Thor Forums

[bevedfelker]

Sheryl -- are you sure he didn't say 3 VALVES not switches. Near the back of your water heater there are 3 valves (I sent you a schematic of these vales). I'm going to assume that your RV was winterized, and I'm going to also assume who ever winterized it left the 3 valves in the WINTERIZED position. as shown in the lower diagram.

1. You see on the diagram there is a valve on the cold water line going into the water heater. There is also a valve on the hot water line coming out of the water heater. Then there is a short piece of water line that connects the cold water line to the hot water line with a valve (called the Water Heater Bypass Valve). So when you winterize you want to bypass the hot water tank or you are going to pump 6 gallons of RV anti freeze into the hot water tank. So to keep from doing that and only putting antifreeze in the water lines you would CLOSE the hot water output valve and CLOSE the Cold Water input valve to the water heater. With these two valves closed, you would then OPEN the Hot Water Tank Bypass valve and the water would flow from the cold water line into the hot water line completely bypassing the water heater. This is what the lower diagram shows you. So if those valves are still positioned that way -- the cold water is going to flow directly into the cold water line, not flow into the water heater, and the net outcome would be -- NO HOT WATER.

2. So what you need to do is be sure that the 3 valves are positioned for normal hot water operation (as shown in the upper diagram). You would OPEN both the hot water heater output valve and the cold water input valve. Opening these two valves will allow water to flow into and out of the hot water heater. BUT, you can't let that bypass valve open or a significant amount of cold water will still flow into the hot water line. CLOSE the bypass valve and now the only way water will flow is from the cold water input line, into the water heater (where it will now be heated), and then out the hot water line into the faucets.

3. I believe your hot water tank is under the seat as the repair guy said -- just look for valves not switches. The second picture shows the back of the hot water heater on my Thor Vegas. Yours should look similar -- just in a different place. The valve on the blue line on the bottom is the Hot Water Beater Cold Water input valve. The valve way up on top on the red line is the Hot Water Heater Output valve. And the valve just above the heat duct is the Hot Water Heater Bypass Valve. The configuration of my valves was for normal use -- hot water and cold water lines OPEN, Bypass line CLOSED.