 degrees down there. This is on the back wall, which is the furthest away from where the furnace sends heat down there. As far as I know, the only heat into the undercarriage is under the furnace which is in the bedroom, so these temps are by all accounts the LOWEST they can be. If there are other feeds into the undercarriage, well, that's just more heat... bottom line... it's nowhere near freezing down there.

Next, I tried to put warm water (from a heated hose) into either Fresh or City inlets. Both inlets were frozen and check-valves stuck so I fixed that, but still only a little water goes in (ounces), and then it just builds up pressure and stops. I can see the lines inside where they come into that space I mention I opened in the above paragraph. It's all above 50 degrees in there, so there must be something below frozen, somehow, but I'm stumped as to where with everything underneath being at LEAST 43 degrees.

Desdinova · 12-22-2022, 09:22 PM

So I opened the hatch to access the area under the shower where there is a large (16" x 16") opening into the underbelly. As I suspected, it was certainly not freezing down there. I guess I'm just going to have to wait and see. It's supposed to warm up in a couple of days. If anything does fail it will be in the underbelly so I'm not terribly concerned... yet.

Desdinova · 12-25-2022, 12:36 AM

Well, all is well. I still don't know what exactly froze, but it got up to 50 today and everything seems to be working. When it gets warmer and dryer I need to open up the barrier and check to see where the water lines are routed and go from there.

The part that has me stumped is I wasn't getting water to the water pump AND not getting any water using the City hookup. That kinda limits where the freeze could have happened, but it was well above freezing in that area. Maybe an inspection will reveal a line not secured up off the barrier or something like that.

A head-scratcher for sure, but the bottom line... no damage after a week below freezing.. just a bit of stress.