Hot water heater... Warm water heater?

[imchud]

Just was able to to take the bighorn out of storage and put it on site. Everything went smooth (thank god) however... the hot water tank is only putting out warm water when the faucet is all the way on hot??? I checked the water at the tank and it seems very hot, but not at the faucet. My guess is the hot is mixing with the cold someplace in the system, any ideas what the issue could be and how to fix it, thanks

Tom

 

[Rickhansen]

Make sure the bypass valve (winterize) is closed.

 

[grizzlygiant]

And make sure your outside shower valves are both "off".

 

[imchud]

OK... Now What???. I made sure all the valves were closed, Bathroom shower, outside shower, and the bypass valves all closed. I took off the handels on the bypass valves and turned them with a small plyers to see if I could get them closed just a little bit more, just to fine tune them & i'm still getting warm water??? when i crack open the relief valve on the Hot Water tank to test the the water, it's hot to the point you can't hold your hand under it for more then a second.
Can the winterizing valve be bad? I wouldn't think it could be, not sure what could go wrong with it or the tank by-pass valve, because all it does is shut off water to the tank. I guess i was hoping for an easy fix, any ideas, thanks

Tom

 

[hoefler]

I would replace both bypass valves, they are not seating, and allowing cold water to bypass.

 

[57chevyconvt]

Sounds like the very same thing that happened to me several months ago. When you removed the valve handles (presume white plastic about 2 1/2" long) how much of the brass valve stem is protruding from the valve body? If only about 3/32" of an inch, you are probably out of luck in trying to close the valve with a pair of pliers or small adjustable wrench. I had to remove the water lines from the 3 way valve (hot water heater by-pass) and plug the line coming for the hot water heater out line line and jumper the other two lines with a 1/2" brass hose connector before I got a hot shower. The 'vir' valves supplied by B and B Molders some of the 2010 model trailers is not a worthy design. I have traveled down that cold dusty shower trailer most recently. If this describes your problem, I have all the info as to what I had to do in order to make the necessary valve replacement with an Apollo 3-way replacement valve.

 

[imchud]

Sounds like the very same thing that happened to me several months ago. When you removed the valve handles (presume white plastic about 2 1/2" long) how much of the brass valve stem is protruding from the valve body? If only about 3/32" of an inch, you are probably out of luck in trying to close the valve with a pair of pliers or small adjustable wrench. I had to remove the water lines from the 3 way valve (hot water heater by-pass) and plug the line coming for the hot water heater out line line and jumper the other two lines with a 1/2" brass hose connector before I got a hot shower. The 'vir' valves supplied by B and B Molders some of the 2010 model trailers is not a worthy design. I have traveled down that cold dusty shower trailer most recently. If this describes your problem, I have all the info as to what I had to do in order to make the necessary valve replacement with an Apollo 3-way replacement valve.

Yes, that sounds like the same problem... If you can pass along your info i would appreciate it. thanks

Tom

 

[tmcran]

Before doing to much check the back flow preventer where the hot water come out of the water heater. I had the same problem last year and the plastic valve spring was bad replaced with brass. No more problems.

 

[John T Bettencourt]

Your problem is the back flow preventer at the top of the water tank. You can take it out and free up the spring inside it as it is stuck,that is why you are getting only warm water. Simple fix. My Landmark did the same thing from setting all winter. Cost me a service call to get the answer.

 

[imchud]

Your problem is the back flow preventer at the top of the water tank. You can take it out and free up the spring inside it as it is stuck,that is why you are getting only warm water. Simple fix. My Landmark did the same thing from setting all winter. Cost me a service call to get the answer.

Thanks, I will check that out... A quick question, Wouldn't the whole tank be warm and not hot? because when I open the saftey valve to check the water temp from the valve, it seems very hot. Or does the hot water get mixed with the cold at the discharge of the check valve? please let me know what you think,Thanks

Tom

 

[John T Bettencourt]

Imchud, your water heater is working properly. The stuck valve is not letting much hot water out of the tank. That is way the water is only warm. After you free that valve you will have tons of hot water. Good Luck. Be careful as the valve is only plastic.

 

[57chevyconvt]

The hot water is not mixed with the cold water exit the discharge check valve. The hot water is only mixed with cold water at the faucets. As the hot water leaves the hot water tank, it is replaced with cold water at the bottom of the tank. The hot water heater in your home has no check valve in the hot water discharge line. The system works on pressure drop, i.e., as the pressure drops on the outlet of the heater due to flow, the cold water is ushered in by pressure form the cold water line. So I have been told, and it makes sense to me, that the only purpose for the check valve in the hot water discharge line is to prevent from pumping antifreeze into the hot water heater tank during the winterizing operation. Of course, I stand to be corrected about the check valve's function. If some out there has a better source of information concerning the use of a discharge check valve, I am all ears.

Before I would do anything else, I would do as suggested and check the condition of the discharge check valve, BTY - I replaced my plastic check valve with a brass check valve.

 

[57chevyconvt]

Tom,
If the white plastic valve handles are 2 3/8" long, most likely they are from BandB Molders. Look on the front of the face plate ~ 3" x 4" that the valves are attached to and see if you read BandB Molders. If so, call and talk to Kelly or Brad at 1-888-965-2244. They should offer to send you new valve handles. I don't think this is going to solve your problem long term. I replaced the 3-way bronze ball valves with Apollo brand valves from Global Equipment Co. <globalindustrial.com>, model B31545, $20.00 ea. I had to do some modification to the face plate in order to accept the Apollo valve versus the 'vir' valve. If you want to tackle the job of changing to the Apollo valve. I can send you pictures and details of the valve change over.

 

[caissiel]

I would not suspect the backflow valve at the HW discharge unless there was a restricted flow of hot water at the HW fawcet. The mixing of hot water with cold can only happen at the bypass valve location. Unless your tank has a Hot and Cold water mixer, a friend had the same condition and his mixer was faulty. Some manufacturer have gone to 10Gal rated tanks with 6 gal tanks. A mixing valve is used to mixe cold water with 180F water and set at 120F out.

I just replaced the leaky backflow valve on mine with a brass nipple and that way removed all restriction of HW in the unit. I have done that to many trailers and replaced then with an accesible manual shutoff valve. I do the winterizing with air so I will never need the shutoff.
I think that the antibackflow valves are required when the HW tank is on trailers with the tank located higher then ours, like the ones that have it higher then the kitchen fawcet. I saw one trailer setup like that this weekend parked next to ours. This valve will not allow the HV tank to drain if the water supply is drained accidently while the HW heating system is still on.