water heater

[gareth_5078709]

i have a bailey pageant mosselle cd,1995.it is fitted with a water heater supplying the taps in the kitchen and bathroom and the shower.before traveling to france i was advised to drain the tank for the journey.my problem is,when we had arrived and set up i couldn't get the tank to refill.i turned on the hot taps individually and all together but no joy.the pump didn't start up.am i missing something? is there a proceedure to refill these tanks? any help would be gratefully recieved.

 

[Damian]

Gareth, first of all, and very basic, so forgive me if it sounds condescending,its not meant to, did you switch the battery switch to Van, and if you have a control panel, did you switch the pump switch to on?

We have found the best way to bleed the air from the hot water system is to , having filled the aquaroll, fitted the pump, made sure all the switches are in the correct positions, allow a couple of seconds for the pump to start filling the tank, then open the Shower tap on HOT, until water comes out, then open the bathroom sink Hot tap, and finally the kitchen sink hot tap.

this seems to work better than any other way. We then open the Cold on the kitchen tap to prime the cold water side of things

 

[Damian]

Gareth, first of all, and very basic, so forgive me if it sounds condescending,its not meant to, did you switch the battery switch to Van, and if you have a control panel, did you switch the pump switch to on?

We have found the best way to bleed the air from the hot water system is to , having filled the aquaroll, fitted the pump, made sure all the switches are in the correct positions, allow a couple of seconds for the pump to start filling the tank, then open the Shower tap on HOT, until water comes out, then open the bathroom sink Hot tap, and finally the kitchen sink hot tap.

this seems to work better than any other way. We then open the Cold on the kitchen tap to prime the cold water side of things

NOTE: If the pump never even started, you need to check thatit is working,before any of the other things.

 

[Rod_5041370]

If, as I assume, you get cold water from the cold taps, then you probably have a microswitch problem on the hot ones.

To test for this, turn on a hot tap, then turn on a cold tap a little until you can hear the pump, then wait for water to come from the hot tap. If this works it is a microswitch problem.

 

[Clubman1]

Forgive me another silly question but...did you close the valve to your hotwater tank after draining it off? I had a similar problem on my Lunar and tried for an hour to solve the problem before the penny dropped.

 

[gareth_5078709]

thanks everyone for the replies so far.just to answer some of the questions,the drain plug was replaced after draining,i assume the microswitches are working because they "click"when they are opened.all the van switches were on.i forgot to mention before the water system is a pressurised system.

 

[gary]

As with Rod I assume the cold flow is OK and I also assume your heater is the Carver Cascade 2.

During winter it is possible for the non-return valve which is part of the cold water inlet to be damaged by frost and this will stop water coming out the hot water tank, at this time of year though I don't think that's the problem!.

What I think has happened is draining the tank before your trip has washed loose lime scale from within the tank into the narrow passage between the tank and the larger hole that the drain bung screws into and block it solid.

A way of clearing it is to pump water into the drain bung hole with a hose pipe which you will need to crudely seal into the hole. The non-return valve mentioned earlier is at the other end of drain hole, this will stop the water going straight though and if it is the problem the extra force of mains pressure will push the blockage back into the tank. It is important while you try this to have hot taps open to allow air in the tank to come out and not allow mains water pressure to build inside the tank, so some one should be inside watching.