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Flushing water heater
When I drained the water from the RV last year, I noticed some soft white sediment on the pipe plug for the water heater drain. I said to myself, "I should flush the water heater next time I drain it." Then, of course, I stopped thinking about it, "next time" being in the future.
The time has come; we're expecting a cold snap next week, so I want to drain the fresh water, blow out lines, etc.
Is it adequate to turn on the water pump and use that to flush out sediment? Looking the topic up on Google offers all kinds of possibilities, but I trust this group's knowledge base more than I trust random internet pages.
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BillHoughton
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02/18/23 07:18am |
Class C Motorhomes
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RE: Two questions: fridge OOPS! and battery boost relay
As mentioned up top, I talked with Winnebago yesterday and got some advice. I then went out to the RV and tried some stuff. Below is what I learned:
Fridge: The Winnebago rep thought it should be OK. I turned on the propane, set the fridge to run on propane (rather than the dual-fuel electricity/propane/fridge chooses option), and, after 24 hours, it's running fine. I'll let it run for a few days just to confirm, but the freezer's down to 15 degrees Fahrenheit, so it seems to be OK. Yay.
Boost relay: On the 2007 Navion (and, likely, other, similar Itascas), the relay, and some circuit breakers, are under an extension of the "house" floor than runs forward between the cab seats. The Winnebago rep said, "you just lift the carpet." It turns out that you lift a heavy flat metal cover, carpeted on the top, that's hinged on the passenger side, and there's a cover, held down with screws, over the relays (that's what it says on the cover, anyhow). That cover's toward the rear end of the extension; the circuit breakers are behind a cover that's down in a well in the front end (wow! Another weird storage spot!). There's no obvious handle; I started tugging on the carpet in random spots, and the cover hinged up.
It didn't occur to Winnebago, as far as I can see, to put any kind of catch to keep the cover up; so, if I need to work in that space, I'll need to come up with something to hold it up so it doesn't crush my fingers.
The relay (aka solenoid) comes out to a battery-cable-sized cable (that is, a heavy/large cable) that's held on the battery clamp with a nut. I've realized that I can test relay function by removing that cable from the battery clamp and testing for voltage with and without the boost relay (momentary) toggle switch activated. If I'm not getting voltage, I can then open the cover and explore further.
I generally do electrical fault tracing from the origin point to the end, but no reason I can't work backwards.
It's a small cover; I bet if I have to remove the relay/solenoid, I'll be exercising my 56+ years of mechanical skill and my 74+ years of learning curse words.
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BillHoughton
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10/25/22 04:53pm |
Class C Motorhomes
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RE: Two questions: fridge OOPS! and battery boost relay
Is the fridge a Dometic 3-way?
No, Norcold NS series.
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BillHoughton
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10/22/22 04:36pm |
Class C Motorhomes
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Two questions: fridge OOPS! and battery boost relay
Two questions on our 2007 Itasca Navion. I've asked these questions of Winnebago Friday, and will surely hear back next week, but I'll appreciate hearing from the brain trust here, too. Later edit: I talked with a Winnebago rep yesterday and got some good advice; and then learned some more by inspecting the RV. I'm posting what I learned here as a reply down below, for the use of future folks with these issues.
Fridge oops and testing: at the end of a camping trip recently, I accidentally left the fridge (Norcold NS series) on, running on propane (even left the propane valve open), while parking twice, for periods of 20 minutes or so each time, at front-to-back angles for the RV of more than two degrees - probably more like five, although I didn’t look. The manual calls for side-to-side tolerances for the fridge (and thus front-to-back for the RV) of two degrees. As soon as we realized the problem, we pulled over and turned off the fridge and propane.
The RV is now parked in its level parking spot. Can I safely test whether I fried the refrigerator by turning it on to run on propane for several days? Are there tests I can perform/components I can examine to determine whether I broke it?
Boost relay: This relay connects the house battery to the motor battery, to jump-start the RV if the motor battery’s gone flat. It hasn’t worked since we bought the RV used; I can hear it “hit” somewhere near the cab when I sit in the driver’s seat and toggle the dash switch, but I’m not clear that it’s connecting the two batteries.
I thought having one of those boost packs would make repairing this unnecessary; but the battery went bad recently (at home, yay!), and I found that Mercedes, and the battery manufacturer, make it almost impossible to get alligator clamps on the battery terminals. So fixing the boost relay is now on the “must do” list.
The parts manual, often helpful here, doesn’t call anything a boost relay, as best I can tell. There’s a part, #008188-01-000, that looks like it might be the part, from the drawing; but the manual doesn’t show the location.
So, to test it, I have to find it first; any ideas where it is?
I think I know how to test it for function: trace the cable from the house battery to the relay, then pull the battery-size cable from the other terminal and activate the relay; I should find voltage on the "out" terminal when it's engaged. If not, it's relay replacement time. If the relay's OK, I then trace the cable from the relay to the motor battery and run the same test, with the cable disconnected from the motor battery. If that's not showing voltage, the cable's bad. Yes?
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BillHoughton
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10/22/22 02:51pm |
Class C Motorhomes
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