Hot/Cold shower

[thankdog]

Hi everyone - hoping you can offer some insight to this ongoing issue(s) -

we have a 2012 Fleetwood Discovery 40X

Two things maybe unrelated -

Most importantly when we take showers (if not hooked up to city water) the water fluctuates from hot to cold to hot and back again - we replaced the pump as was suggested and no real improvement.

Second issue the ice maker doesnt work. There is nothing wrong with the ice maker that anyone can find. We replaced the filter but that made no difference. Oddly - from time to time with no rhyme or reason it will make a tray of ice. I know, not a super important problem to have in the big picture but still we would love to be using the ice maker instead of simply using it to hold store bought ice.

Thanks! Preparing for a X country trip and wanting to get everything done.

Lynn

[thankdog]

ppine wrote:
Take military showers and put a bag of ice in your freezer.

Thanks. That was super helpful.

[ppine]

Take military showers and put a bag of ice in your freezer.

[Bill_Satellite]

It it were the mixing valve, wouldn't he get the same effect whether connected to city water or using water pumps?

[Bill_Satellite]

It sounds like the plumbing is hooked up incorrectly. The pump should be sending water to both the hot and cold side at the same time. With the shower running the pump should never cycle off as it would never reach shut off pressure. If the pump cycles off, how does the hot water keep coming? Is there more than 1 pump?

[ScottG]

It's not the pump, though it will aggravate the symptom. It's the mixing valve in the WH and it's common with that WH.
Your particular WH heats water much hotter than a standard unit. Then it uses a mixing valve (which depends on consistent flow) to blend cold water into the hot water outlet in order to keep those temps in check and give more usable hot water overall. That's why your is referred to as a "16" - it gives you the equivalent of 16 gallons of hot water.
It's that fancy mixing valve that's causing the fluctuations. It probably has hard water deposits/calcium built up in it.
You need to replace the mixing valve.

[wa8yxm]

Shower.. Temp should be constant even with pressure fluctuations since they will increase both hot and cold proportionally.

Ice maker.. Cycle is as follows: Problems in (prens)

First: it runs on 120VAC.. Not battery power.

Temp of ice maker gets down to about 25F (Freezer not cold enough)
Thermostat closes and motor starts, also a heater
As the motor runs a cam closes a micro switch, bypassing the T-Stat
Motor runs till "Fingers" encounter ice, then stalls till heater melts it enough to push it out of the freezing tray.
Motor then continues to run pushing the ice out
As the cycle continues a 2nd Cam closes an adjustable Micro switch sending power
to the Water Valve Solenoid and opening it so that water flows (water path clogged with ice, bad solenoid, bad water line, water supply turned off, no water supply)

Ice is 'Scraped" off the fingers by the other fingers and falls into the tray (Often on the next cycle)

I would check for leaks outside. and check the cube size, Drop a Thermometer in teh freezer and make sure it is getting down to aroudn 20(F) or less.

[Ernest]

thankdog wrote:
The water heater is Atwood GE 1b EXT - in general to clarify: the fluctuating temps only occur when using the pump b/c pump is constantly cycling on/off. (on city water pressure is constant). Every time the pump cycles off we get scalded then when it cycles back on we get a blast of freezing cold water until it normalizes to the temp we have set when turning on shower. *ETA* so this goes on for the entirety of the shower - hot, cold, on , off....Should the pump stay on during the shower when not on city water?

The fridge is a regular side by side GE like you would have in your house. I am looking for model etc.....

The pump pressure switch is bad or needs to be increased. Mine will constantly run but at a variable (speed) rate depending on the demand (how much water is required). This is clearly the problem for the water surging hot/cold.

Assume the GE did not come with the MH so I also would check the screen on the water line for the refg. I might be clogged restricting the water flow. If it did come with the MH I would check it anyway.

[thankdog]

The water heater is Atwood GE 16 EXT - in general to clarify: the fluctuating temps only occur when using the pump b/c pump is constantly cycling on/off. (on city water pressure is constant). Every time the pump cycles off we get scalded then when it cycles back on we get a blast of freezing cold water until it normalizes to the temp we have set when turning on shower. *ETA* so this goes on for the entirety of the shower - hot, cold, on , off....Should the pump stay on during the shower when not on city water?

The fridge is a regular side by side GE like you would have in your house. I am looking for model etc.....

[thankdog]

I will get the info on make and model of both today - thank you everyone!Back soon with information.

[bigdog2]

I think you need to adjust the pressure on your pump, either up or down so it doesn't surge when both hot and cold are turned on.

[Ernest]

thankdog wrote:
Hi everyone - hoping you can offer some insight to this ongoing issue(s) -

we have a 2012 Fleetwood Discovery 40X

Two things maybe unrelated -

Most importantly when we take showers (if not hooked up to city water) the water fluctuates from hot to cold to hot and back again - we replaced the pump as was suggested and no real improvement.

Second issue the ice maker doesnt work. There is nothing wrong with the ice maker that anyone can find. We replaced the filter but that made no difference. Oddly - from time to time with no rhyme or reason it will make a tray of ice. I know, not a super important problem to have in the big picture but still we would love to be using the ice maker instead of simply using it to hold store bought ice.

Thanks! Preparing for a X country trip and wanting to get everything done.

Lynn

If the problem doesn't occur when you're on city water then you still have an issue with the pump/water circuit around the pump. The pump is bypassed when you're on city water.

As to the ice maker I would check under your sink or near the refg itself for a water shut off valve. Mine is under the sink; make sure it open.

[Matt_Colie]

Lynn,

The shower issue sounds a lot like air in the water heater tank. If it is, this is easy to fix. The air in the tank makes it behave partly as an accumulator, so try this before you add one....

With the heater off and the pump on, open the taps for hot as fast as you can. This will work as well on city water as on your pump. If you get a burp, you have probably fixed it.

With the air in there and on the pump, there is a lot of pressure fluctuation. As the pressure is going down, the tank puts more hot in the system. When the pump starts, then the cold gets the lead.

As for the ice maker, it sounds like the fill valve is hanging up, but without make and model I can't get any closer.

Matt

[mc_cc]

Is it possible that you have a leak in your plumbing somewhere?

[dougrainer]

1. Need Brand and MODEL number of water heater
2. Is the Icemaker in an RV refer or a residential type refer? Doug

[MountainAir05]

When we had this issue I installed a Thermostatic Mixing Valve for the shower and the issue went away. I put one in our home back in 2002 and knew that it works so. As you said the new pump was not the way to go. We need a new shower valve due to a light drip, so that is the way we went.