New water heater in '88 Excella

[JimGolden]

Hey guys,

I took my old Atwood out on Sunday. It was very easy. The 34-X Avion has a huge bedroom closet and the water heater is in the bottom of it in its own little chamber. I say little...I could fit a second one in there. I'm thinking I should have upgraded to a ten gallon...it'd easily have fit. But anyway, the worst part was scraping off the old putty tape. I used a red devil scraper, took it easy, and got most of it off.

Then I did an old trick using WD-40. It's good for removing road tar from car fenders. I shot some WD onto a rag and the residue wiped right off. I got her clean as a whistle. I then vacuumed out the compartment and got a soapy sponge and cleaned the linoleum floor off (all Avions have linoleum floors where the linoleum wraps around the floor and staples on the bottom to protect the edges of the 1.5" thick floor {floor is 3 layers and is insulated}. Carpet then lays atop the linoleum). What a great design!

This weekend I'll start working on the new install. I'm going to replace the zinc screws with stainless. I'll be reusing my original silver door. We're going to pull 10 wire through to feed the 120V side. The plumbing was no problem; the wiring may be a slight challenge, but the biggest deal seems to be where to put the sub panel. I've no extra room in the main panel for another breaker. I'd thought of running the 10 wire to the closet and putting the sub panel there. Then run from the breaker to the switch and then to the heater. I'll have to check the manual...not sure what kind of amp draw this thing uses. I have some 12-2 wire on hand too from wiring my house.

I'd like to do a bypass to, so I'll need to get some valves and stuff. My old one had it, but one of the valves has the handle broken off...

I'm taking lots of pictures, but need to photoshop them to make the size managable. Will post a whole bunch when it's done.

Take care,

[JimGolden]

Hi Everyone!

I got my new Atwood in place. The worst part of all was running the new wire for the 110V. I'll document all of this once I get the pictures photoshopped...I've been taking bunches.

I have a question: The heat shield on the new Atwood appears to be about a half inch wider than the plenum. So how do you attach it?

On my old one, the heat shield had larger tabs on the sides and it just fit over the plenum. You then used sheet metal screws to attach the shield to the plenum. When you closed the door, the hole in the door aligned with the plenum and heat shield and it looked good.

Ok, so I've kept my old door and even polished it up. But I can't see how to attach this new heat shield to the new plenum.

Does the new one hook to the door somehow?

I don't see how to attach this new heat shield.

Help!!!!!!!!!!!

[Sunset Coast]

Jim,
I cleaned up my old heat shield and it mounted onto the new heater. The new heater has slots on the left side of the plenum and a screw hole on the right side (just below the ground wire screw). It was a snug fit but works well. Hope this helps.
Doug

[JimGolden]

Hey Doug,

I may wind up doing that. I thought I'd read in an earlier posting that you or one of the other guys had mentioned doinng that. My old one is kind of "burnt" looking so I was hoping to make the new one work. No matter, later today, one of them is going to work

On a side note, don't you need to remove that red plastic plug from the safety blow off valve? I thought that was just a thing for shipping etc they stuck in them at the factory. Or, is that plug supposed to blow out when cracking pressure is reached? I was gonna pull mine out and pitch it...

thanks!

[cameront120]

I kept the red plastic liner in because it isn't really a plug. It is open to allow water flow, so I figured there was a reason for it being there. Also, I couldn't find anything in the instructions saying to remove it.

[JimGolden]

Yeah, I discovered it's got a hole in it when I pulled it out.

It's nothing more than a thread protector.

It works now! Dad and I tried to wire it up so that you just flip the breaker for electirc and use the original switch for LP, but it wouldn't work like that. You have to have 12V all the time for the control board. So you cannot run 110v without the 12v being operational as well.

So I wound up using the new switch, but it's on a board mounted inside the closet. It's a temp rig, but will work to get me going. I'll relocate it to a better area later. I'm taking the rig camping in a couple weeks and I need it to work. Got that now