2015 Seneca HW tank bypass

[nullman]

Hello!

Earlier this year I picked up a 2015 Seneca 37TS and I am in the process of winterizing it today.

This unit has a Suburban -tanked- hot water system. I spent the morning looking in every access area, crawled under the rig, and took apart portions of the back bedroom closet (I found the washer hookup and a snake-pit of wires!), but I cannot locate a HW tank bypass.

Setting the manifold controls to Sanitize or Sanitize/Winterize does not bypass the HW tank. The HW unit itself is encased in a plastic shell. I cannot even see where the water pipes get into the tank.

Does anyone else have a Seneca with a tanked system that could give me some pointers?

Thanks in advance!
Nick

 

[Robbbyr]

Originally that year Seneca had a Girard tankless hot water heater, so somewhere along the way it was swapped for the one it has now. Whether or not they even installed a bypass on the heater is likely in question. On my 2014, which had a Girard originally, I installed an access cover so I could reach in behind the Atwood unit I installed to operate its built-in bypass valve. You'll have to crawl under to see if they put a similar access on yours. On my attached picture you can see my access looking in the generator compartment. If you have one it might be there or in the bottom or on the backside of that compartment. Our water heaters are below the floor, so it's unlikely any valves are accessible from the inside of the coach like they are in other RVs.

Before Jayco started installing the tankless (thankless) water heaters on our style Senecas the bypass valves were right on the control panel with the other water control valves. Whoever installed that heater might have put them somewhere in the wet bay but not have identified them. If you look in the wet bay do you see any "extra" valves not installed in the panel itself?

 

[Robbbyr]

One other thought came to me, I can see the piping going to/from my hot water tank by removing the small cover that closes up the back of the very last compartment on the passenger side of your rig and looking through over to the hot water heater. It is open (once you remove that back wall cover) all the way across that compartment to the back side of the HWH. I used that access to insulate my pipes to and from my HWH and also installed my 2-gallon water accumulator in that crossover space.