2017 mallard M26 water heater bypass

[17MallardMan]

I was hoping someone could help with this. Our mallard m26 was bought new back at the beginning of the season. I have to this point been unsuccessful in getting hot water in it. Can someone enlighten me as to the location of the bypass valve? I have looked everywhere I can think of with no luck. I can feel the water heater heating up but the water just does not come out hot. Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[cookie]

Welcome to this great forum, lots of info available here.
Wow, no hot water all season? What took so long to find this forum.
If you look at the navigation bar above you will see 'Tools'. Look around there.
There I found a winterizing manual and it describes the water heater bypass.
Here is a link to that page [LINK], check out page 5.
Hope that helps you.

Peace
DAve

 

[17MallardMan]

Well I should have been a little more clear. Tomorrow will be the second trip we have taken although we gave had the camper all season. Thanks for the link but I have searched this camper high and low. Under beds, outside, crawled every inch underneath, I've even unscrewed wall panels hoping to find it. I can't find one anywhere. Is it just possible that there isn't one or that it was left out?

 

[jimtoo]

Have you found the back side of the water heater where the lines go in? If you have there should be a line hooking the in and out together with a valve in it also. Make sure it is closed. If you have an outside shower be sure the hot and cold valves are turned off and not just turned off at the shower head.

Jim M

 

[17MallardMan]

I did notice tonight that the hot side was open on the outside shower and cut off at the shower head. The cold was off though. That wouldn't have caused it would it?

 

[17MallardMan]

Have you found the back side of the water heater where the lines go in? If you have there should be a line hooking the in and out together with a valve in it also. Make sure it is closed. If you have an outside shower be sure the hot and cold valves are turned off and not just turned off at the shower head.

Jim M

That's what kills me. There's no way to get behind the water heater without cutting the wall.

 

[17MallardMan]

Just an update. So we are camping tonight at lake Myers, NC campground. Same situation. I checked the shower. It was fine. I've checked for a bypass everywhere. I even had a friend that has a camper come to my house last night and check for a bypass. We searched this camper high and low again with no luck.

What is so odd is that when I cut the breaker on for the water heater, I can wait about an hour or so and check the pop off valve on the water heater. There is no water in the heater and zero pressure on it. Yet the pop off valve is hot. I'm to the point that I'm ready to sell this thing. Not even the camping world I bought it from can tell me why there is no hot water. They just blow me off and tell me to bring it for service at $129 an hour. Something is wrong, but I'm losing faith that I will ever find what it is.

 

[danemayer]

Just an update. So we are camping tonight at lake Myers, NC campground. Same situation. I checked the shower. It was fine. I've checked for a bypass everywhere. I even had a friend that has a camper come to my house last night and check for a bypass. We searched this camper high and low again with no luck.

What is so odd is that when I cut the breaker on for the water heater, I can wait about an hour or so and check the pop off valve on the water heater. There is no water in the heater and zero pressure on it. Yet the pop off valve is hot. I'm to the point that I'm ready to sell this thing. Not even the camping world I bought it from can tell me why there is no hot water. They just blow me off and tell me to bring it for service at $129 an hour. Something is wrong, but I'm losing faith that I will ever find what it is.

If 1) there is no water at the pressure/temperature relief valve, but 2) the valve is hot, then the heating element or gas burner is working, but you don't have water in the tank. That's because your dealer did not de-winterize it for you. That is a dealer responsibility and you might consider having a discussion with the general manager of the dealership about how they missed that and what they would like to do to correct the situation.

Another choice would be, on Monday, to call Heartland Customer Service at 877-262-8032 / 574-262-8030. Have your VIN # ready. Ask them to get the Mallard engineer to identify the access to the bypass valves on your floor plan. It's likely behind a drawer or perhaps a false panel. You likely have 3 valves; one on the hot line, one on the cold line, and one on a crossover between hot and cold. After you open the hot and cold valves, be sure to close the crossover valve.

By the way, turning the electric element ON with an empty tank is a good way to burn out the heating element. My understanding is that Atwood water heaters are less susceptible to burning out the electric element than are Suburban units, but eventually you'll damage the element.

 

[Oregon_Camper]

That's what kills me. There's no way to get behind the water heater without cutting the wall.

What about the water pump? Is that accessible? Perhaps your bypass valve are close to the pump?

 

[17MallardMan]

Thanks for all that helped with this. I finally found the valve. There is a storage area to the left of the water heater near the front of the M26. Inside that storage is a panel secured by 4 screws which covers the left side of the water heater. Removing that panel will get you access to the back of the water heater and the necessary cut off valves. On mine, two were cut off, the valve that allows water in to the tank ( incoming line near the top of the tank ) , and a line near the bottom of the tank (to me this seems like the supply line for the sink etc.. ) . As soon as I opened the top valve, I could hear the water rush in. I let it fill, then cut the water heater on. An hour later we had hot water. Thank goodness I was finally able to find it. We had hot water all day today.

On a side note, I also got a lap full of pressurized water!! . In my Atwood heater, there is a threaded hole that a nylon plug fits in to. Well since day one, the nylon plug has just been sitting there in the bottom of my heater casing. As I was figuring out what the valves on the back of the heater controlled, I thought "I bet this plug needs to be inserted". I screwed the plug in and filled the water heater. Now the problem was, I didn't know that this little nylon plug was the drain hole for the heater. Somehow during the tank filling I decided the plug was doing anything after all and decided to unscrew it. As I removed it, the pressure was high enough to blow the plug out just as I had it almost backed out. Pressurized water came flying out and soaked me from the waste down!!!! Naturally it drained the entire tank and I had to start again. I definitely learned a valuable lesson there! Keep the drain plug in and drain the dang tank before you remove it! Thanks again to all that assisted. I just may keep this thing after all!

The final thing I wanted to mention was that the need to do all of this was never discussed with me by the dealer. They never mentioned the location of the valves nor the fact that I needed to plug the drain hole for the heater. Im not very happy with them right now.

 

[JohnD]

The final thing I wanted to mention was that the need to do all of this was never discussed with me by the dealer. They never mentioned the location of the valves nor the fact that I needed to plug the drain hole for the heater. Im not very happy with them right now.

With our previous Heartland Trail Runner bumper pull, while at a Colorado HOC Rally, myself and one of the other members (Ronn Greengas) searched that whole trailer looking for the water pump and couldn't find it.

We even had it running and making it's noise . . . and still couldn't find it.

We removed every panel we could find looking for it . . . and still no water pump!

Finally, while looking under the hide-a-bed couch, we noticed a tiny panel covering a small section of the storage space under the sofa.

And guess what was under it???

Of course . . . the water pump!

Never even thought to look there as it was nowhere near anything water inside of the trailer!

In the photo below, the water pump was basically just inside the rear entrance door to the right under the couch.

 

[MP_CS]

The final thing I wanted to mention was that the need to do all of this was never discussed with me by the dealer. They never mentioned the location of the valves nor the fact that I needed to plug the drain hole for the heater. Im not very happy with them right now.

Thats something a "Reputable" dealer wouldn't have let you take it until you did know everything, unfortunately they are not easy to find anymore.