Hot water moving thru the cold water lines

I was fortunate to attend the Rally and had some excellent work done on my 2009 BH 3850, but did not realize a water problem that appeared after the Heartland Team had finished for the weekend. I did receive some help from other members and believe I have isolated the problem to a faulty hot water (winterizinf) valve. I did want to post this to see if any other members had the same experience.

The problem is that when I run the cold water from any source (Including kitchen, bathroom, toilet, shower or outdoor shower) I get lukewarm water for approximately 20 seconds, then 20 seconds of hot water (really hot....as if coming from the water heater....not sunlght on the hose) followed by cold water at the expected temperature.

I can let it sit for five minutes and get the exact same result, so I don't think it is heat genetated by a twisted line or too close to the water heater. I did receive a new valve from Heartland, but did not want to swap it out if there was another solution. Any similar incidents??

Thanks,

Chuck

Chuck, Glad you got a new valve. I would replace the valve and see if that fixes it. Bill Sims who looked at your rig is a retired plumber and I would trust his diagnosis. We were beside you at the rally.

I hope you have found the problem after you have replaced placed the new valve in the line. Please keep us informed as to the results.

Chuck
Check to see that the valves are turned off on the shower and out door shower. If one of them is on and the shutoff button on the shower head is on the water flows through the heater. This happened to me and many others.. Could save you a lot of work if the faucets are on.

BC

Heater bypass valves open?

I have the same thing happen with my shower when using water from the tank. Hot to cold to hot to cold. Almost unusable. I've checked everything. The bypass valve is in the right position, no other facets open. And it doesn't seem to happen using city water, only the tank and pump. Heartland thinks it's the facet, but why would it not do it ALL the time if that was the case?

Thanks Guys,

We checked the outside shower and it was off....also the inside shower was replaced with a new showerhead so I don't have the shut off button in the handle. Thanks to Bill Sims and all who helped diagnose at the rally.

We'll get a PEX crimper and some crimps to try it out. The bypass valves are in the correct position according to the UDC panel indications....is it possible to mount a valve in the wrong position????

Well if it isn't the heater bypass (which exhibits exactly what you are describing) then - on our boat, to even out the water supply, I ended up adding an accumulator tank.

Nothing more then tank that tees into your water supply off the pump.

There Is a diaphragm in the tank, water on one side positive air pressure on the other side. Once I got the the preload (pressure) set correctly our water supply stayed fairly consistent.

I had a similar problem on my first trip in my Razor, when connected to city water, my faucets were backwards, hot was cold cold was hot. When using the pump and tank it worked as advertised. After searching upside down and sideways, I finally found that they had connected my city hookup to a hot water line instead of a cold. I cut the line loose and spliced into the cold and it now works great.

The saga continues.... The problem seems to be somewhat intermittent. When I returned from the rally, the problem was not as obvious. I exercised the faucets on the outside shower, including the cut-off button, to make sure it wasn't sticking and did the same to the inside shower. I also exercised the winterizing by-pass valves.

One thing I did not consider was the possibilty that I had a bad bathroom faucet. I'm not sure how the faucet is designed, but we had a bad squeeking sound and Heartland sent a replacement. The faucet did not drip, and appeared to work properly, except for the noise. Once I swapped out the faucet I did not experience the hot water bleed-over problem.

I've been away from the coach for a few weeks due to other committments, so I will have to check it out when I return this weekend. Heartland also sent a new bypass valve, but I wanted to be sure I still had the problem before speding the cash on a Pex crimp tool.

The hot water still bleeds through the cold side when I cut city water and do not activate the fresh water pump. The water starts cold, but then runs hot for a minute or two until it dribbles off. I think this is normal since there is no pressure w/o the city or fresh water supplies acivated.

One last considration was pointed out by Evans at the rally.....maybe I have one of them Heartland ghosts running around my Big Horn?????

Thanks again for all the help at the rally and here on the forum. Kudos again to Heartland for the quick parts support.

chasdvorak said:

The hot water still bleeds through the cold side when I cut city water and do not activate the fresh water pump. The water starts cold, but then runs hot for a minute or two until it dribbles off. I think this is normal

Click to expand...

This is normal, accumulator in the hot water heater will force the hot water through the system until the pressure bleeds off.