[les korcala]

Hello agin,
I will be calling Aqua Hot ASP , but I figured I will ask some memebers first!

We are staying near Ojai, CA at the campground on teh lake Casitas.

Tonight my wife was taking shower and I was outsite and noticed antifreez was pooring out from under the coach! I looked and noticed that collant was coming from the exhaust pipe area right where comes out from the AH Silver Square Box our Aqua Hot model is 920431/432
I olso noticed under burner and mixer valve right in the metal pan there is some coolant right on the bottom!

I am having hard time to see where is exatlly coolant coming from! I checked engine coolant Retur/cold inlet/hot inlet, none of them are leaking coolant!

Was wonder if anyone had same problem with thsi sytem?
Right now I can see coolant only drips ! after we turned the AH switch insite the coach.

Les Korcala
Newell 2001 2 slides

[les korcala]

Hello,

I have contacted Roger Berg via he's forum site and he asked me to check the radiator cap and the hose also to find out if leak is from engine collant or AH coolant, here is my respond to Roger B.

BTW, we had AH anual service done about 2 months ago & ran in to two other problems since!

I have checked the radiator cap and hose and they are dry and tight (during the Sept service both were replaced). This morning I tried to open the radiator cap to see if there is anything left in the tank. I had hard time to open the radiator cap. When I got it loose and as soon i did that, more fluid started pouring around the exhaust pipe fitting right under the tank.
I am bit confused here since in last service repair man added to the tank 1,5 gallon of 50/50 pre diluted antifreeze/coolant mixture (you asking me to determine if is engine coolant or A H collant ) I thought both of the the systems take same coolant This guy who serviced our RV in Ennis, MT was AH certified technician.

Initally the coolant looked green but now it seems to be orange / yellow in the pan that we put out under the system last night. That is a plastic container and maybe the coolant might have reacted with the plastic container. We added green coolant when we did the service. We added 1.5 gallon during the service so perhaps I am seeing an older coolant which was a different color.

Thanks you so much for getting back to me so soon. Ware staing in the park campground and stranded with coolant all over the pavement. I have been trying to get all that I can so we don't make a mess.
I also noticed since the coolant was pouring of of the bottom of the coach, at the same same time the metal pan under the aqua hot (where all the tubes are) also has coolant (and that is definitely yellow).


Best regards,
Les

[encantotom]

hi les, it is a little hard to understand what coolant you think is leaking?

the aquahot in yours and mine unit can use regular coolant like is in our engines. (according to roger berke).

tom

[les korcala]

well, my next step is to get all the leaking coolant out, some of the is dripping out from under ( I use plactic tabs 0 and some of the insite i am vacum it out!

Its very hard to see where is coming from!

I spoke with one AH repair man who might be able to drive here on saturday and he said : to try to drain all out and just fill with some water to see agin for the leak, i know that none of the in & out pipes are leaking fluid.
Yes , my system takes regular mix 55/50 but the fluid caming out its yellow/orange ? I know its coing from AH becouse i pulled the radiator cap and look insite and most of it its gone!

Now if i can see where is coming from! what mess! we have 15 gallons of it pouring down , glad i cought it late last night!

Waiting what Roger B. will have to say.

[encantotom]

hi les,

any update on your leak?

tom

[encantotom]

so, i learned today something i didnt know for sure. the 2 electric heating elements in the aquahot are in the coolant and not in potable water. that is why they last so long. but, if they fail and leak, you leak coolant.

lets hope that it is that simple for les.

tom

[Richard]

Oh my I have some potentially bad news for you. I think the boiler is rusted out right at the point you see the coolant. I say that because Tuga's was doing the exact thing. We took his out, disassembled it, and found the boiler metal was rotten at that point. I tried to weld in a patch but the rotten metal extended under the hot water coils. Tuga ended up replacing the unit.

[encantotom]

gee we have the two extremes....an element or the entire unit.

i hope richard is wrong.

one of the things i am curious about is what determines the life of the tank. i am sure mine has a zillion hours on it operating. is it the operating hours, or what would cause them to leak after only 10 years or so.

tom

[les korcala]

        Thanks guys for checking on my situation,
well, so far i found great guy in S Cali , name Art whoe specialize in AH systems and Gorge Berke said: he would let Art work on his coach any day, so that sounds good!

I did test with water ( feeling up the tank with water ) and see for leaks, we found that water is coming from the larger element ( 2400watts ) one the one on far left of the Webasto, it shows insulation totally saturated and alos you can see collant running out of the electrict contact area!

Art alos sugested another test to presurize the tank using no more than 20psi of air ( entering trough the combustion tank's hone end) and listen for sound of leak, if that wont show than fill oall up to the top of the tank with water and push air inside the tank with compressor or tire pump! you should see water just bursting out of the leaking areas!

Working with both Gorge Berke and Art it will help us finding the missing link!

Its will be somwhere between the two elements or bad tank!

Newell & Art sugested to go with rebuild kit ( they take ours and rebuild in 4 weeks time ) versus new sytem where you will nedd new plumbing etc. lost of more labor and money some 12k$ VS 8,000$ for rebuile tank.
BTW, for this Newell and 431XE/12 model you need to ribuild brom your old system , they dont have any on hand, and rebild one looks like brand new!

So, tomorrow doing one more test and see what we come out with!
For now , no heat or hot water! haha! glad we are in Warm Cali.

I attched few images.

Les Korcala

[Richard]

I hope I am wrong too

I spent a long time looking at Tuga's. It was rusted right around the area where the exhaust pipe exited the boiler. It was definitely rusted form the inside. This would be in contact with the coolant. My thinking was that the rust inhibitor in the coolant was long gone. After all how many would change the coolant in the AH. I added a pint of rust inhibitor to mine soon after. I don't know of a way to check the inhibitor content without access to a chem lab. The ethylene glycol which is the primary ingredient in coolant does not go bad with time. You change it out because the inhibitors and anticavitants are consumed over time.