[rheavn]

Richard is the engineer, I am not. The advice I have been given by Roger Berke is that the coolant should be tested for its PH factor annually and changed only if it is out of range. Unfortunately I don't have the range in front of me. Roger sent me some PH test strips.

[les korcala]

Okay, so I just checked for air leaks with my wife, I have very cool pump I use for inflating my pontoon boat and worked like champ!
Art & Tom said its low pressure tank so under say 20psi should do the trick!


By touching all the 4 openining ( element one, element two, termostats area & cumbustion chamber ) we could not detect the air leak /movement , but by ear you can hear the air coming from the far left side( element opening area) so for sure its in that corner !! now, if I only know if it element or rusted tank in that corner is the problem!

Will have to call the AH guys and let him know what is our next option? trying to put new element and see if still leaks or just go with entire new rebuild.


Les

[encantotom]

les,

i would go get one of the hot water heater sockets at home depot for 8 bucks. and i would buy the cheapest smallest hot water heater element that they have at home depot. they are about ten bucks.

and i would take out the element you think might be leaking, clean the area up and install the one from home depot and try the whole thing again.

that way you could eliminate the element for sure. i have to believe it is a standard element size. the element you buy to put in would be ONLY to test for leaks, not to leave in it so nothing but the size of it would matter.

my two cents worth

tom

[encantotom]

also, please make sure all power is off to the aquahot. the 30a 220v breaker. whatever you feel comfortable with making sure there is no power to it. (power off at pedastal if you are not sure you got it all off)

tom

[Richard]

That's great news

[rheavn]

For those wanting to test the coolant PH, the results for coolant in good condition is 7 to 9.

[les korcala]

Well,
2-3 days of bending and killing my knees took to finally got the element loose!!!out of the Aqua Hot tank so happy becouse getting this loose was big job!
After water and air presuraizing the tank we noticed that air or water would come out trough the 4500 watts element ( our 2001 Newell has two of them , 1700 & 2400 Watts ) if you have model say 431 XE ( the XE stands for 2 elements )
when I tried to disconcet the contac from front of the element , I have noticed that the contact plate was totally coroded and ditached ( broken off ) from rest of teh element part.

Next step was to get that element out, after taking many part out , finally got to the point with lots of clearnce to try to get it out, bought 1, 1/2" socket ( from auto parts store ) as well as the elemts original socket Tom M. have sugested.

Problem was that where the element seats against teh tank, there is large round metal washer & that washer prevented me from getting socket on and , all I had was only about 2mm of the nut area to work with, socket would simply slipp and come off.

So, I had to get my Dramell tool to work with small stone bit and work the entire six sided nut around and get that round washer out of the way.
After several hrs , I barrowed 1" steel pipe 3 feet of it for more laverage and finally after several tries nut cam loose! Victory!! haha, took me several days to finally celebrate..

Next step was to put new element ( bought from H Depot just to test the system ) Again, thanks to Tom. M for great sugestions.
My wife and I , than air presuraized Aqua Hot tank for any aditional leaks, I used small hand pump, it takes only under 20psi to full fill it!

We lsiten for any air leaks! great so far so good ! after I opened the radiator cap and all the air came out! great that mean we do not have any leaks in the tank and its 99% sure its was element !

When you see my photos you will see how bad that element was , the part by the thrad area was totally corrodes and 2-3 holes in one of the tubes!!
Today I flushed tank tree times make sure we got all teh corotion out of it!

Next we are waiting for the new element, I am thinking resplaced second one , its perfect time to do it since I can get to it and wont be chcnging 18 gallons of 50/50 twice! so replace both of them and be done!

We are hoping thsi was onley fe hundreds $$$ reapi and replacement of elements , not replacing entire tank ( 8,000 ribuild or brand new 14,000 ) not include 20 hrs of labor!
Since we bought thsi coach last year we had no history of the coach condition and as Steve bare sugested to check yearly PH levels to avoid thsi kind of situation.
Would love to find out Steve, where can I get the test strip to test coolant?

Here are some images from parts I worked on.

Best,
Les Korcala

[rheavn]

Les,
I got mine from Roger Berke. He sent me a bunch when I ordered some other parts, but he does sell them on his web site. Been following your struggles & glad that replacing just the heating elements may solve your problem.

[Chester Stone]

I serviced my Aqua-Hot yesterday, put in a new burner nozzel, fuel filter and adjusted the electrodes. Checked the mixer valve, and found that it gradually moved about 2/3 of a turn, but leaked water when my hand was on the knob. I ordered a new one from Roger. Found that the hose to the reserve tank was broken at the radiator cap and the unit was two gallons low even thought the reserve was full. Question: any suggestion on how to adjust the mixer valve after the burner is installed.

[les korcala]

                                Here sre some images of bad element and it would be good idea to keep checking PH levels of your coolant mix to avoid such condition!

Chester, your coach is very close to mine ! in terms of build ( ours is #582 ) please check images of my sytem and model and I be glad to ask my repair person how to ajust it.

BTW, when we serviced our AH in September I noticed same situation , I looked around the radiator cap and noticed hose cracked and did not see at time coolant running out , but it did over time! i lost close to 2 gallons of coolant!
We replaced with longer hose and run it araound and in the back of the zones and out of the way,
I replaced hose and the radiator cap same time, its good to have spry bottle with soapy water and from time to time spry all the area around plumbing for any leaks!

Best,
Les Korcala
Newell 2001 3528