Foretravel Owners' Forum

Foretravel Motorhome Forums => Foretravel Tech Talk => Topic started by: craneman on June 13, 2017, 03:04:25 pm

Title: Why my Aqua-hot smoked
Post by: craneman on June 13, 2017, 03:04:25 pm
While on vacation the Aqua- hot was leaving black residue on the ground. Now at home fixing problems discovered on vacation. I pulled the Wabasto unit out and removed the heat exchanger. The crud is what made it smoke but I will hope Rudy sees this and can give me an idea of what caused the crud. Not smart enough to post pics on pm. The last pic is a view of the high low limiters which I wish I had when I worked on my Monaco. The color code would have saved me hours at that time.
Just added two pictures of the Wabasto swirler.
Title: Re: Why my Aqua-hot smoked
Post by: Rudy on June 13, 2017, 05:51:38 pm
My oh My!  I have never seen a swirler sooted up like that ever.  I believe we are looking at the back of the swirler into which the burner mounts once the Combustion Chamber (swirler and stainless steel tube) is inserted into the burn chamber.  The nozzle would be right in the center of the hole.

Perhaps the ignitor points are adjusted to close to the fan spray of fuel coming from the nozzle and that may have caused the sooting.  I did not see anything that looked melted, just really sooted very badly.

Another thing is, I did not see the stainless steel tube that mounts onto the back of the swirler and goes into the burn chamber where the U-channels are located.  Did you remove the tube for the photos or is it not there?  Lack of this tube is cause to not run the burner -- period.  You must have a complete Combustion Chamber installed.

The ignitor point adjustment tool is normally mounted on the outside of the burner case under one of four phillips bolts that hold the black case to the burner.  The bolt in the 10 O'clock position with the nozzle facing away from you is where it is normally located.

The ignitor points should be right in the two "Vs".  They should not be below the Vs nor above the Vs.

Hope this helps you.  If you want more info, shoot me a PM with your phone number.
Title: Re: Why my Aqua-hot smoked
Post by: hotonthetrail on June 13, 2017, 06:14:20 pm
Looks like a rag left in chamber from cleaning.
Title: Re: Why my Aqua-hot smoked
Post by: craneman on June 13, 2017, 06:21:08 pm
My oh My!  I have never seen a swirler sooted up like that ever.  I believe we are looking at the back of the swirler into which the burner mounts once the Combustion Chamber (swirler and stainless steel tube) is inserted into the burn chamber.  The nozzle would be right in the center of the hole.

Perhaps the ignitor points are adjusted to close to the fan spray of fuel coming from the nozzle and that may have caused the sooting.  I did not see anything that looked melted, just really sooted very badly.

Another thing is, I did not see the stainless steel tube that mounts onto the back of the swirler and goes into the burn chamber where the U-channels are located.  Did you remove the tube for the photos or is it not there?  Lack of this tube is cause to not run the burner -- period.  You must have a complete Combustion Chamber installed.

The ignitor point adjustment tool is normally mounted on the outside of the burner case under one of four phillips bolts that hold the black case to the burner.  The bolt in the 10 O'clock position with the nozzle facing away from you is where it is normally located.

The ignitor points should be right in the two "Vs".  They should not be below the Vs nor above the Vs.

Hope this helps you.  If you want more info, shoot me a PM with your phone number.
Thanks,
Yes I took the tube off for pictures. I checked the igniters and they are good. The rubber grommets are hard but I don't see much air escaping there. Could this be from just not being serviced? The "crud" appears to just be carbon, it crushes to a powder.
Title: Re: Why my Aqua-hot smoked
Post by: craneman on June 13, 2017, 06:46:25 pm
A big thanks to Rudy for helping me with this. He is the goto for Aqua-hot issues.
Title: Re: Why my Aqua-hot smoked
Post by: red tractor on June 13, 2017, 08:05:02 pm
Were you dry camping? Low voltage will cause an aqua-hot to smoke because it does not turn fast enough.
Title: Re: Why my Aqua-hot smoked
Post by: craneman on June 13, 2017, 11:58:23 pm
Voltage was not an issue never went below 12.3 after inverting all night. It had the air adjustment too rich for too long. I had opened up the air before leaving as we would be at 7,000 ft.+ The crud in the image on my first post was the cause of the smoking, almost all air passages were blocked.
Title: Re: Why my Aqua-hot smoked
Post by: Numbers on June 14, 2017, 02:43:01 pm
Craneman,

How much had you opened the intake shutter?

If I remember correctly they come from the factory at 25% open, and it's said to be okay to run them at 50% open if you will be traveling to various altitudes.

Chris
Title: Re: Why my Aqua-hot smoked
Post by: craneman on June 14, 2017, 05:27:24 pm
I had opened it to 50% open, after talking to Rudy he said at that altitude I could have opened it to 100% The build up was not from my use of the coach it had been there for some time. 100% is 50% of the actual outlet 50% is permanently blocked.
Title: Re: Why my Aqua-hot smoked
Post by: Numbers on June 14, 2017, 07:02:12 pm
I had opened it to 50% open, after talking to Rudy he said at that altitude I could have opened it to 100% The build up was not from my use of the coach it had been there for some time. 100% is 50% of the actual outlet 50% is permanently blocked.


Oh great... new math.  :)

Thanks for sharing.

Chris