hot water tank giving mix of hot and cold

noralee · 10-22-2013, 08:11 PM

when i arrived at my new home, my new hot water heater stopped working properly. now when it heats up, i get a mix of hot, luke warm and cold water from the tap. i'm not sure but it doesn't look like my unit has a bypass. i set it up exactly the way the old one was, but got new fittings for it. and after the water runs through the hot tap, the water heater does not reignite even though the pilot light stays on.

i talked with atwood and one person said that it sounded like the thermostat was having problems. another said that maybe there was a malfunction with the bypass...

any thoughts on what it might be? and if i don't have a bypass, did i hook it up incorrectly? there is a T at the top of the tank where the cold water goes in and then the hot water comes out the other side. the valve at the bottom comes from the fresh water tank...

Gene · 10-22-2013, 08:22 PM

The cold water should not go in the top. The cold water goes in the bottom connection and hot water comes out the top connection.

noralee · 10-22-2013, 08:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gene

The cold water should not go in the top. The cold water goes in the bottom connection and hot water comes out the top connection.

i hooked it up just like the old one...on the bottom is only one connection--from the fresh water tank. is this correct?

where does the city water line come into the tank from then? because then i would be a connection short, but there are no more holes in the tank...

all i can think is maybe on the top is the 2 cold ones: 1 from city water line, 1 from fresh tank line. then bottom is the hot water coming out to rest of camper. does this sound possible? because that would mean i made a mistake.

**JohnB** · 10-23-2013, 05:32 AM

Like Gene stated, the cold goes in the bottom and the hot comes out the top. This has to be this way for the natural convection effect to work correct all the time. I can see the thermostat being tricked with the cold coming in the top.

If your layout has the on board fresh tank supply line and the city water fresh line both coming to the hot water heater area, they should tee together before going into the bottom area of the heater.

See here Page 2 line item 4 . Figure 1A is the hot and figure 1B is the cold. You need to scroll to page 6 to see Figure 1, and then it shows the A on top and B on the bottom.

http://www.atwoodmobile.com/manuals/...2011.19.07.pdf

You just need to switch the lines. If it was hooked up with the cold on top, well someone before you hooked it up incorrectly before you ever started on it.

Hope this helps and good luck

John

noralee · 10-24-2013, 01:18 AM

john, thanks a lot for pointing out the items in the manual.

right now, the tee is on the top with both cold water hoses. if i switch this to the bottom, i will probably have to extend one of the piping since it barely fits on top. then, i'll switch the hot water single pipe into the top valve and that should be good. is this correct?

**JohnB** · 10-24-2013, 05:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by noralee

john, thanks a lot for pointing out the items in the manual.

right now, the tee is on the top with both cold water hoses. if i switch this to the bottom, i will probably have to extend one of the piping since it barely fits on top. then, i'll switch the hot water single pipe into the top valve and that should be good. is this correct?

Yes, you just need to switch the incoming cold water pipes to the bottom and then the hot pipe leaving the heater is on top.

Good luck

John

noralee · 10-25-2013, 06:33 PM

i did it! now i have hot water in the camper. it was a tough job loosening the things that my dad tightened before, but it got done. no more washing dishes with only cold water when it's 40-50deg. outside