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ComerD · 01-03-2017, 07:05 PM

What the hell is going on with Aquahot?? Here is a synopsis of my past and current issues.

Approximately one month ago while in Las Vegas I experienced a problem with one of the zone pumps on my Aquahot 450D. I notified Entegra CS and they put me in touch with Aquahot Technical support (ATS). ATS informed that they had a "campaign" on the 450D pumps and they would send me an entire pump and hose replacement kit for my (under parts only warranty) 450D. Ok, Great. All of the Aquahot (AH) pumps, the electronic control module and all of the hoses and clamps were replaced by an authorized AH certified technician. Ok, that repair went well and the unit has functioned as advertised for the last month or so while enduring some cold weather in Las Vegas.

Fast forward to today and we are now in Yuma AZ awaiting some needed dental work. Here is the latest ISSUE!

While the coach is in a "non coach heating" configuration I always keep the AH electric heating element in the on position. If we need AH heat or an ample supply of hot water I switch on the diesel heating element. I switched on the diesel heating element last night for Zone 2. Everything worked fine during the night. This morning I turned off the diesel element switch and turned off ALL zones on the thermostat. We left for the day to run some errands. Upon our return I noticed that the coach was HOT! Seems the Zone 3, yes Zone 3, AH heating elements in the back bathroom/bedroom were blowing hot air.

What the (&$#(^#%! Everything on the thermostat was in the off position. It's just sitting there blowing hot air. I reset the main battery switch in an effort to reset the thermostat. NO JOY! Still blowing. I pulled the fuse to the thermostat and replaced and watched the thermostat reset but NO JOY! Still blowing hot air.

Called Enterga CS and spoke to Tony. He agreed that the AH heating elements get power from the Aquahot unit itself. He told me to turn off both the AH diesel switch and the electric element switch. Sure enough after about 3 minutes the Zone 3 heating element stopped blowing hot air. ?????

Ok, that was wierd! Waited for a couple of hours thinking that the whole Aquahot nightmare would be over. NOT! I checked the thermostat to ensure that the SYSTEM was off (no heat/ac) and switched back on the diesel burner switch to heat up the coach water. Guess what . . . . yep, the damn Zone 3 heating element began blowing hot air again.

I'm pretty sure that we are not going to need the heating element here in Yuma for very long. So, some of you armchair engineers need to help me out here. What am I missing? Has anyone ever had this problem before? HELP!

RCCFleetwood · 01-03-2017, 07:13 PM

I'm sorry, I can't help, but I'm most assuredly NOT going to ever buy anything with Aqua Hot in it, after seeing all the Aqua Hot problems on this forum!

brobox · 01-03-2017, 07:34 PM

What did Aqua Hot's CS have to say. They are pretty good at troubleshooting their systems.

MRUSA14 · 01-03-2017, 07:36 PM

It does not sound like an Aquahot failure to me. Rather it sounds like a failure of the thermostat system, which is not supplied by Aquahot. The first thing I would do is reboot the thermostat system by pulling its fuse and reinserting after one minute. If that does not correct the problem, a call to Entegra CS is in order.

Rowdy Joe · 01-03-2017, 07:40 PM

I would check out Roger Berk.

ComerD · 01-03-2017, 07:47 PM

Will call Aquahot in the morning to get their ideas on the problem. Hope they have some idea on what's going on. Thanks.

weirba · 01-04-2017, 07:14 AM

I agree that the problem is with the thermostat, not aquahot. I have had to reset my thermostat the odd time by pulling the unit off the mounting bracket and unplugging the wire harness from the back of the unit. Leave it unplugged for a minute or 2 and plug back in.

rag_ftw · 01-04-2017, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RCCFleetwood

I'm sorry, I can't help, but I'm most assuredly NOT going to ever buy anything with Aqua Hot in it, after seeing all the Aqua Hot problems on this forum!

May I suggest that you not be to hard on Aqua Hot as there are many of us that are pleased with our Aqua-Hot and Hydra-Hot systems. We just don't write about them on the forums because we are not having any problems! They will get the problems worked out with the 450 series. (Hopefully!)

brobox · 01-04-2017, 09:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rag_ftw

May I suggest that you not be to hard on Aqua Hot as there are many of us that are pleased with our Aqua-Hot and Hydra-Hot systems. We just don't write about them on the forums because we are not having any problems! They will get the problems worked out with the 450 series. (Hopefully!)

And there has been no mention of the "old" Suburban units we had in the Travel Supremes that the backflow valves would go out not letting any hot water come out. Or the LP regulators going out then no heat or hot water. Or LP running out as there was NO gauge inside to tell you how much you were using like with diesel. Low batteries also caused thermostat problems in the middle of the night...we didn't have AGS back then. How quickly some forget the "old days" were NOT that great either.

DoggieDaddy · 01-04-2017, 09:49 AM

There many of us in Aqua-Hot hell. My DW and I are getting weary of fighting the battle. Started with a kinked fuel hose and all the jumpers not set right so the floor heating didn't work. We've been through six pumps since and have pump #1 out now with strange effects.

Strongly thinking of a replacement. Either a different brand heating unit or a different brand coach. Or flat out giving up the lifestyle. It's very discouraging having all these problems continuously.

My advice: Check your basement thermostat it may be calling for heat which would activate Zone 3. Make sure all your pumps are green lighting. A pump being out can cause strange things to happen. Check your jumpers by removing the control panel face. There is a chart in the manual for the 450D. Recheck the programing of your thermostat. Ours got deprogrammed once by a tech that did know what he was doing. Procedure is in the manual.

Good Luck.

ComerD · 01-11-2017, 12:19 PM

All,

Just wanted to follow up on this forum with a fix to my problem stated above. Have had my mobile repair tech, Accurate RV, here in Yuma AZ troubleshoot the problem twice now. Thought we had it fixed the first time but the problem resurfaced.

The repair tech had the metal cover off of the mother board for the Aquahot beginning to test certain leads on the board. As he pushed his test tool onto the board the board itself "flexed" inward and the heat in Zone 3 went into the off position. WHAT! When he released the pressure from the mother board it "flexed" back out and the Zone 3 heat came back on. Hmmmmm

Turns out that the metal plate installed by Entegra was not installed on a proper "plan" and when you attached the Aquahot mother board into it's holders on the plate and then attached the front cover the entire mother board would get into a "flex" scenario and cause the Zone 3 heat to come on once the boiler fluid heated to a certain temperature. Really bizarre but it is now working fine and I have high confidence that the fix will last.

Last but not least I want to retract my not so nice comment about Aquahot. This was NOT an Aquahot system problem. The metal mounting board installed by Entegra was not installed properly thereby causing the problem.

I am now a HAPPY CAMPER!