Is the Tempering valve a warranty item?

[KelloggKid]

I pulled our 10 month old FC19 out of storage yesterday and de-winterized her. All is well except we have very low hot water flow and the temperature is luke warm. Having read numerous threads here about this issue I'm convinced that some debris got flushed out of the hot water tank and has plugged the Tempering Valve. These valves typically run slightly over $100 and it looks like a portion of the panel under the bed may have to be cut out to remove the old one.

Is this something I can expect to be covered under warranty?

BTW - I tried back flushing the valve and it appears there is a check valve built into it as I was unable to get anything to go backwards through the valve. One of the threads mentioned taking the valve out and soaking it in CLR as a solution. I'd be willing to try that if it didn't mean having to cut into the cabinetry.

[Bgibbs]

Should be warranty item.

[SSquared]

Have you camped in an area of hard water for very long? Have you flushed out the water heater and examined what came out to see if it is calcium deposits? Have you pulled the strainers out of your sinks to see if they have debris?

We camped for several months on a limestone mountain with well water. Within a few weeks we had crackling noises from the water heater and calcium pebbles in our water heater and faucets, though we did not have trouble with the temperature of the hot water.

Following an old post on the forum, we filled the water lines and water heater with vinegar solution and let it soak (and ran the WH heater through a heat cycle). That improved things a lot. (then we got a water softener).

[KelloggKid]

Originally Posted by SSquared

Have you camped in an area of hard water for very long? Have you flushed out the water heater and examined what came out to see if it is calcium deposits? Have you pulled the strainers out of your sinks to see if they have debris?

We have never camped in one spot long enough to have to fill the tank. We have always filled it from home. Our water at home has a lot of minerals in it. There is a whole house filter plus I put a filter on the hose that I fill the Bambi with. However I'm fairly certain the minerals pass right through the filters and don't form scale until heated.

I did flush out the tank and did not see any deposits. However I didn't flush it until the problem occurred so perhaps it was a small amount of calcium and it had already passed on to the mixer valve.

Sink strainers are not the issue as the cold water is flowing as normal.

This is the first time I've de-winterized this trailer and in hindsight I should have probably stored the tank with vinegar in it all winter, back flushed it before opening the shutoff valve, and then introduced the water pressure slowly so as to not stir up any sediment.

Personally I think this is a design flaw. I've seen many posts now of folks having the same problem It wouldn't have been that much effort for Atwood to put a filter between the tank and the tempering valve.