Hot Water....but how?

Per my signature line, I bave a 2000 Itasca Horizon, DP, Freightliner chassis, 36 feet in length.  It is equipped with the optional 10 gallon DSI water heater.  Here is the mystery.  My water is hot and I don't know how it's being heated.  I have found, to date, two switches in the coach which control the water heater.  One in the laundry area labelled "water heater" which I assume is the electric heater, and a second on the power panel which controls the gas part of the heater.  It has a green light and a red light and the off/on switch.

With both the electric heater switch and the gas heater switch "OFF", I still have hot water!  Am I missing a switch somewhere?  I can run enough "tests" to learn if it is being heated electrically, or by the gas, or maybe even the engine, but thought I might be overlooking yet another switch somewhere  According to the manual, the motoraid option is not offered with the Freighliner diesel chassis.  However, I have driven the coach for 3 days in a row and always have hot water with all switches off.

Anyone out there with a similar experience?

Bob - we have a Freightliner chassis and the engine coolant is circulated through a heat exchanger in the water heater.  We always have hot water after some road time!

the engine coolant is circulated through a heat exchanger in the water heater

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Yep, it is true that the motoraid REAR HEATER is not on any of the diesel pusher chassis (your Freightliner or my Spartan), but the motoraid WATER HEATING function is there via a simple metal tube attached to the outside of the rear of the water heater tank.

afchap said:

Yep, it is true that the motoraid REAR HEATER is not on any of the diesel pusher chassis (your Freightliner or my Spartan), but the motoraid WATER HEATING function is there via a simple metal tube attached to the outside of the rear of the water heater tank.

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This may be true for FL chassis for Wnnie's but my Newmar Dutch Star has a rear heater under the bed that is like a auto dash heater and works great.  YOu can add one for about $150 or so if you are handy.  The big cost is the heater core.  Evans Tempcon has one available if you want one.

Our 1997 Endeavor has the rear heater feature as well.  The fan is controlled from a switch on the dash labeled Aux Heat.  We are also plumbed for the MotorAid water heater. 

Obviously other brands may be different on some features, but we are in the "Winnebago-specific issues" area of the forum so presume no need to indicate we are talking about Winnebago rigs unless we are not ... which would be off-topic, eh?

afchap said:

Obviously other brands may be different on some features, but we are in the "Winnebago-specific issues" area of the forum so presume no need to indicate we are talking about Winnebago rigs unless we are not ... which would be off-topic, eh?

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Paul,
Winnebagos are not unique and more often than not are built just the same as any other brand, with buttons, bells and whistles all located in different areas even within the same year of make.  There is a wealth of information on this forum from all the different brand owners out there.  So it is not off topic if other brand owners respond. 

Marsha~

The statement was made in reference to Freightliner and was not true.  Not everything is specific to Winnebago.

I almost always enjoy and find it instructive when we have other perspectives and usually don't consider that as off-topic or even thread drift.  Paul does have a point that we are attempting to limit our topic to Winnie specific stuff.  In this particular case, Winnie specs out how Freightliner will equip the chassis (or Ford or WH I suspect) as to features and options and even the size of the cooling pack.  Be that as it may - everybody is always  welcome (and encouraged) to contribute in the Winnie board - we're all family!

-> back to regularly scheduled programming <- 

John Canfield said:

Bob - we have a Freightliner chassis and the engine coolant is circulated through a heat exchanger in the water heater.  We always have hot water after some road time!

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Thanks John and Paul, I had read some of John's posts where he talked about having hot water all the time, compliments of engine heat, but figured he had added some gizmo to the system to provide it.  I'm gonna investigate further but now tend to believe that is indeed,  engine heat that is heating my water.  This is based on having had the thing sitting overnight plus half the next day, plugged in with all the switches off and the water was only luke warm....not pretty hot as it always has been at the end of the day.  Pleasant surprise!!

Winnie specs out how Freightliner will equip the chassis

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My point exactly.  I do find it interesting to compare the differences between mfg'ers, but when someone asks a specific question as to how something works on their specific rig (this question was specifically about "a 2000 Itasca Horizon, DP, Freightliner chassis") ... and does it inside a specific mfg'ers forum ... simply saying "Mine does thus and so" when they are talking about another mfg'ers product can be very confusing to the OP.  In many respects, Winnebagos ARE unique, and SO ARE Monacos, Newmars, Holiday Ramblers, and any other mfg'er brand you want to mention.  I am very careful to try to consider those differences when I attempt to respond to these types of questions in non-Winnie forums, and to do all I can to make sure I don't obscure the real answer with info that actually does not apply do to mfg'er differences.

Ok, so maybe I got overly sensitive here because when we are receiving notifications via email -- as many of us do -- it clutters the inbox with irrelevant info ...perhaps "interesting" info, but still irrevelant, an thread drift then happens very quickly!

afchap said:

Ok, so maybe I got overly sensitive here because when we are receiving notifications via email -- as many of us do -- it clutters the inbox with irrelevant info ...perhaps "interesting" info, but still irrevelant, an thread drift then happens very quickly!

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Afchap,

You do realize you can "uncheck" that notification so that your email inbox does not get cluttered with irrelevant info, don't you?  

I too may be overly sensitive because this is the RVForum. We try very hard to make everyone and every brand of RV welcome, even in the Winnebago section.  When someone begins to tell others they should not reply because they have a different brand; well, my red flag goes up.

Marsha~[edit]Fixed quote tag.[/edit]

Marsha

Just to clarify, I did not suggest that anyone not participate ...and in fact said in a more recent post that I am interested in knowing about differences between brand names. What I tried to say was that having to clarify what mfg brand we are discussing in a brand specific forum should not be necessary!    ...sorry that I totally failed to communicate...

And yes I could choose not to receive notifications (just as I did choose TO receive them), but by doing so I would be choosing not to know what was posted on the forum without going to the trouble of logging on! As a full-time RVer who often does not have a "contant on" internet connection and all kinds of browing time on my hands I prefer forums that allow participation totally by email for both reading and posting, but choose to be involved in a few that require a log-in to reply to posts as long as I can receive email notifications to subscribed discussions.

afchap said:

Yep, it is true that the motoraid REAR HEATER is not on any of the diesel pusher chassis (your Freightliner or my Spartan), but the motoraid WATER HEATING function is there via a simple metal tube attached to the outside of the rear of the water heater tank.

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Yep, afchap is correct on this post, and yes....this is specific to Winnebago. 

Also, the Winnie GAS chassis include the Motoraid Rear Heater in addition to the Motoraid Water Heating.  ;D  I've though long and hard about the differences, and this is about one of the only/best advantage for us Gas Chassis owners!  ;D