(Plumbing) Sanitizing Fresh Water vs. Hot Water Heater (HWH)

[Incognitokokok]

Can you speak to releasing pressure before changing nautilus settings? Could it be ra

[Incognitokokok]

first--shut off the pump and ensure there's no water pressure in the system by opening both a hot water and cold water faucet. Once water stops flowing you can close the faucets.

Remove (temporarily) the brass hose valve installed on the city water inlet. Underneath you'll find a screen that you can (carefully) remove. Under that screen is a valve meant to allow water to enter the trailer but not exit. Exercise that valve by pressing it in and letting it spring back into place. Do it multiple times.



if water still continues to come out (the wrong way) that valve has failed. Hopefully that's not the case, so give the exercising a shot and (please) report back.

will do! Thanks!

[Incognitokokok]

FIRST--shut off the pump and ensure there's no water pressure in the system by opening BOTH a hot water and cold water faucet. Once water stops flowing you can close the faucets.

Remove (temporarily) the brass hose valve installed on the city water inlet. Underneath you'll find a screen that you can (carefully) remove. Under that screen is a valve meant to allow water to enter the trailer but not exit. Exercise that valve by pressing it in and letting it spring back into place. Do it multiple times.



If water still continues to come out (the wrong way) that valve has failed. Hopefully that's not the case, so give the exercising a shot and (please) report back.

Ok so I believe the part we didn't do and should have was to relieve any existing pressure in the lines by running the faucets while the pump was off before turning the pump on, then the faucets to drain the tank. I did check the valve and it popped in and out as it's supposed to and is no longer leaking. Yah! Thank you!
I am wondering, however, why we have so much air in the system. While draining the fresh water tank with the pump going via our faucets we are getting a lot of sputtering and has just a low to medium water flow (10 cups per minute running only the kitchen faucet). We ran the shower, the bath Sink, and the kitchen sink all at one at first but our pressure seemed too low so we thought it might be good to only run 1 faucet at a time.. Should I be checking anything else??

[howson]

Incognitokokok -- lots of air in the lines as water is first being passed through the system is normal. Once replaced with water the faucets will run normally. If the faucets continuously spit out air the tank may be low on water or the pump is somehow sucking in air through a connection. Double check there is plenty of water in the fresh water tank (my pump runs fine with as little as 6 gallons). If the air never stops coming out, you've got another issue unfortunately.

Also, low flow / pressure is not unusual in these trailers (long history with mine!) so don't expect a lot.

Don't forget to flush your lines with fresh water once you're done sanitizing. Easiest way is by hooking up a city water line (with the Nautilus set appropriately). I haven't watched Chad's video for awhile, but if you follow his steps you'll be fine.

There's also instructions in your owner's manual, too.

Howard

[Incognitokokok]

Incognitokokok -- lots of air in the lines as water is first being passed through the system is normal. Once replaced with water the faucets will run normally. If the faucets continuously spit out air the tank may be low on water or the pump is somehow sucking in air through a connection. Double check there is plenty of water in the fresh water tank (my pump runs fine with as little as 6 gallons). If the air never stops coming out, you've got another issue unfortunately.

Also, low flow / pressure is not unusual in these trailers (long history with mine!) so don't expect a lot.

Don't forget to flush your lines with fresh water once you're done sanitizing. Easiest way is by hooking up a city water line (with the Nautilus set appropriately). I haven't watched Chad's video for awhile, but if you follow his steps you'll be fine.

There's also instructions in your owner's manual, too.

Howard

Soooooo come to find out our Nautilus system is leaking from the big black knobs behind the panel when we go to powerfill....Has anyone ever taken these apart partially to be able to get to where you can tighten those big black knobs?? It's super tight back there...

[howson]

It's super tight back there...

That's an understatement. Working on the Nautilus is quite the adventure. It's fairly straight-forward but you have to take your time and take a LOT of pictures, labeling everything to ensure you can get it all back together again.

I completely rebuilt the back of mine. Not suggesting you do the same, but it may give you some ideas. The entire thread is quite long, so this link is to post 81 (where the Nautilus part starts): https://gdrvowners.com/forum/operati...0618#post20618

[Incognitokokok]

That's an understatement. Working on the Nautilus is quite the adventure. It's fairly straight-forward but you have to take your time and take a LOT of pictures, labeling everything to ensure you can get it all back together again.

I completely rebuilt the back of mine. Not suggesting you do the same, but it may give you some ideas. The entire thread is quite long, so this link is to post 81 (where the Nautilus part starts): https://gdrvowners.com/forum/operati...0618#post20618

We are so fortunate to have located a 5 star tech that was there n 10 mins just to check it out for us then stayed and replaced 2 of those black elbows and tweaked a few things to get it all working again! BONUS GD paid for it...did I mention we have a 2017...that was super cool and soooo appreciated!! Thank all of YOU for all the great info to get us moving in the right direction!!!

[mpking]

Flush until the Chlorine smell has vanished. You can use a pool test kit to check the level of chlorine in the water.

6 years of camping and flushing water systems, and 10 years of maintaining a residential pool, and I NEVER thought of this. And I touch the darn test strips at least once a day.

[JBill9694]

Looked at the valve settings in post #9 and it is not set for dry camping, at least not 100%. The red valve handle needs to be turned up. Don't know if this will make a difference, but it won't hurt either.

[TedS]

That's an understatement. Working on the Nautilus is quite the adventure. It's fairly straight-forward but you have to take your time and take a LOT of pictures, labeling everything to ensure you can get it all back together again.

I completely rebuilt the back of mine. Not suggesting you do the same, but it may give you some ideas. The entire thread is quite long, so this link is to post 81 (where the Nautilus part starts): https://gdrvowners.com/forum/operati...0618#post20618

Just had a thought about accessing swivel fittings in tight quarters. Maybe a basin wrench would be useful.

[howson]

Looked at the valve settings in post #9 and it is not set for dry camping, at least not 100%. The red valve handle needs to be turned up. Don't know if this will make a difference, but it won't hurt either.

No difference--hot water htr is isolated. Only cold from hw faucets. See diagrams in Ref Chnl.

[TedS]

The red handle makes a difference. Screen shot from Nautilus ref.

[howson]

The red handle makes a difference. Screen shot from Nautilus ref.

I guess we have to define "difference" as reading back through the thread and my response I must have assumed the OP meant to bypass the hot water heater.

To be clear for the readers of this thread, with the red knob facing up cold water will enter the hot water heater, forcing water out of the heater and through the camper's system. With the red knob sideways cold water will bypass the hot water and still come out of the hot water faucet.

My reference to "no difference" meant that in the Dry Camping position water will still flow through from the fresh water tank through the pump to the camper's faucets, just not through the hot water tank.