N00b setup issues with 2021 Flying Cloud - going backwards.

[bpaulc]

OK - I received my new to me trailer from the Dealership yesterday and am having some problems I can't debug. The trailer is connected to shore power and water at a rural property. My lights work, (both connected to shore power and disconnected) I'm getting propane (can light burners). Last night, my fridge was working fine. However, I couldn't get hot water to work. The controller in the bathroom would turn on, I had a red light, could set temp to 124, but no actual heat from water even after running for 2+ minutes. Going outside - the water heater didn't appear to be doing anything. Checked the fuse - looks fine (I don't have another with me). This morning I got up to try again. Now the panel in the bathroom doesn't do anything (no power to it). Also, my fridge has no power of any kind (pressing on/off does nothing). I checked the rest of my power - all good - both when connected to shore power, and when not. I don't have a multi-meter handy to debug further. I have read several posts about failing boards, etc (been focused on getting fridge back), but figure the two issues might be related - I have had the trailer for less than 24 hours so expect I have forgotten something obvious from my orientation. Any ideas? A few more details:
Water heater is: Girard GSWH-2
Fridge is: Dometic RM3762RBFX

[Rich Jenkins]

If you go into the bathroom, and turn on the hot water full blast (do not try and mix cold and hot), can you describe the EXACT sequence of lights on the Girard remote panel?

Here is what happens on mine:

- Girard remote display is blank, with red "on" light illuminated. This is how the display is, 24/7.
- Bathroom tap turned to full hot
- Within about 5 seconds, the display "Wakes up", symbol on left resembling a fan illuminates, and a symbol on the right resembling a shower wand starts blinking.
- Display upper illuminates "outlet" temperature (in my case, about 70F)
- Within about 10 seconds, a symbol resembling a flame starts flashing in the lower middle part of the display, and the "outlet" temperature then starts rising
- Within about 15 seconds, the "outlet" temperature reaches somewhere around 115F (our set temp) and then (depending on how cold it is) I get hot water shortly there after.

If I am standing outside while this is going on, I can hear the Girard unit fire up, and the flame start, or about the same time the "flame" symbol shows up on the remote display.

A bug/feature of the Girard system is (At least for me) that you HAVE to use full hot water on the taps, including the bath, shower, and kitchen, to get it to fire.

We experimented with set temp and decided that 115 works for the shower and hand/dish washing, so now we reflexively just turn in on full hot.

If you are trying to mix hot and cold, the system doesn't seem to work that way. If you are, the Girard may not sense enough hot water flow to kick the flame part off, explaining why you don't have hot water.

[Rich Jenkins]

double tap, sorry.

[Rich Jenkins]

Originally Posted by bpaulc

This morning I got up to try again. Now the panel in the bathroom doesn't do anything (no power to it). Also, my fridge has no power of any kind (pressing on/off does nothing). I checked the rest of my power - all good - both when connected to shore power, and when not.

Sorry, I missed this part ^^^.

Assuming this all worked during the dealer orientation (it did all work, right?) I think if you are experiencing this kind of major electrical malfunction the next day, I'd be driving the trailer back to the dealer, dropping it off at the service desk and say "call me when it's fixed."

[OutdoorIdaho]

Edited out my comment.
You are referring to a different red light.

[Astasiewsk]

Agree with others. You must have an adequate flow rate for the heater to turn on. There was a time last summer when the heater wouldn’t turn on when the shower was on (all hot). I had to turn on the faucet in the bathroom to get the heater to identify that there was water flowing. Water pressure at the campground was low, I believe.

[F250e9]

There is a toggle switch outside the camper in the water heater compartment that must be on for water heater to operate

[bpaulc]

I had a long back and forth and finally figured it out. At one point during the debugging, a fuse also blew so my panel went out - which slowed me down - luckily there is a spare 15 amp fuse in the panel (I had no fuses handy - I do now). I also own a multimeter for checking power. Bottom line - I had enough water pressure, but it wasn’t enough hot water. I was running the taps on full cold, not hot. I was getting no lights on the hot water panel. When I started to run the shower, I lights came on, it heated up. I maintain that it’s plumbed backwards (when looking at kitchen faucet, the mixer needs to be all the way down, at which point you are looking at a blue dot - if it’s all the way up, you are looking at a red dot - so I thought up was hot. Down is hot). I had tried both directions - but hadn’t left hot on for long enough initially, and then had settled on the other way when I ran it for longer and hadn’t been watching the panel to see what lights were coming on, thanks for the support - hope to be able to return the favor some day.

[pcskier]

Originally Posted by Rich Jenkins

I'd be driving the trailer back to the dealer, dropping it off at the service desk and say "call me when it's fixed."

Or say ‘please show me what I’m doing wrong’. Do we know for sure this was not user error?