new pinnacle cold shower

2pacampers · 04-13-2017, 06:57 PM

This is our first trip out with our new pinnacle 36FBTS and one issue we are having is getting a cold shower with the tankless water heater. Been trying to read some of the posts on this but still not sure what I'm missing. I have the read out set at 120 degrees, also have over 50 lbs of pressure coming in (70 lbs when not calling for water). The highest Temp I can get on the read out when I run the shower is 92 to 93 degrees. Also even at the sink in the bathroom only goes up to about 108, never gets close to the 120. Does anybody have some tips on what I'm missing. I called the dealer and he gave me a couple of things to check but no help. Also If you have a tankless system, is your shower handle a one handle or does it have two handles. Ours is one handle so I can not just turn just the straight hot with no cold on.

twadd10 · 04-13-2017, 07:01 PM

I'm trying to learn this new tankless heater out also. I've learned sometimes if you turn the handle back like you mixing more cold water it will slow the flow going through the heater down and give it more time to heat up. Kinda backwards from what your use to.

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twadd10 · 04-13-2017, 07:02 PM

Mine also has just one handle in the shower.

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twadd10 · 04-13-2017, 07:03 PM

Here is some good info also,

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?url...8&share_type=t

Tankless Water Heater

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2pacampers · 04-13-2017, 07:22 PM

At this point, not sure what to do. I was thinking of changing out the shower handle to a two handle type, so I can just turn just the hot on but not sure if this would be fix or not. When I run the sink and turn the handle back a little it brings the temp up. So I was thinking I might get the same results on the shower.

wags999 · 04-13-2017, 07:50 PM

Just guessing, is there a bypass valve that may be open, allowing cold water to mix with the hot?

RogerR · 04-13-2017, 08:24 PM

Many single handle showers have a anti-scald mixing valve that is inside.

It can be adjusted to allow more hot to cold ratio. Look up your model, take off the single handle and find the way to adjust to hotter output.

Also, tankless water heaters can only heat based on inlet temp and total flow. If there is too much flow they will not get hot enough. If the water is to cold they cannot heat up as much total water volume.

Here is one search to look at

How To Adjust a Single Lever Shower Faucet - Self Help and More

Fishermanbb · 04-14-2017, 05:07 AM

Two things to check:

1. Make sure the outside shower in the utility bay is turned completely off. If it isn't and the valves are in the "On" position you will mix cold water into the lines.

2. If you aren't already, try running the shower from your water tank instead of the park supply. The "Inbound" water may be very cold and the heater cannot keep up at that pressure (Which you are running a little too high IMHO). Fill your tank and let the water warm up to ambient temp in there and then run the heater/shower and see what happens.

sennister · 04-14-2017, 07:00 AM

There have been some good comments so far.

As mentioned a tankless system can only impact so much change or delta in the temp based on flow. The heating unit is only so big, (45,000 BTU) and the heat exchanger only so long so as the water flows through it the higher your flow the less time it spends in the heat exchanger and the less the temp will rise.

So as temps drop on your inlet water (cold side) you will need to slow down the flow as much as you can. Some options for this are to turn down the hot and the cold off. This can be difficult with a single handle control on a shower. I wonder why they install that type of control in an RV with a tankless system? Since you can't really control flow with the valve, you can add a more restrictive shower head. In the shower that is about all you can do.

In looking into these systems a bit more I discovered another feature that might be on your water heater which may help out a lot. I mentioned it briefly here: http://www.jaycoowners.com/forums/f6...tml#post509555

If you go to that post I have a link to the manual found on some of the Jaycos. It mentioned on page 14 that there is a flow control valve on the water heater. Now this is the manufacturer's manual and it sounds like it might be an optional feature. So open your water heater panel and see if you have that knob. If you can, turn down the flow rate here and it will slow the water passing through the heat exchanger and increase the delta on the hot side. When you have colder city water or the tank water is cold, this will impact more change and get you hotter water. As you get into summer you can open this valve up more as you won't have as hard of a time hitting the temps you want. Another thing you can do is if you have the cold weather package which has a tank heater on the FW tank, you could pull water from that as someone mentioned and have your tank heater on to bump up that inlet temp a bit. Not sure how effective that method is but another thing that might help.

I have mentioned before in other threads that we have one in our house and I love it once we figured out some minor differences in how to use it. However we are not moving it all around the country because how high you are above sea level will impact it and your water inlet temps will fluctuate a lot. Where those things are constant not to mention my 199,000 BTU unit can impact more delta on the water temp at much higher flow rates than the camper units can.

2pacampers · 04-14-2017, 07:42 PM

thanks for the info. going to try to adjust the flow valve tomorrow, but need to find a way to reach it. One thing the dealer told us (a couple of times) during the walk thru is to hook the water up with no Regulator. With that I asked him how much pressure the rv would take, and was told approx. 90lbs. Not sure I like this idea.

RogerR · 04-14-2017, 07:47 PM

Did you get manual with your RV? Check, never heard of NOT regulating water pressure.
Temp regulator is located under shower water handle. If brand name on it call maker.
You can also take handle off ( usually a hex screw on the bottom of the handle) then gently pry or unscrew cover plate.
Best to find brand and look up or call if you aren't sure what you are doing.

sennister · 04-15-2017, 09:48 AM

I am not sure what the max pressure is.

When we did the big remodel on our bathroom we added the tankless heater. Along with that project and since the basement was pretty much open to all points of use in the kitchen and other baths allowed us to rip out all the copper in our house and we switched over to PEX. This was done because we moved the water heater so it was closer to the point of use and installed a water distribution panel.

Anyhow we have a private well and septic. Our well pump is on a 60/80 switch so the pump kicks in when the pressure from the pressure tank drops below 60psi and cuts out once it gets up to 80psi. That ins't far off from 90psi. The limits of PEX are dependent on the type used and the temp of the water. On the cold side it isn't a problem. At 75F it can take around 160psi. The problem is on the hot side. Now with a tankless system you should be running hot water not as hot as you would find in a tank based system. If the hot is 180F it can take 100psi. So since you are closer to 120F 120-130psi or so should be fine. So I wouldn't worry about the PEX so much. The issue is what did they use for fittings. The nice thing with PEX is it is flexible which cuts down on the number of fittings. All my fittings in the house are brass. These are the points of failure that I would be concerned with. Much of what I have seen on our camper is that they use plastic fittings. I don't know what the pressure rating is on these and it is entirely possible that they won't hold as well and pop one off which is bad.

Donna · 04-16-2017, 09:31 AM

Maybe this will help you, if you have the 14 EMPIRE FAUCET SINGLE LEVER like do. I wasn't getting any cold water at all at the shower, and the heating element wasn't turning on. I found an remove able panel in the linen closet behind the shower and I switched the linest, so now the hot side is at the beginning when you rotate the lever and temperature will now go as high as 124F if need be. I'm sure there is a mixing valve some where, I looked but couldn't find it

2pacampers · 04-18-2017, 06:48 PM

thanks for the info. Changed the lines around and this made a big difference. We also picked up the oxygenics spa shower head to see if this also helps. Going to give it a try this way, if any more issues than I will change out the shower handle to the two handle type.

Donna · 04-18-2017, 07:24 PM

I also adjusted the the flow control on the back of the unit, at first I went clockwise a half turn and I had no hot water at all so I moved back the other way almost all the way open and found the sweet spot, I could barely reach it. I think temperature of water in the tank and the city water has a little something to do with system also.

Donna · 04-18-2017, 07:28 PM

Also I don't know how.this will shake out with the use of a pressure regulator I've been camping for years and I've never used one.

2pacampers · 04-18-2017, 07:34 PM

we are going to try and fine tune it on the next trip. We were told at the dealer not to use a regulator, so we will try it with and without to see what works best.

Donna · 04-18-2017, 07:42 PM

Sorry to keep rambling on, the wurst thing they could have done is put a single lever faucet on the system! I think they just did it so the wives can keep us on our toes lol

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