no water coming out hot side of taps

[Don Farrish]

De winterizing for first time flushed anti freeze out of cold taps flushed the hot on bi pass everything working good. Filled tank with bleach and water to do disinfection of system. I have water coming out cold tap but nothing coming out hot side. All valves are in normal position. Did all this with pump. Turned off pump hooked up to city water cold good hot nothing. I don't want to turn heater on in case water heater not full. If the tank is full water should be coming out tap? Everything worked last year when I got it. There is something that I'm not doing right but cant figure it out.

 

[Rene T]

Hook up your water hose again and turn on the pressure. Then go outside and slowly open the pressure relief valve located at the top right hand corner of the heater. If you're getting lot's of water out of it, your tank is full and you can turn on the heater.
The problem with no water, tells me your check valve on the outlet side of the heater has failed which is quite common. Get to the backside of the heater and remove the top pipe. The next fitting will be the check valve. Take it out. Then as a temporary fix, using a screwdriver, knock out the internals. Then reinstall and connect the pipe. Now turn on the water and see if that fixes your problem.
Note: sometimes there may also be a check valve at the inlet pipe which is at the bottom.

 

[Don Farrish]

Rene
My next dum question is how do I get to the back side do I have to take the hot water heater out? There is the propane line and a lot of wires in there. The heater is inside a cabinet cant access from top back or sides.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

If you get water from the hot taps with the heater tank bypassed, but not with bypass off, then the problem is no water getting through the tank. A stuck or clogged check valve is the #1 suspect f that's the case.

So, go back to bypass mode and check the flow to the hot taps. If that works ok, then you will have to dig into the heater tank plumbing, which may involve removing it. If bypass doesn't deliver water, then the problem is the cold water feed line to the tank (a rare type of problem).

 

[Don Farrish]

thanks Gary bypass works good so check valve must be stuck. Is there enough length on hoses and wiring to get heater out to  get at check valve. Tried to get access under drawers in bedroom but no access panel. There is a small access port on back of heater cabinet but you cant see in there as it is only about 4' in diameter and cant get head up there I can feel the outlet pipe but don't even want to attempt doing it blind and can only get one hand in.

 

[John Canfield]

Make and model please of your RV?

 

[Rene T]

thanks Gary bypass works good so check valve must be stuck. Is there enough length on hoses and wiring to get heater out to  get at check valve. Tried to get access under drawers in bedroom but no access panel. There is a small access port on back of heater cabinet but you cant see in there as it is only about 4' in diameter and cant get head up there I can feel the outlet pipe but don't even want to attempt doing it blind and can only get one hand in.

Check under the RV below the heater. Some RV's have access there.
Can you make the hole bigger or is it out in the open

 

[Don Farrish]

Make and model please of your RV?

2000 Winnebago journey

 

[Don Farrish]

Check under the RV below the heater. Some RV's have access there.
Can you make the hole bigger or is it out in the open

no access on bottom access on back is 4" diameter and turns in

 

[Dan Walters]

Don, I have a 2005 Vectra and had the same problem recently.  The problem was the hot water line check valve.  Access to it is difficult  and is done through an opening underneath the coach below and behind the hot water heater.  The opening is about 3 or 4 inches wide and 9 or 10 inches long.  Hope this helps.

 

[John Canfield]

What Dan said - water heater check valve failure is a very common problem with Winnebago. Search this board for check valve - there's lots of informative posts and threads.

 

[Ernie n Tara]

I had the same problem a couple of weeks ago although I didn't have access problems. I did find that the check valve body simply couldn't be removed from the tank. Undoubtably that was due to corrosion between the dissimilar metals. I don't do cold so I just removed the guts of the check valve and reconnected. If it's every necessary to replace the check valve,  I'd just plumb a second valve into the line rather than try to remove the original.

Ernie