Rant: 2021 Seneca 37TS hot water system loss of pressure

[JohnRLewis]

This post is mostly a rant. I need to whine about this to an audience that might commiserate with me a bit. Feel free to ignore me.

To whomever at Jayco or wherever, responsible for the design of the hot water system..... I wish you an afterlife full of busted knuckles, scraped forearms, sore backs, etc.

The situation: One morning, woke up to no hot water pressure. Cold worked just fine. The campground water pressure was just fine. But no pressure from any hot water outlet. Checked the settings of the valves in the wet bay. Noticed that when I bypassed the hot water heater, all the hot water outlets would work, but would send out cold water. I checked the hot water heater drain, it drained wonderfully hot water. Googled for a bit, found an answer, the check valve was probably the culprit.

The fix: Some sadist at Jayco decided it would be fun to place the access panel for the hot water heater a mere two inches from the main fore/aft frame of the frieghtliner chassis. I had to find a right angle screw driver. I had to endure many scrapes and scratches while I felt my way into the compartment. I was able to locate the check valve, and found out that it had failed in the closed position, not sure how that could even happen. I never found the spring, I think it fully corroded away. Anyway, installed a new, lead-free-brass check valve, and my problem went away.

I just needed to vent/complain at the complete lack of design for easy maintenance.

And if anyone else looses hot water pressure.... check the check valve. It is nearly impossible to get to on the back side of the hot water heater compartment. It is on the upper of the two fittings coming out of the storage tank. Good luck.

[norty1]

It is frustrating to have to correct so many problems caused by cheap plastic fittings over a quality metal valve that will usually fail from corrosion very soon. When you start reading these problems and this is a very common one. you can anticipate the problem almost without much thought.

You will likely never be fooled into spending much time finding this particular problem again on your rig and maybe can help a fellow camper with the same problem.

Welcome to rv ownership!

[JohnRLewis]

Originally Posted by norty1

Welcome to rv ownership!

Our motto: "Always an Adventure"

Every time we go out, we expect to have to fix something. It's all part of the experience. It would be miserable if I weren't handy or did not have a good attitude about all of this. (apart from whining a little

[Murff]

Originally Posted by JohnRLewis

Our motto: "Always an Adventure"

Every time we go out, we expect to have to fix something. It's all part of the experience. It would be miserable if I weren't handy or did not have a good attitude about all of this. (apart from whining a little

Me thinks I like your motto better than mine, at least yours is positive. Mine reads like Murphy's Law:

"Expect the worst; be pleasantly surprised!"

Murff

[SmokerBill]

I don't understand the reasoning behind adding a check valve at the water heater. I'm pretty sure that my 2011 Jayco doesn't have one.

Sorry for your suffering John. I also wonder if it would cause any problems just to remove the check valve completely.

[Rustynuts]

At least they have an access cover now, our 2018.5 had nothing and I added one in to insulate this area for winter camping.

[Marcm157]

As a guy who has turned wrenches as a second job all my life and worked on everything from Volkswagens to now full size motorcoaches, I think it's safe to assume that vehicle design engineers go out to a full liquid lunch and then come back and decide where to put commonly failed components!!

I feel your pain literally and figuratively...

[RVermont]

It sucks that it has to be such a pain. But good to know that they are adding the check valves now. 18 m2 units don’t have a discharge check valve and it is very difficult to winterize the rig without getting anti freeze into the heater.

[JohnRLewis]

Originally Posted by SmokerBill

I also wonder if it would cause any problems just to remove the check valve completely.

Short term, nothing. In the two day span between diagnosing the problem and receiving the part from Amazon, I had disabled the check valve by removing what was left of its guts. I was able to take warm showers, wash the dishes, etc without any trouble.

Long term, I believe from what I've read, that winterizing would be a pain.

And I believe there is the potential for hot water moving into the cold lines if there is a pressure imbalance. But I did not notice this happening during the time I had it configured this way.