Wednesday, January 15, 2014

House Guest and Water Heater Problems

Lavon, Texas
Lavonia Park
Weather Condition; High 66 Low 42, Clear

Things have been busy around our place lately. My Son is visiting from Phoenix.

His plane came into DFW airport at 5:15 A.M on Thursday morning. Dawn and I left the trailer a little after 4:00 A.M in order to be there when his plane arrived.  His flight was a few minutes late but it all worked out that we arrived at the same time his flight landed.

We left the airport and stopped for breakfast. After breakfast we returned to the trailer where everyone took a short nap.


My son is hyper too. He is very mechanical and I have taken full advantage of it. The windshield washer reservoir on the truck has been leaking for over a year. I could pour washer fluid in it and it would run out almost as quick!

We (HE) removed the reservoir and found the motor located at the bottom had a crack in it. A trip to the auto parts store and a little time later, it was working good-as-new. Thanks son.

He helped me wash the truck and we (HE) detailed all the plastic trim. Thanks so

He must have needed some rest so he went to visit other family members for a few days!!!!!

We’ve had some problems with our water heater and I have spent a few weeks trying to trouble shoot the thing to get it to work. We normally don’t use the propane to heat it. The electric has always worked fine.

When it’s real cold out, we like to use the propane. It just didn’t want to light. I’ve turned in on several times and nothing would happen. It would go through the motion and then it would shut out. I got flustered and just left it alone. Thank-goodness we had electric too.

A couple of weeks ago, one of the regular campers here at the park came over and we took the thing apart and cleaned the orifice and checked the igniter and all looked well. We put it all back together and still it wouldn’t light.

The water was warm but not hot by any means. I decided maybe the heating element was going out on it.

A few days later I decided to try the propane again. I turned the propane switch on and I heard the igniter clicking. I turned it off and right back on again and BOOM, it fired right up. I couldn’t believe it.

It fired up on a regular basis but the water wasn’t getting any warmer.

We drove out to Camping World on Sunday to get a new heating element. I talked with the service tech and he explained that the heating element does gradually go out. He said when it goes out it will be all at once. He suggested I double check the bypass valves on the water heater and make sure everything is where they need to be before replacing the heating element.

When we got home, I looked under the kitchen sink and it appeared all the valves were where the manual said they should be. I don’t know how they would have gotten turned anyway. I’ve never turned them.
I decided to turn one of the three valves that I thought might be the valve that needed to be turned. I had to use a pair of pliers to turn the valve.

I turned it and checked the water. The hot water came out of the faucet steaming! BOOM! I’m on a roll now!

I have thought about it and still don’t know how on earth that valve got turned. It took pliers to get it turned in the right direction.

Anyway, it’s all good now!

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