Help!! Urgent & at a loss. No hot water and water In live in trailer.

[fallon]

Hi I seem to always encounter those issues that no one can figure out. That google has never encountered. It doesn’t help that our go to handyman left town. While up for any challenge, we are currently living in our 67 Caravel and out of no where the new (but never used in two years) hot water heater and pump
Aren’t working. I had two professionals come out and look and they can’t seem to diagnose it. I did order a new water pump.
The issue:
Everything plumbing wise tested perfectly prior to move in. Saw a mouse had chewed the orange ignition wire of the the suburban sw6de six gallon water heater. So we replaced and it, although working) and a week later after no use the hot water heater won’t work and the pump is acting strange.
The Hot water heater now takes 3-4 tries to light. It will Light and stay lit but as soon as you turn the water pump on it goes out. And no one can make sense of this correlation.
Shortly after many tests and someone leaving the water pump
On all day, the water pump Itself keeps periodically not working, after some rest it will work again but water pressure sucks. The bathroom sink is getting all the pressure, and the kitchen sink minimal and the shower nothing, sometimes. There is no water anywhere.
We didn’t move or use the trailer in the few weeks it went from all systems working to big fail. We did replace the wire which several others have said
Is the right one and the reader/tester said all wires on the hot water heater are hot and good. Could just be a coincidence.
Checked for leaks, not seeing any but will go deep later today and test the toilet. Water pump stays on and kind of always has lately because it sat for so long and these sensors go out often, so not certain there is a leak. Seems like there’s two different issues here??

Any smart people out there who can troubleshoot? I never realized how hard it is to find experienced professionals. Always had our go to guy. At this point I’d rather pay for a virtual call then another failed mobile rv service repair. Please help if you can! I’m so grateful. All I do is spend 12 hours a day on this and I’m getting no where. Water is life. Thank you.

[Fungus]

Need more data:

1. Has the WH ever worked correctly?
2. Has the pump ever worked correctly?
3. What is the model and year of your rig? Mine is a 2017 International 25FB.
4. Are there any noticeable leaks?
5. Does the water pressure seem adequate at all faucets when in city water?
6. Does the WH work on electricity?
7. You turn in the water heater and it goes out. Describe the exact steps you take and the responses you see. The light comes on if the WH doesn’t light. Why do you think it isn’t lighting?
8. Have you cleaned the filter?
9. Is the WH in bypass mode?

[fallon]

Originally Posted by Fungus

Need more data:

1. Has the WH ever worked correctly?
2. Has the pump ever worked correctly?
3. What is the model and year of your rig? Mine is a 2017 International 25FB.
4. Are there any noticeable leaks?
5. Does the water pressure seem adequate at all faucets when in city water?
6. Does the WH work on electricity?
7. You turn in the water heater and it goes out. Describe the exact steps you take and the responses you see. The light comes on if the WH doesn’t light. Why do you think it isn’t lighting?
8. Have you cleaned the filter?
9. Is the WH in bypass mode?

1Hi thanks for responding. Yes it worked when we first got it a year ago. We just tested it though. It was never used in storage. We redid the plumbing and tested it four or five times and it worked great.

2 Yes, same with pump has always worked until we moved in and then it immediately stopped. Lol

3 Caravel 1967

4 can’t find a leak

5 I haven’t tried city water yet. Good idea!

6 it’s not working on electricity but all I see is the black on button. Maybe I’m missing something. A handyman tested all the wires and they are hot on the WH.

7. Water heater lights after a few tries and stays lit. It shuts down at the same exact moment the water pump is turned on. Checked all the screws and seals and electric chords and they appear tight. Going to install a new pump tomorrow but not sure how that will solve the water heater issue.

[richard5933]

Sounds very much like a loose connection or short somewhere. Possibly that mouse was chewing more than just the one wire.

Do you have the combined water heater/water pump switch in the bathroom? That's one of the few places the wiring for the two devices have a close connection. If you have a switch like this, it might be a good idea to explore the back side of it to make sure that everything is still tightly connected with no exposed wires.

It almost sounds like pushing on one switch is causing a loose wire to disconnect from the other. Or, you could have faulty switches.

After that, my next step would be to follow the wiring for both the water heater and the water pump, especially anywhere they are both in close proximity, looking for the same - loose connections or shorts.

[LilPeanut]

What the water heater and pump have in common is a ground somewhere. It sounds suspiciously like a grounding issue. To test this, run a new ground wire for the pump. One of the wires should be going to a ground somewhere, run a new one to a clean part of the frame, just temporarily to see if that helps the pump issue.

It is possible that the igniter/thermocouple also has a bad ground or the heater is not grounding well to the frame. Grounds are gremlins. Hard to find because they show ‘connectivity’ correctly on the wire but under load, they can be bad as stronger current cannot overcome the resistance of a bad ground, so the ‘continuity’ of 100% of the return current is not there.

Just a guess.

[Belegedhel]

This is kind of tough to troubleshoot without having eyes on your set up. Since you have a '67 that has been retrofitted, it could be configured very differently from both the original equipment, and from what a modern trailer has for a set up.

Let's start with some assumptions (clarify if I am wrong):
-The water pump runs on the 12 V DC system
-The electric heating element (if equipped) on the water heater runs on the 120V shore power

Questions:
-Are there 12V DC lines as well as 120V AC lines running to the water heater (ie., can the heater work on electricity as well as gas)?
-Is the water heater lit manually, or is it fully electronic/automatic?
-What is the make and model of the water heater?
-There is usually a filter/screen assembly in between the water pump and the tank--have you cleaned/back flushed that filter?
-Is there a common switch that turns on both the water heater and the water pump, or are they completely separate?
-Are you connected to shore power and/or water? If not, can you be?
-What is the order of faucets attached to the pump, ie., 1) Kitchen 2) Bathroom sink 3) Shower, etc. ?

[RidingmyRV]

I had a similar problem. No pressure with the water pump and shore water. Had some pressure in the bathroom but no pressure any where else. I thought my 6 gallon water heater was not working so I cracked the drain to see if there was hot water or not. I had hot water. This might not be the problem you are experiencing by my AS has a mixing valve. That was my problem. The valve is located where the hot water heater goes inside the trailer. it has a yellow valve handle. I removed mine to see if it was clogged but Murphy decided I needed a new valve. After replacing the valve I had normal water pressure and normal hot water. If you have a mixing valve take a look at it. Maybe there is a way to bypass it and see if water pressure goes back to normal.

[lemley]

Originally Posted by fallon

1Hi thanks for responding. Yes it worked when we first got it a year ago. We just tested it though. It was never used in storage. We redid the plumbing and tested it four or five times and it worked great.

2 Yes, same with pump has always worked until we moved in and then it immediately stopped. Lol

3 Caravel 1967

4 can’t find a leak

5 I haven’t tried city water yet. Good idea!

6 it’s not working on electricity but all I see is the black on button. Maybe I’m missing something. A handyman tested all the wires and they are hot on the WH.

7. Water heater lights after a few tries and stays lit. It shuts down at the same exact moment the water pump is turned on. Checked all the screws and seals and electric chords and they appear tight. Going to install a new pump tomorrow but not sure how that will solve the water heater issue.

The 12 volt breakers are self resetting.

It sounds like water heater plus water pump is too much for the circuit. When both are on the circuit breaker trips. By the time you fiddle with things it has reset and things work again until you turn both on. If you have someone get their ear close to the breaker you should be able to hear the click of the trip and reset.

That’s surely not a design problem but something causing too much draw or a bad breaker. The best way to approach is with an ammeter or an ohmeter. I would guess that the root cause is a mouse chewed wire.

Following that thought, I’d look closely at the wiring near the pump. It could be that the pump vibration is causing a bare wire to touch.

[lemley]

Another thought. Turn on a light and go through the test again. Does the light go out when the pump starts? If not, if ignore the rest. But if it does…

Was the trailer plugged in during storage? Does it still have the original power converter? If yes to both the battery is probably cooked and 12 volts will be either barely there or dead until you replace the batteries.

When I bought my ‘88 the batteries were fried. The lights would only flash on and off and you could here the power converter breaker tripping and resetting along with the lights.

[Steamguy]

Since you had (have) mice in the AS.

This sounds suspiciously like what used to be called 'rat chew'; it's because mice/rats love to chew on the insulation of the wires, and find the copper itself tasty to a point.

My money is on a single 12V wire that feeds BOTH the WH and the water pump. It's a reasonable assumption that the WH doesn't draw that much current, so it could be combined with the pump originally.

The thing to do at this point is to FIRST check the connection at the 12V source. If it's good, then it's time for some detective work.

Follow the wire (either from the water pump or from the water heater) back toward the 12V source, and see where it joins with the feed to the other one. Check the splice combining the two wires carefully. If good: From that point, start following the wire back to the 12V source, and you should find the problem.

Hope that helps.

[Bigventure]

I would pull the aerators. Could be crud in them blocking the flow. There is also a screen ahead of the pump to check and clean.