Jayco 2021 Alante' First Timer....

[Davidarm320]

Hi All,

Second RV now a Jayco 2021 Alante' 27A and boy have I had problems....most urgently in need of some assistance.

On my maiden voyage day 1 night 1 and it "seems" my electric/LP water heater is not working. I've setup on site and turned it on 'electric' vs LP about 6 hours ago.....still no hot water.

Anyone know how long the 'electric' side of this Dometic HW heater should take?....still no hot water......I know I can switch over to LP, but it should work as advertised......

Help......!!!!

Thanks...Dave

[Grumpy]

I have to ask the obvious.

Did you change the by-pass valves and is the water heater full? If it was ever turned on with no water in it the element is probably shot.

Did you check the circuit breaker for the water heater? Some models also have a switch in the lower left corner outside that needs to be on.

[Davidarm320]

HI...thanks for the response....yes water in the tank, LP heats up to scalding so....that's not an issue of no water......

[Davidarm320]

Originally Posted by Davidarm320

HI...thanks for the response....yes water in the tank, LP heats up to scalding so....that's not an issue of no water......

No electric relays outside the coach....all circuit breakers solid......

[Foretm]

I agree with Grumpy, the electric element is likely broken. May not have been you, but someone likely turned it on without water in the tank. To answer y question, the electrical side of the water heater should show evidence of heating up in 10-15 minutes tops. Not sure how long to go from ambient to shutoff, but you shouif its working pretty quick.


I've had the board on my water heater go out and it would ony work on LP. Could have a faulty board. Easy to replace and source. I was able to get my new board from Dometic, no charge. There was an issue with some boards a while back. May not be your situation since its new, but something to check.


I would start with checking the heating element, then the board, assuming you've checked all the breakers, fuses, water bypass, etc...

[Grumpy]

Originally Posted by Davidarm320

No electric relays outside the coach....all circuit breakers solid......

Not a relay.

There can be a switch on the lower left corner of the water heater behind the access door on some models. Others have had a switch on the back of the water heater near where the elect connection enters. Just different things to look for.

[Davidarm320]

Anyone tell me how to check out the electric heating element? I have a multimeter with me. Thanks for all the help will get a new board shipped tomorrow but can check the element out today if I see where to do that.

[Foretm]

I would think continuity across the connectors of the electrical element should be the first check. Here's a video...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCJuift9S-U

[Davidarm320]

Thanks I had seen this video .....easy to do when the elements are on your work bench! Ha....there's the challenge to find access to that element......thanks again though!

[Davidarm320]

Hi ...back from our maiden voyage and the electric side of the HW heater never came alive. LP side works fine. I found access under the fridge to the rear of the hw heater but inside the box is too confining and obstructed with foam to get a multi-meter on the element to test it.

There must be some combination of wires in the front of the unit to test the element. I checked with Atwood and the controller board series I have is not part of the suspect boards that were out there.

I've seen you tube videos of testing elements on a bench, and testing the thermocoupler, the spark voltage, etc... but nothing on testing the element in place. To pull the element, I'd have to remove the HW heater from the coach..uhhh..not me.....any help out there? ......Thanks in advance....

[Foretm]

The element is in the rear of the unit, but you might be able to test it without removing it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koMIIKmW_cM

[Davidarm320]

[QUOTE=Foretm;920038]The element is in the rear of the unit, but you might be able to test it without removing it.

Hi....thanks for pointing that out, I had seen this video.....unfortunately during construction, someone went a little overboard with the foam insulation...making it a real PIA to get to the juncture box as seen in the video....well I guess a bit of foam mess is easier than yanking the whole thing from the outside.....will give it a go and post my results of this test procedure.

Thanks for the help......Dave

[Foretm]

Dave, any luck testing/replacing that element?

[Davidarm320]

So....I was able to clear the cover off the back the Dometic WH and isolate the leads to the element. Turned off the circuit breaker and tested the two leads on the element. Rang out at 10.4 OHMS.......placed a call to Dometic, and their rep. said should be between 9 and 12 OHMS...so the element is A-OK.....so tomorrow, I'm taking the coach to LaMesa and seeing what they have to say.....Dometic rep. said should be reading about 12.2 AMPs while powered on....my monitor is reading 1 AMP as best as it is capable of reporting....Let's see what the boys at La"Messa" have to report......

Thx for the updates....

[Foretm]

Dave, at this time I would have to put my money on the board. I had a board go bad like that. Propane would work no issues, electric would not. After researching, the board had a known issue and when I called Dometic, they sent me a new board, 15min later, I was back up and running. I'd be interested to know what the solution is.

[Davidarm320]

Michael....go figure....after waiting at LaMesa for 2 hours 45 minutes, the water heater is functioning as advertised. The "tech" found that the switch on the control panel inside the coach was 'miss wired"....in that the light lit on the panel when switched on...but that was it...no power to the water heater, thus no AMPs being drawn etc., etc. etc.....my question to them was how was this not discovered before I took delivery of a brand new RV? Where was the QC in their delivery process? Crickets...of course.....add this to the the litany of problems I've had since accepting this vehicle really makes me wonder where the blame should fall.....eh!.....at least the missus has hot water now to shower.....thanks everyone for all of your helpful suggestions and guidance.....Dave

[Foretm]

Wow.... well I guess that's an option too, but honestly just assumed that that would be accurate. So basically the switch was wired incorrectly to illuminate, but not actuall close the circuit to the WH. Interesting...


Glad they got it fixed for you... shame it came to that.

[byanik]

David,
Would you mind sharing what other issues you've had? We have an Alante 27A on order, and am curious as to what I should look out for when I take delivery.
Thank you!
Brian Yanik

[Davidarm320]

Brian....I had written a rather extensive response to your request, to have my browser lose it all for some reason...I'll try to encapsulate it....maybe the Jayco police, sabotaged it...anyway here goes:

We drove away with our 2021 Jayco 27A on 10/2/20 and within a mile, decided to turn around and take it back to the dealer the next day. We got it back 3 weeks later and finally took it on two trips over Thanksgiving and last weekend.

I'll preface this note with....I don't know who should shoulder the blame Jayco or our dealer or split it anyway you like.

1. As we went down the highway after the paperwork, my wife commented WTF on the front end shimmy...so bad I could barely keep it at 60 MPH. We white knuckled it twice due to "semi wind" where we nearly lost control.

As a result:

A. After returning it to the dealer, they instructed me to take it to a large tire, truck alignment shop about 30 miles from our home. There....

1. They discovered a interior 'impact bubble' on the right front tire. Replaced both front tires.
2. Re aligned the front end twice, high speed balance both tires and wheels.
3. "Rounded" the rear steel wheels as they suggested they were out of round.

Noticing a "thunk" as we pulled out on our test drive, our salesman said it was the unstrapped shower door slamming as we went around the corner. NOT. It took FORD to find out the rear stabilizer was missing a rubber bushing. They installed/replaced it.

The bed above the cockpit wouldn't go down all the way, orientation guy said it was hitting the captains chairs...NOT...the screws that hold the track in place weren't seated all the way preventing the bed from going down all the way...I found it, I fixed it.

The cabin door rubbed/was stuck and the weather stripping was falling off. They fixed the door and replaced the gasket....it's still falling off and the door still gets stuck.

The outdoor storage units were missing caulking on the tops of the trim rings, leaking water. They remedied that.

The passenger window wouldn't latch/lock shut....they fixed that...now it leaks, and there's a wind whistle above 30 MPH.

The water heater worked on LP only on our trip, the electric side did not work. After speaking with Dometic, ruling out the board as there was a defective series, ohm'ing out the element.... finally relying on the dealer to fix....2 1/2 hours later the "tech" found out the switch that lit on the panel was wired incorrectly.....MEANING, no one ever tested that water heater before we took possession.

Drawer latches that didn't hold around corners. The latches were installed improperly and the "keeper" was being missed by the catch by at least an inch...I repaired....the orientation guy said "slam them"...that'll help

The windshield 'screen' is molting...all over the dashboard....open issue.

The plastic trim pieces on shelves in closets keep falling off...I glue them as I find them.

The plastic trim pieces on corners in the bedroom keep falling off....see above.

The water pressure was minimal.....I cleaned all the faucet screens and water pump screen to get the "drillings" out left in the tanks during manufacturing.

The ride was so scary, white knuckle!!!!! I've added a Safe T front end stabilizer due to wind from box trucks, semi's and large pickups.

The wall base near the propane sensor is "bulging" with wires....I think they're just stuck in there and can be remedied by taking the panel off and tucking the wires appropriately. I will address.

My 2021 Jayco came with a 2020 manual

My Sony head unit came with a different brand manual.

My Sony head unit was missing a remote, they replaced it with the wrong one.

The Jayco is touted as "Solar Ready".....when the vendor went in my coach to install solar......he was looking for the "Solar Ready Decals' on the wall to indicate the wire terminations point were....the decals were in the owners manual bag.

The USB ports would pull out of the dash, were not installed correctly. I fixed

The famous CHF remedy for poor handling cannot be done on this chassis, as the holes are missing from the front end stabilizers.

The bed linens were terrible quality, we threw them out, pulls, bad seams etc..

Did I mention, even through all of this we really LIKE this coach, the room, conveniences etc..

In spite of re-aligning the front end TWICE....the steering wheel is still not 'straight' as we head down the road.

My next step will be Sumo springs and maybe a rear stabilizer. I will note I was used to driving a Class C on a Sprinter chassis and installed similar devices in it....Maybe it's just me.

Aside from stripped screws in trim, easily repaired I guess, overall I guess we're lucky in some respect that no MAJOR things have arisen yet.

I don't want to come off as negative, but we traded a 2020 Winnebago Vita 24P on this coach and had a series of nightmares with that unit as well.

Feel free to message me anytime if you want further explanation on any of these points.

Best of LUCK.......Dave

[byanik]

Wow!! Thank you so much for the reply!! I’m am a bit frightened now, and a bit hopeful that this was all a fluke. I will be taking your list to our dealer to ensure we don’t have the same issues. Thanks again and Happy Holidays!