Newbie mistake......

[Neal_B_]

I've been doing this for a lot of years but a couple of weeks ago I made two newbie mistakes on the same weekend.
1-Got all hooked up and couldn't get hot water. Result, make sure you switch the winterizing valves back before you burn up the heating element. Yep, I did.

2-For a while the water was off at our campground so I was just going to use the pump. It never would prime and start pumping. Result, make sure you open the valve to the tank if you want to get water out.

So, for your own sanity don't make the mistakes I did.

[DutchmenSport]

Neal B, your advise comes a couple weeks late for me! I've been camping and RVing most of my life and just a couple weeks ago I fired up my water heater on bypass. I burned up the electric element almost immediately. But.... to make it worse...

I still thought I had water in the tank, so an hour later I flipped on the gas. It fired just fine and I forgot about it. An hour later I checked the faucet.... still cold.

Then it hit me... THE BYPASS! Well, I also ruined the gas heater also! Took it back to my dealer this week to fix it. Turns out the thermostat (on the water heater, not the one on the wall) is bad. Chances are, even with the tank full of water, the thermostat would have gone ka-put anyway. It's just both events happened at the same time. Sheesh!

Well ... here's one more for you.

I got the camper ready to take to my dealer for the water heater repair (not knowing it was the thermostat yet). So I checked everything out in the camper before leaving home. No WATER PUMP! Dead! Ka-Put! OMG! Have I gone completely senile? I was so devastated. It worked just a few days earlier at the camp ground. Is this related to the water heater problem? I had no clue. Absolutely could not get the pump to come on. All my tanks were empty. The pump will always turn on to initially begin pumping water, that bit of air always get's sucked out, then begins pumping water. But NO. Nothing. Dead.

I asked my dealer -repair guy to look at the pump also (thinking to myself ... NOW this is gonna cost me!

Well, when he called back and said it was just the thermostat on the water heater and he was replacing the electric element, I asked about the water pump.

He said ... It's working just fine! No problem.

I said, "WHAT??????!!!!!" What's going on then?

He said, the water lines were already pressurized. The technician just turned the faucet on and the pump started immediately! OH DUH! Only, I used a slightly different "D" word!

[TucsonJim]

downtheroad wrote:
Yesterday, I noticed the grab handle was still out as we were rolling down the inter state.

That is just a spoiler so that the rig looks more race worthy!

[downtheroad]

Oh...I'll have to try that "valve" thing...:)

We've had 5 different trailers and never could get the hot water to work......:S

Heck, I make "newbie mistakes" every time we go out. Yesterday, I noticed the grab handle was still out as we were rolling down the inter state.

[K_Charles]

Also try not do get too old 'cause that stuff will start happening more often.