No Water From HW Tap

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: hot water.

Danner

I filled my 2018 tab 320 with fresh water for the first time.  When I turn any of the taps (sink, shower, outside shower) to hot water, nothing comes out...cold is fine, just no water from the hot.  I’m still green with my trailer...and not sure why i’m Not getting any water from the hot taps.

Bayliss

@Danner, if your camper is not connected to city water while you are trying to get hot water (by opening a hot water faucet/valve), you may have only filled the fresh water tank.  There is a separate hot water tank.  While filling the fresh water tank, did you open the hot water faucet at your sink and/or shower with the water pump turned on  while doing that?  (NOTE:  l later added the bold italic comment for clarification - see further discussion below.)  If so, it should have sent water to your hot water tank as well.

If you didn't open a hot water valve while filling (or after having filled) the fresh water tank, then water probably was not sent to the hot water (Alde) tank.  I would suggest opening the hot water faucet at your sink and turn on the water pump to see if that pulls water into the hot water tank.  If the pump runs for more than a very brief period, then it should be pulling water from the fresh water tank to fill the empty hot water tank.  Until the hot water tank is full, the hot water line will sputter as air is forced out of the hot water tank and hot water lines.  Once the water starts flowing freely (normally) from the faucet without a bunch of sputtering and air coming out of the faucet, your hot water tank should be full.

If the above procedure does not pump any water to the hot water tank, then check to see if your water lines are in bypass mode from the last time the camper was winterized.  If so, then the hot water tank is being bypassed and no water is making it to the tank.  (NOTE:  If the hot water tank does fill, then keep in mind that the process I described above will have pulled water from your previously full fresh water tank.  Therefore, if you want a full tank of fresh water, you will need to top it off to replace the water that was transferred to the hot water tank.)

Sharon_is_SAM

Hi @Danner, as Bayliss says, to fill the Alde hot water tank, open a hot tap and that cues water to enter the Alde water tank.  Even if I plan to use my fresh water tank at a campsite (no city water hook up), before leaving home, I always find it helpful to hook up to city water, run water through my lines and fill the Alde hot water tank.  That way, I don’t use my fresh tank to fill the hot tank at the campsite.  Saves pump time (if filling from the fresh tank) and it is like having an extra 2.5 gallons of available water with a full Alde tank.

BrianZ

Bayliss said:

@Danner,
...
While filling the fresh water tank, did you open the hot water faucet on your sink and/or shower while doing that?  If so, it should have sent water to your hot water tank as well.
...

Um, no, it should not.
The only thing that will pull water out of the fresh water tank & send it to the Alde hot water tank is turning on the pump after filling the tank.  As you say, a hot water faucet and the bypass valves near the Alde must be open to allow the pump to do its job of delivering water from the fresh water tank & expelling air from the pipes.

ScottG

@Danner, since you mention filling the fresh water tank and you are getting water from the cold taps, I'm assuming the pump is on and is drawing properly from the tank.

When you open the HW faucet, what happens? If the pump turns on and you hear air and sputtering from the tap, then just wait a bit. Once the ~2.5 gallon Alde tank fills water will find its way to the sink, etc. Note that it may take a long time for all the air to find its way out of the system.

If absolutely nothing happens when you open the HW tap, then I would guess your winterizing valves are incorrectly set and the HW side of the supply plumbing (including the Alde) has been cut off. Setting the valve in their proper positions for "camping mode" should fix the problem.

As a side note, trying to prime the system using your fresh water tank and pump is more difficult than doing it with city water. If you can hook up to a hose the process will go much more smoothly and won't drain your battery unnecessarily.

Bayliss

@BrianZ , you are correct.  I wasn't very clear in how I wrote that.  Before leaving on a trip where I will not have access to a municipal/campground water system, I first fill my fresh water tank to full, or nearly full.  I then open a hot water faucet (usually the sink), turn on the water pump, and let it run until water flows freely through the hot water line.  I then open up the hot and cold faucets for the inside and outside showers, plus the flush lever to the toilet, to purge those lines of air and prime them with water.

I have never tried filling the hot water tank by simply opening a hot water faucet (without the pump running) while connected to a municipal/campground water system, so I can't honestly say whether that would work.  However, I am going to try it next time I head out just to see what happens.  After you wrote, I Googled this question and a couple RV web sites make no mention of using the pump to fill the hot water tank, while others do.  It could be that they just did not word it clearly, as I failed to do in my post above.  Anyway, thank you for clarifying the point.  Hopefully, with all the comments above, @Danner will resolve the hot water issue.

On another point, while searching through Google, I came across this interesting YouTube video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsiXaMEneaY .  It addresses something I have never encountered, but which could easily happen if you use the shower (inside or out) and turn off the water flow at the shower head, but forget to also shut off the faucets.  According to the video, this will result in you only having "lukewarm" water flow when you open another hot water faucet.  I would think you would likely notice a small amount of water leaking from the shower head if you have left the faucets in the "on" position (and take it as a cue to turn off the faucets), but maybe not.  I recall reading somewhere that shower heads in RVs have some sort of pressure relief in them that creates a slight drip of water when you close off water flow at the shower head.  Out of curiosity, I think I will test/replicate what is described in the video to see what happens. 

Bayliss

@BrianZ, not to beat a dead horse, but I've been thinking (and researching) today a lot about whether a municipal water connection will fill the Alde hot water tank without first having to turn on the water pump.  I did not find a specific answer online, which is a bit surprising since I would think this is a common question.  Additionally, as mentioned previously, I have never tried filling the hot water tank directly via a municipal water connection.  However, the above post by @Sharon_is_SAM tends to infer that she has, and that a municipal water connection will fill the hot water tank when a hot water faucet is opened (without the aid of the water pump.)  I would be interested in hearing from her if that is accurate.

Regardless, although it is true that while boondocking (or if merely filling your hot water tank before a heading out on a camping trip), you must turn on the water pump to fill the tank, based on my past recollection of using hot water in previously owned RVs, I do not recall having to turn on my water pump to take a hot shower while connected to a municipal water source.  This leads me to believe that the hot water tank will fill while connected to municipal water pressure AND you have opened a hot water faucet.

Although I could be wrong, this makes sense, because the T@B plumbing (when connected to a municipal water supply) completely bypasses the fresh water tank and pump, with a cold water line going directly to the Alde water tank inlet (see plumbing schematic previously posted by @ScottG, which I have highlighted to identify the municipal water line.)  It should be noted, however, that this does not negate your accurate point that the only way to fill the Alde hot water tank from the fresh water holding tank, is to turn on the water pump.

Do you (or others) agree with this conclusion, or am I overanalying it (or, "all wet," so to speak)?

Sharon_is_SAM

@Bayliss, you are correct.  The city water connection enters as a cold water line which leads to your other cold water taps/toilet/showers and enters and fills the Alde tank when you open up a hot tap.  That is the beauty of the city connection in that the pressure from the hose fills the system without the pump.  

The only time that you need to use the pump to fill the Alde tank is if your water source is your fresh water tank.  The process is the same after you turn on the pump - open your hot tap and wait for the sputtering to subside at which point the tank has exhausted the air and is now filled.  And in fact, you don't want to run the pump when you have pressurized your system with a city water connection.  Apparently it is a lot of wear on the pump as it works against the pressure.

If you are inclined, try connecting to city water and filling your system and Alde tank before leaving home if you plan to use your fresh water tank at camp.  It saves water and time and my experience has been that you don't have to worry so much about the pump priming.

Welcome to the Alde learning curve and thank you again @ScottG for that great plumbing diagram.

Bayliss

Thanks for the quick response, Sharon.  I will be changing my water-fill process.

BrianZ

Yep, agree with what you & Sharon said! 👍

ScottG

Yep. What they said.

Even if I didn't know jack about plumbing, I could still assure you that I've filled my Alde HW tank many times using the only the city water connection.

ScottG

Note that I've split this discussion from its original location.

Ninabean

I’m having difficulty with my Alde Flow.  It is set up per manual instructions and the little icon stops flashing when the water should be at 140*.  Turned on pump and water comes out luke warm with an occasional hot flow for a nano second.  I’ve run it for 90 sec and still not hot. Faucet is full on hot.  Help!

pthomas745

@Ninabean , meet the mixing valve.  You need to adjust this valve that "mixes" hot and cold water so you won't get "too hot" water at the faucet.  Not too hard to adjust, and there is plenty of help here:

https://tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/2676/little-hot-water/p1

Ninabean

Thank you for your help and the link.  I have read the link and got a lot of info there.  Now off to finding the mixing valve and bleeding the lines.

JP2558

Does the hot water tank need to be filled with hot water, or just water? We are rookies too, and have filled the fresh water tank with the bleach solution to sanitize it, and are now trying to activate the pump but when the pump comes on nothing is happening. I saw when the pump was turned on, it physically shook (as if water was entering it), and we left the faucet on for a good five minutes and still no water from the sink tap... Also the 2018 (320-CS) manual doesn't really explain which valves should be open or closed, as the manual just shows pictures...

Sharon_is_SAM

@JP2558, 

This will help with how to sanitize and arrange the valves.  https://us.v-cdn.net/5021717/uploads/editor/ya/65qzp597792b.pdf
To sanitize, you want to exclude/bypass the Alde water tank.  Close the hot and cold water supply valves and open the Alde Bypass valve - this allows the bleach water to circulate to your plumbing without getting to the stainless steel of your Alde tank (over time it may damage the steel).  

The way you fill your Alde water tank (do this with either a fresh water tank of non-bleach water or via a city water connection) is open your hot water faucet.  That initiates the flow of water into the Alde water tank which can then be heated.  There will be sputtering at the faucet until all the air has escaped the Alde water tank.  

When you turn the pump on it will make some noise when it starts to push fluid through the plumbing and then it stops.  Don’t open the taps until it stops rumbling.  If you can’t get it to pump after this, you may need to prime the pump.

JP2558

Thanks Sharon - we have that document, and we are on step 10 but one thing we did not do was hook up the city water per steps three and four. And how long should we expect it to take step seven (turn on the pump - it may run a bit until it pressurizes)?

Sharon_is_SAM

The pump typically runs much less than a minute.  

Sharon_is_SAM

Here are some things to try to get your pump to draw water.

https://tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/7361/water-pump-not-working

JP2558

Thanks for the input. Now just waiting for Amazon to deliver a water pressure regulator so I can connect my city water.