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Old 12-29-2017, 09:45 PM   #1
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2018 30' Classic
NAPA , California
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Hot Water shortage in 2018 Classic 30

Out on the road in my 2018 Classic 30. Not enough hot water to even wash your hair.

Called the expert at the dealership. Check all the pipes including the mixing configuration, all good. Tried Gas heat, then electric heat, then both, then both with the shower boost, no good. Hot water a minute at best.

The serviceman says hot water capacity is 2.5 gallons, three gallons with shower boost on. What gives on this set up?

Service man is stumped. It certainly takes more than three gallons of water if by chance you wanted to shower, right?

Any help out there? I hope I didn't buy a lemon.
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Old 12-29-2017, 11:35 PM   #2
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Thousand Oaks , California
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I had hot water issues and dealer serviced because it’s under warranty. They said it was a mixing valve issue with my 18 classic.

There are a bunch of other questions that may need to be answered prior to the guys on here answering. Ie:

How far in advance do you turn on the shower booster?
Do you let the water run before taking shower?
Navy shower = still no hot water?

Not sure what the stock shower head GPM is but it may be more than 3 GPM. That would make sense why shower can’t keep up?

I was sorta under the impression that the 18 classic had as close to a tankless hotwater system as we could get though which means almost instant hot water forever.

Are you able to bring in the trailer for service?
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Old 12-30-2017, 03:00 AM   #3
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Madog....now would be a good time to start reading the Much Ado Alde thread. As the owner of a 2017 Classic I know that when the system is set up properly you will have at least 10-12 minuets of HOT water for your shower. The best news is that you don’t have to take it to the dealer...you can probably do any adjustments yourself. The ‘18s are a bit more complicated so reading the threads regarding the 18’s could also help.
Sorry you’re having issues, I was there this time last year and boy, I remember how rough it was to have 2 minuets of shower time. Hang in there and keep tweaking.
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Old 12-30-2017, 05:07 AM   #4
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We initially had problems and essentially had no hot water for a good month. But ours had hot water for seconds, not minutes. It was resolved with opening a valve that was supposed to be open to put water into the Alde but wasn’t open. We also had to recalibrate the mixing valve, but we then had a good 12-15 minutes of hot water. In fact the only time it cooled off, the shower boost had expired. All of these fixes were done without the help of the service technicians who did not have a clue. But with the help of this forum!
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Old 12-30-2017, 06:22 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ajwbarnard View Post
We initially had problems and essentially had no hot water for a good month. But ours had hot water for seconds, not minutes. It was resolved with opening a valve that was supposed to be open to put water into the Alde but wasn’t open. We also had to recalibrate the mixing valve, but we then had a good 12-15 minutes of hot water. In fact the only time it cooled off, the shower boost had expired. All of these fixes were done without the help of the service technicians who did not have a clue. But with the help of this forum!
Agreed, check all your valves under dinette seat. One is very hard to get to or even see and it goes to the tank. I had to remove the seat to get to it. Also check your water/heater temp on the display under the kitchen sink to make sure it is getting up to temp. Have you had the firefly update? Have you had the pin out corrected on the G6 panel? You should have 3.2 GUI and Logic Controller when you look at the bottom of your screen in settings. There is a diagram in your manual that shows how your valves should be set.
Good Luck!!
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Old 12-30-2017, 08:52 AM   #6
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We too had no hot water. Emailing Airstream support led to opening the hard to get at valve under the dinette seat (broke the plastic clips while pulling the cover on and off so many times) which, when opened, resulted in luke warm water. Shower boost has no effect and I asked if there was a bypass valve that needed opening. Got a negative response suggesting I get the dealer to look at it. Not confident in doing that if a 5-rivet dealer did not open the bypass valve as part of dealer prep so I'll swing by JC in the spring to get the hot water fixed.

Is the booster tank under the front dinette seat? I can't see it but I'm looking for something large. Picture with arrow would be helpful.

I tried to read the All About Alde but it goes all over the map and I'm not mechanically handy so I'm not going to go much beyond turning valves.

Also, I don't see a temperature monitor under the kitchen sink, only a tank monitor panel. Picture of the temperature monitor would be helpful as well. I'm beginning to think that each trailer is slightly different.
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Old 12-30-2017, 09:56 AM   #7
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We had same problem in our Classic 33, returned to dealer...The temperature adjustment is under the dining seat, look for a black knob, (this is the temp regulator)....Turn Shower Boost on (Electric 2 and Gas) 15 min prior to shower, Shower boost will last an additional 15 min. Also check Alde Glycol Reservoir for proper level of fluid. Mine was on level until we used the radiant heat (glycol circulates and eliminates air in the line) ours was down 2-3 quarts.
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Old 12-30-2017, 10:11 AM   #8
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Check out this for how it should work. This is camping?
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Old 12-30-2017, 11:05 AM   #9
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Cumberland , Maryland
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ldavids View Post
We too had no hot water. Emailing Airstream support led to opening the hard to get at valve under the dinette seat (broke the plastic clips while pulling the cover on and off so many times) which, when opened, resulted in luke warm water. Shower boost has no effect and I asked if there was a bypass valve that needed opening. Got a negative response suggesting I get the dealer to look at it. Not confident in doing that if a 5-rivet dealer did not open the bypass valve as part of dealer prep so I'll swing by JC in the spring to get the hot water fixed.

Is the booster tank under the front dinette seat? I can't see it but I'm looking for something large. Picture with arrow would be helpful.

I tried to read the All About Alde but it goes all over the map and I'm not mechanically handy so I'm not going to go much beyond turning valves.

Also, I don't see a temperature monitor under the kitchen sink, only a tank monitor panel. Picture of the temperature monitor would be helpful as well. I'm beginning to think that each trailer is slightly different.
I was talking about the Classic 30 2018, what unit do you have?
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Old 12-30-2017, 11:25 AM   #10
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We had our 2018 30' Classic out on it's maiden run for a 2 day shakedown last week. Alde system worked perfectly. With gas and electric engaged, and using shower boost, my wife and I had plenty of hot water for nearly back to back reasonably quick (but not Navy) showers. Our classic was built mid November so I suspect it came from the factory with the latest upgrades for the Firefly, which now include GUI 3.3.

My point to the OP is that it's not a lost cause; with the latest firmware, upgrades, and proper settings your Classic will produce all the hot water you likely will need.
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Old 12-30-2017, 04:32 PM   #11
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Quote:
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I was talking about the Classic 30 2018, what unit do you have?
2018 Classic 30. Took delivery early July. Last 6 of VIN 540449.
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Old 12-30-2017, 04:35 PM   #12
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2018 30' Classic
Mountain View , California
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Our identical unit is presently at Bay Area Airstream for much the same issue,with the Firefly upgrade on order. If you don't have the latest upgrade you may experience an Alde system that has a mind of its own. We thought we were pretty experienced after upgrading from a 2014 FC but the Alde system nearly drove my system engineer wife nuts. We read all of the threads, talked with Firefly, factory and selling dealer at Colonial. Only way to have it run right is to have a trained service repair person do the job. Your post shows that you are in Napa. I hope you can get it to Fairfield where Bay Area Airstream can get it up to speed. There is a waiting period for service but this otherwise wonderfully built unit won't please you get it to them.
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Old 12-30-2017, 05:04 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by smmckean View Post
We had same problem in our Classic 33, returned to dealer...The temperature adjustment is under the dining seat, look for a black knob, (this is the temp regulator)....Turn Shower Boost on (Electric 2 and Gas) 15 min prior to shower, Shower boost will last an additional 15 min. Also check Alde Glycol Reservoir for proper level of fluid. Mine was on level until we used the radiant heat (glycol circulates and eliminates air in the line) ours was down 2-3 quarts.
Have the temperature adjustment turned to the positive side as far as it will go. Red tube on the left is quite hot, red tube on right is luke warm. Assume this is the "mixing valve" and it is not working.

I've got lots of heat. Outside temperature is close to zero and we're toasty warm inside.
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Old 01-02-2018, 09:33 AM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by madogkenno View Post
Out on the road in my 2018 Classic 30. Not enough hot water to even wash your hair.

Called the expert at the dealership. Check all the pipes including the mixing configuration, all good. Tried Gas heat, then electric heat, then both, then both with the shower boost, no good. Hot water a minute at best.

The serviceman says hot water capacity is 2.5 gallons, three gallons with shower boost on. What gives on this set up?

Service man is stumped. It certainly takes more than three gallons of water if by chance you wanted to shower, right?

Any help out there? I hope I didn't buy a lemon.
Hi madogkenno,

Congratulations on your new Classic. We're sorry to learn you're having issues with the hot water. We just sent you a private message requesting more information so we can reach out. You can also call our customer service and technical support team at*1 (877) 596-6111, option 2.

Thank you.
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Old 01-02-2018, 10:08 AM   #15
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Rock Island , Illinois
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We just purchased a 2017 25' Flying Cloud FB and will pick up the trailer from the dealer later this month. I just read through the owners manual and the Atwood literature for the water heater and didn't see any references to an Alde system or FireFly software. Does our trailer have this system, and if so should the dealer be aware of the upgrade? Thanks!!
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Old 01-02-2018, 11:43 AM   #16
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2017 25' Flying Cloud
Rock Island , Illinois
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Just found the thread 'Much To Do About Alde' and downloaded the Alde manual posted by riffgod. Have some reading to do. I hope our dealer is familiar with this system.
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Old 01-02-2018, 01:52 PM   #17
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What is Airstream coming too. Now you can not even take a hot shower without worrying about haveing the latest firmware/software updates. I like my old fashion system where all I have to do is turn on the gas and flick a switch. In 20 minutes I have hot water with no worries about running out mid stream.
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Old 01-02-2018, 03:00 PM   #18
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There's a lot to be said for simplicity...

I'm real glad my AS has very few 'automated' systems!

I'm especially glad the awning is manual, the A/C has mechanical switches, the hot water has a simple on/off switch...etc.
As our favorite StarFleet engineer, Scotty, put it, "The more complicated the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the pipes..."
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Old 01-02-2018, 03:05 PM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sammy99 View Post
Just found the thread 'Much To Do About Alde' and downloaded the Alde manual posted by riffgod. Have some reading to do. I hope our dealer is familiar with this system.
Your 2017 25' FC does not have the Alde system or the Firefly controller; you have a regular hot water heater and a gas furnace. Alde showed up in 2017 only on the Classic models.
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Old 01-02-2018, 03:23 PM   #20
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Thank you mikeinca for clarifying this. We have a lot to learn.
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