Aqua-Hot Turns Off On Its Own

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Aqua-Hot Turns Off On Its Own

December 31, 2011, 01:36:51 pm

While running on diesel it just stops at some point. Turning it off and on restarts it.

Is this normal operation?

best, paul

Re: Aqua-Hot Turns Off On Its Own

Reply #1 – December 31, 2011, 02:00:37 pm

Paul,
Turning the Aqua Hot off then back on resets the control module. What are some of your other symptoms? (excessive smoke, color of smoke, ect.) How long has it been sense you have had a tune up? (new filter & nozzle, cleaned the photo cell).
Is the unit up to operating temp.? (could be a faulty temp. sensor)

Others with more experience will chime in soon and No that is not proper operation.

Pamela & Mike

Re: Aqua-Hot Turns Off On Its Own

Reply #2 – December 31, 2011, 02:21:02 pm

Annual was done 8/19/2010 ay MOT

I was hoping to get an annual in Quartzsite next month but other things are making that unlikely.

No other symptoms.

best, paul

Quote

Paul,

Turning the Aqua Hot off then back on resets the control module. What are some of your other symptoms? (excessive smoke, color of smoke, ect.) How long has it been sense you have had a tune up? (new filter & nozzle, cleaned the photo cell)

Others with more experience will chime in soon and No that is not proper operation.

Re: Aqua-Hot Turns Off On Its Own

Reply #3 – December 31, 2011, 04:01:14 pm

Paul,

The situation you are describing of shutting down and can be immediately restarted by turning the diesel burner off and then on is a symptom of a problem that has several possible causes. The bottom line is you need the Aqua Hot serviced.

Roger Berke is out your way and I suggest you call him. He can be PMed here on the forum or messaged at roger dot berke@gmail dot com

Re: Aqua-Hot Turns Off On Its Own

Reply #4 – December 31, 2011, 06:46:11 pm

Unfortunately, I'm not out my way just now ;o)

We are in the SF Bay Area for a funeral. We hope to get back to Southern CA or Arizona by Jan 9.

I did want to meet up with Roger this January. I'll email him via this msg. Thanks for the email address, Rudy

best, paul

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Paul,

The situation you are describing of shutting down and can be immediately restarted by turning the diesel burner off and then on is a symptom of a problem that has several possible causes. The bottom line is you need the Aqua Hot serviced.

Roger Berke is out your way and I suggest you call him. He can be PMed here on the forum or messaged at roger dot berke@gmail dot com

Rudy Legett
1995 U320

Re: Aqua-Hot Turns Off On Its Own

Reply #5 – December 31, 2011, 07:05:31 pm

I'm pretty sure I caught the furnace fans blowing cold air and no diesel being burned. (Electric Aqua-Hot has not been on since we've been here.)

In other words, the bridge requested heat and received cold.

Once I turned diesel off and on heat was delivered.

best, paul

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> On: Sat Dec 31, 2011 Paul Smith Wrote:
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While running on diesel it just stops at some point.

Do you mean other than once it's gotten up to temperature? The burner doesn't run continuously when the diesel switch is on (or shouldn't), it only runs when the temperature is below the operating range.

Re: Aqua-Hot Turns Off On Its Own

Reply #6 – December 31, 2011, 08:26:50 pm

Paul

If the diesel stops heating and the light on the diesel switch goes off, then the diesel burner has 'faulted'.

This can be caused by many, many things. Do you have at least 1/4 tank diesel fuel? Could be caused by lack of fuel, which includes clogged fuel nozzle. Could be that the photocell is dirty (control system thinks flame went out). Intermittent failure of high limit thermostat. This outlines just a few possibilities. Can't tell you for sure, until we can do some checking.

If your Foretravel has the fabric reinforced fuel lines, they could also be leaking air. This applies to some of the 1999 coaches, all of the 2000 coaches and some of the early 2001 coaches. I think Foretravel switched to fabric reinforced fuel line some time AFTER coach build 5513. They used a 3/8" barbed fitting FORCED into 5/16" ID fuel hose. This fuel connection works just fine for many years. As the rubber hose ages, cracks appear in the fuel hose and they begin to leak air.
I will be in Quartzsite along with Art Twaddell and Lloyd DeGerald. One of us can check it out if you can get here.

- Roger -
www.Forum.RVHYD.com

Re: Aqua-Hot Turns Off On Its Own

Reply #7 – December 31, 2011, 08:40:06 pm

Thanks, Roger. Fuel tank is close to full. Say 180gals.

Where in Q?

best, paul

Re: Aqua-Hot Turns Off On Its Own

Reply #8 – January 01, 2012, 08:53:09 am

I just had your condition which I tracked to a failed flame detector. My best suggestion is to crawl into the bay and remove the access panel to the A-H. Then listen was your spouse flips the diesel switch(do this after the registers are blowing cold air). What happens when the system faults? Does the burner start immediately without repeated ignitions? How long does the burner run? What does your spouse say about the exhaust color? These can all help Rudy or Roger diagnose the problem. Meanwhile, use your heat pumps for heat and the A-H electric for brief showers.

Re: Aqua-Hot Turns Off On Its Own

Reply #9 – January 01, 2012, 10:28:46 am

As sometimes happens when contemplating going to the doctor, as soon as you make an appointment you feel better ;o)

Well, as soon as I made an Jan 10 appointment with Roger Berke our Aqua-Hot worked flawlessly. Even all last night and is still working.

But that won't deter us from meeting up with Roger. We have 6 kids and they taught us all the tricks in the book ;o

best, paul

Re: Aqua-Hot Turns Off On Its Own

Reply #10 – January 08, 2012, 12:40:42 am

Am I to understand that once you turn on the Aqua Hot switch in the galley, it should run all the time until you shut off the switch?

Re: Aqua-Hot Turns Off On Its Own

Reply #11 – January 08, 2012, 01:07:48 am

Quote from: rbark – January 08, 2012, 12:40:42 am

Am I to understand that once you turn on the Aqua Hot switch in the galley, it should run all the time until you shut off the switch?

No,
Only until the coolant reaches 190 degrees.

Re: Aqua-Hot Turns Off On Its Own

Reply #12 – January 08, 2012, 01:17:02 am

No. Once Aqua Hot is at temperature (195 or so under diesel power) it should stop burning diesel until its temperature drops to some point I'm not familiar with. And then start burning diesel again.

In my case I've found it not re-starting to burn in some cases. Since the furnace system is not interactively coupled with the Aqua Hot system the furnace furnace then blows cold air at some point. ("Cold" = ambient temp inside the RV, which can get quite cold indeed)

best, paul

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Am I to understand that once you turn on the Aqua Hot switch in the galley, it should run all the time until you shut off the switch?

Re: Aqua-Hot Turns Off On Its Own

Reply #13 – January 08, 2012, 09:27:51 am

Thursday we drove the coach from Congress, AZ two hours to Quartzite to be ready for a service appointment with Roger Berke on Friday morning. The symptom was the same as Paul's: Aqua-Hot faulting intermittently. I had earlier replaced the flame detector, but that hadn't resolved the problem. Roger spent an hour checking everything, scratching his head repeatedly in spots where he had avoided banging it on the inverter bracket! He finally found the problem(I think, since it has not faulted since). When the high limit thermostat was replaced five years ago, the technician missed the connection of the wire terminal to the thermostat terminal, slipping the male connector between the insulation and one side of the female connector. It had worked all this time. Who knows whether it was road vibration or a little corrosion that caused the intermittent condition. What a difficult problem to solve. Roger is the greatest. Thank you Roger.

Re: Aqua-Hot Turns Off On Its Own

Reply #14 – January 08, 2012, 09:49:47 am

Thanks for the New Year's present!

I have an appointment with Roger on Tuesday morning. You might have saved me big bucks ;o)

best, paul

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Thursday we drove the coach from Congress, AZ two hours to Quartzite to be ready for a service appointment with Roger Berke on Friday morning. The symptom was the same as Paul's: Aqua-Hot faulting intermittently. I had earlier replaced the flame detector, but that hadn't resolved the problem. Roger spent an hour checking everything, scratching his head repeatedly in spots where he had avoided banging it on the inverter bracket! He finally found the problem(I think, since it has not faulted since). When the high limit thermostat was replaced five years ago, the technician missed the connection of the wire terminal to the thermostat terminal, slipping the male connector between the insulation and one side of the female connector. It had worked all this time. Who knows whether it was road vibration or a little corrosion that caused the intermittent condition. What a difficult problem to solve. Roger is the greatest. Thank you Roger.

Regards,
Brett

'99 42' Foretravel Xtreme
'09 Mini Cooper S
'02 BMW R1150R

Re: Aqua-Hot Turns Off On Its Own

Reply #15 – January 08, 2012, 02:06:37 pm

Thanks Barry and Paul. I still think I'll do a service on the unit since I've no idea when it was last done.

Re: Aqua-Hot Turns Off On Its Own

Reply #16 – January 08, 2012, 07:22:25 pm

Richard,

Yes, Roger has done my service since 2009, so knows my A-H very well.

Re: Aqua-Hot Turns Off On Its Own

Reply #17 – July 21, 2017, 11:45:14 pm

Quote from: amos.harrison – January 08, 2012, 09:27:51 am

Thursday we drove the coach from Congress, AZ two hours to Quartzite to be ready for a service appointment with Roger Berke on Friday morning. The symptom was the same as Paul's: Aqua-Hot faulting intermittently. I had earlier replaced the flame detector, but that hadn't resolved the problem. Roger spent an hour checking everything, scratching his head repeatedly in spots where he had avoided banging it on the inverter bracket! He finally found the problem(I think, since it has not faulted since). When the high limit thermostat was replaced five years ago, the technician missed the connection of the wire terminal to the thermostat terminal, slipping the male connector between the insulation and one side of the female connector. It had worked all this time. Who knows whether it was road vibration or a little corrosion that caused the intermittent condition. What a difficult problem to solve. Roger is the greatest. Thank you Roger.

I know this is a very old thread and post, but this appears to have solved a problem we were having with our AH unit, so I wanted to bring it forward again.

Recently we replaced the burner assembly on our Aqua Hot system. We ran it for three days without issue, but then it started to fault. After two faults I turned it off and started searching the Aqua Hot documentation and the forum.

I found this thread and post.

I went out to our AH unit and checked the wire terminal connectors that slip onto the temperature sensors on the tank. Sure enough I had missed the connection on two of the sensors. I had slid the tab on the sensors between the plastic insulation and the terminal connector.

I reattached the terminal connectors correctly and have been running the unit to test. So far it has been working as it should without faulting.

I double checked with AH technical support and they confirmed that not seating the terminal connectors properly has the potential for incorrect readings from the temperature sensors.

Chris

Re: Aqua-Hot Turns Off On Its Own

Reply #18 – December 28, 2020, 08:39:40 am

I am having similar problems and seem as if the high limit switch is at the root of this can they have intermittent failure? I am also having a pulsing sound while burner is operating will run for approximately 5 minutes then shut down and the panel light will go off and needs the switch recycled in order to restart.
2002 u320. Do we have any service expertise in the tucson area
Mike

Re: Aqua-Hot Turns Off On Its Own

Reply #19 – December 28, 2020, 09:04:49 am

John Carrillo is usually down that way but it looks like he is staying home.
Heat My RV ~ John Carrillo – Aqua Hot Parts

Check with Rudy Legett, he might know someone.

Check with BigDog, he had someone work on his in Tucson a couple years ago.

Re: Aqua-Hot Turns Off On Its Own

Reply #20 – December 28, 2020, 09:07:26 am

Mike, It is hard to say from 1000+ miles away. But pulsing can be caused by uneven fuel flow caused by old fuel lines leaking air from cracks. You can run a separate fuel supply to the heater bypassing all the fuel lines from the coach. If it runs smoothly, you could be a candidate for new fuel lines. Choose lines good for todays diesel fuel. Suppliers should be able to help you with the choice if you need to make the change.

Re: Aqua-Hot Turns Off On Its Own

Reply #21 – December 28, 2020, 09:59:51 am

Quote from: Mfinn – December 28, 2020, 08:39:40 am

I am having similar problems and seem as if the high limit switch is at the root of this can they have intermittent failure? I am also having a pulsing sound while burner is operating will run for approximately 5 minutes then shut down and the panel light will go off and needs the switch recycled in order to restart.
2002 u320. Do we have any service expertise in the Tucson area
Mike

This guy and his Wife have tuned up our AH twice as well as doing another repair inside. He was recommended by another Foretraveler at the park we were at.
Be repaired though. He has a unique and bigger than life personality. The wife is the opposite (very quiet) But he is honest and works hard.

camerons-reliable-maintenance

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