T&T: Water heater woes

[Keith]

Page 2 of your Raritan owner's manual shows how the water heater should be 
hooked up, including where the check valves and expansion tank should go. 
Sounds like you don't have a vacuum break between your cold water inlet to 
the hot water heater and the expansion tank. I would suggest installing a 
check valve on the upstream side of your expansion tank (assuming the 
expansion tank is upstream of the cold water inlet to the water heater). 
That way, when the water heats and expands, it'll pressurize the expansion 
tank like it's supposed to, but not infiltrate into your cold water line. 
Your situation is worse while running the engine because the water in the 
water heater is being heated to the same temperature as the engines... 
probably 180F or so.

It's not the water heater itself... Raritan makes some of the best products 
around and stands behind them as well.


Keith
_____
Brown's Law: If the shoe fits, it's ugly.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Jake2124 at aol.com>

> <snip> Now, my water pressure pump runs for about a minute instead of 20 
> seconds, and I
> get HOT water out of the cold water tap, some of the time. If I run a 
> couple
> of gallons of water, the cold tap will run cold. I called tech support and 
> they
> said I must install a second expansion tank and a vacuum break in the cold
> water line. And that there is air trapped in the water heater that will 
> take a
> couple of weeks of everyday use to be eliminated. I turned the thermostat 
> down
> from 130 degrees to 120 degrees, and that seemed to stop the problem when 
> on
> shore power. When the engine is heating the water thru the heat exchanger, 
> the
> problem not only persists, but is worse. So, any advise from the group? My
> advise is not to buy a Raretan water heater.