How do I find a good mobile repair?

I'm in North Texas.

Google Mobile RV repair and hope for the best.  Seriously, you may not have a lot of choice in a rural area like that.

Usually there are more services as you get closer to population centers, maybe Amarillo?  There are several there, and you can maybe find customer reviews at http://rvservicereviews.com/

Gary RV_Wizard said:

Google Mobile RV repair and hope for the best.  Seriously, you may not have a lot of choice in a rural area like that.

Usually there are more services as you get closer to population centers, maybe Amarillo?  There are several there, and you can maybe find customer reviews at http://rvservicereviews.com/

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We've used them and had good results.

I?ve found 2 RV service providers thru google reviews and both turned out well. One was mobile. So give that a shot.

In pre-Google days, you'd visit local campgrounds and look on bulletin boards for business cards or flyers.  You could also ask at the campground office, or, if there was a clubhouse or other public area, go in, introduce yourself, and ask if anyone knew of a good repair guy.  I suppose that might still work.

None of the mobile repair places I found on google could come.  A friend recommended his plumber who also has an rv.  I was a little skeptical but the guy came over and our water heater is fried.    The good thing is that I wanted to have a tankless if we ever had to replace and now I can look into that. 

What is "fried"? What make and model is your water heater? Does it operate on propane and electric, or just propane? Does it work on either? There's a good chance folks on this site can walk you through troubleshooting and repairs. Usually just takes a few general hand tools and a multimeter. From pretty much everything I have read, tankless on an RV ain't all that.

Many parks have a mobile RV tech or two in their "Resource" book.. I've had good luck so far with 3 of 'em, though one no longer does mobile work.

FOr the two places I'm most likely to park.. I got 'em on speed dial.

That said. I'm a decent tech myself. I just do not have all the tools and such.. This helps as I will watch the mobile person .. I both learn and make sure they do it right.

kdbgoat said:

What is "fried"? What make and model is your water heater? Does it operate on propane and electric, or just propane? Does it work on either? There's a good chance folks on this site can walk you through troubleshooting and repairs. Usually just takes a few general hand tools and a multimeter. From pretty much everything I have read, tankless on an RV ain't all that.

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The problem I think is the check valve.  I have no idea what a check valve is or where it is, but that's the diagnosis I kept finding when I googled "no water comes out of hot water tap, but cold water tap still runs".  This was after the guy left yesterday without figuring out the problem.

We've been having problems with this water heater for quite a while.  First it quit working on electric.  Then, on gas, it was super hot water and made the relief valve kick open and dump between a 1/2 cup and a cup of water every time it came on.  Then, it sometimes wouldn't come on with gas.  It would go through the clicking bit three times and then we'd have to turn off the switch and turn it on again.  Sometimes on the third try, it would light with a little explosion from the gas buildup.  Sometimes it wouldn't come on at all and Hubby would have to light it with a butane lighter.

The guy who came yesterday is a plumber, not an RV repair man.  He has an RV but said he had never worked on an RV water heater before.  He turned on the bypass and made cold water come out of the hot water faucet.  He turned off the water,  drained everything, left the drain open, and blew air into the faucet to try to unplug whatever was wrong.  He took apart something that is accessible on the outside of the trailer and said it didn't look right.  I voiced a concern that all those little explosions had melted something and he agreed.  He was going to go to an RV center today and talk to someone he knew and come back today.  We talked about replacing the water heater.

After he left, I googled, found the check valve, and asked him if he would replace the check valve today and give us time to research what kind of water heater we want.  He agreed and said he would get it this morning.  He never came today.

Hubby left for a trip Wednesday morning.  There is a major breakdown every time he leaves.  I think all my appliances just wait for him to leave.  When I talked to him, he agreed that we probably need to just replace the water heater.  He has looked at it before, and I told him to check on the thermostat and ECO as directed here on another post.  He had no idea how to do that, and was working 60 hours a week and trying to finish the electrical on our house, and did just enough to the water heater so we could limp along.

I know that is more than you wanted to know, but I'm hot, frustrated, and dread taking another cold shower tonight.

Actually, not more than I wanted to know. We still don't know the make and model of the heater. How handy with simple hand tools are you? Following a couple of YouTube videos, you can probably have it fixed by the time your husband gets home from work. First  search for a video on "how to check and replace an RV water heater check valve", then search for a video on " how to clean and adjust the burner on an RV water heater" other than you finding a mobile tech that knows what they're doing, that's the best advice I can give for now. I can explain how to do everything on the forum, but videos are much nicer. Once you have correct water flow and the burner lights correctly, then it's on to fix the electrical side. That's also not difficult, but you will have to have a multimeter and learn the basics of how to use it.

I bought a check valve and thought I'd have it installed by the time Hubby got home, but I couldn't budge it.  When he came home, he couldn't get it out either until he pulled the water heater out and put it on the floor to get some leverage on it.  That was it, and it hasn't had a problem firing up since he put it back in either.

Thanks for the report back, and I'm glad you got it going. The firing issue may have been from a small piece of foreign material in the burner area, and he knocked it out when he removed the heater. It doesn't take much to mess them up. Just an incredibly small piece of rust, dirt, cob web, etc. It's a good idea to do a thorough cleaning of the burner section of the water heater, furnace, and refrigerator each spring.
Have you got the electric side working yet?

Not sure if this link will help anyone but here it is.
http://rvservicereviews.com/RVServiceMobile/Index.asp?height=1024&width=768&WidthAcquired=true

kdbgoat said:

Have you got the electric side working yet?

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No. I don't think he has looked at it since switching it over to gas.

Bob T said:

Not sure if this link will help anyone but here it is.
http://rvservicereviews.com/RVServiceMobile/Index.asp?height=1024&width=768&WidthAcquired=true

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Thanks!  I bookmarked that.

I don't expect any more comments to this thread, but I wanted to post a conclusion for myself and anyone else who comes across the same problem.

It was indeed the check valve.  When Hubby came home from his trip, he couldn't get the old one out easily either and had to take the whole water heater out to replace it.    He also replaced the relief valve, but it continued to drip large quantities of water with every use, so we only turned it on once a day.

We finally decided to just replace the water heater.  He never could figure out why it wouldn't heat on electric and couldn't get it to stop dripping on gas.  He replaced it last night, and still no hot water on electric.  So that problem wasn't part of the water heater at all.  It's in the wiring somewhere.

The good news is that the new water heater doesn't drip.   Correction.  Last night, it didn't drip.  I turned it on this morning and there is a puddle of water in the rim of the water heater.  This is so frustrating.  But at least the new one starts every time.  That was another problem with the old one.  Half the time, it wouldn't start on its own and we had to use a butane lighter to get it going. 

And about the mobile repair....  I called a couple and a week later, one called me back.  Hubby had it fixed by then.