I figured out my hot water problem.
I've got an Oasis CH50M with an 8 gallon tank. It has two 10 amp electric burners plus a diesel burner for a big boost in heating power.
My problem was that I couldn't get a very long shower on electric power only. I got some great help from DSP Don who really helped me understand my system and I was able to improve the situation, but it was never perfect.
I bought a low flow shower head and turned off the water while soaping up but I found myself raising the temperature of the water valve just to keep up and finally when I hit the top setting, the water would start to cool down. All this in less than 10 minutes.
Last week I was boondocking for a week and I had to run the generator to recharge the batteries. After starting the generator, I figured that I'd turn off the electric burners to save fuel and allow the maximum power to go to the battery chargers and the A/Cs (it was hot in Chicago).
I looked at the power I was drawing before turning off the burners, then I turned off the burners and looked at the power again. It only dropped 10 amps and not the 20 amps I was expecting for turning off both burners.
So I checked it again and noted that burner number two would not draw any power whether it was on or off. Hmm, that was strange. If burner two isn't drawing power, then it can't be heating the water, right?
It so happened that I had an appointment with Newmar this week and I added this to the list of warranty issues to fix. Sure enough, they found that the relay and aquastat (whatever that is) wasn't working on electric heating element #2.
They ordered the new parts and installed them.
I'm happy to report that I've got tons of hot water now on electric only and this seems to have fixed the problem. Now in fairness, it is fairly hot out here in Nappanee this week and I'm still using the low flow shower head, but I've had to turn down the water since this has been fixed and I haven't run out of hot water yet.
The real test will come next week as I'm rejoined by my wife and kids who like to use the high flow shower head (I've got a diverter valve between them). We'll see what happens, but I wanted to report this back to the forum. You never know who may be experiencing the same problem and might not know that this is a possibility.
My problem was that I couldn't get a very long shower on electric power only. I got some great help from DSP Don who really helped me understand my system and I was able to improve the situation, but it was never perfect.
I bought a low flow shower head and turned off the water while soaping up but I found myself raising the temperature of the water valve just to keep up and finally when I hit the top setting, the water would start to cool down. All this in less than 10 minutes.
Last week I was boondocking for a week and I had to run the generator to recharge the batteries. After starting the generator, I figured that I'd turn off the electric burners to save fuel and allow the maximum power to go to the battery chargers and the A/Cs (it was hot in Chicago).
I looked at the power I was drawing before turning off the burners, then I turned off the burners and looked at the power again. It only dropped 10 amps and not the 20 amps I was expecting for turning off both burners.
So I checked it again and noted that burner number two would not draw any power whether it was on or off. Hmm, that was strange. If burner two isn't drawing power, then it can't be heating the water, right?
It so happened that I had an appointment with Newmar this week and I added this to the list of warranty issues to fix. Sure enough, they found that the relay and aquastat (whatever that is) wasn't working on electric heating element #2.
They ordered the new parts and installed them.
I'm happy to report that I've got tons of hot water now on electric only and this seems to have fixed the problem. Now in fairness, it is fairly hot out here in Nappanee this week and I'm still using the low flow shower head, but I've had to turn down the water since this has been fixed and I haven't run out of hot water yet.
The real test will come next week as I'm rejoined by my wife and kids who like to use the high flow shower head (I've got a diverter valve between them). We'll see what happens, but I wanted to report this back to the forum. You never know who may be experiencing the same problem and might not know that this is a possibility.
