Furrion Tankless Water Heater - Important: Please Read

[ncitro]

We took delivery of our 2022 GD 28BH on 2/14/22 and just took it out for the "maiden voyage" on 3/24. My worst fears were confirmed when I connected water to it, the HWH looked like a waterfall. :( I checked the drain plug and everything that was accessible, but the leak is coming from inside the unit. We have a 4 week long trip all planned out starting in mid-April and now I don't know if we're going to be able to do it. I contacted the dealer and they said to send them pictures of the HWH, which I did, but I'm not optimistic about getting a repair or replacement before I have to scrub my upcoming trip plans.
Not a happy camper. :(

Sorry to hear that, I would still take the trip. You should be able to bypass the water heater via the nautilus panel and your cold water would still work. It's not ideal but I know the planning that would go into a trip that long and I would not want to give it up. You could probably get by with cold water for toilet use, hand washing and cooking, and use the shower house to bathe.

Worst case you could replace the water heater out of pocket (it's just a few connections if you're comfortable with it) and even try to get a conventional water heater to replace it. The Dometics are about $600 on etrailer, not nothing, but compared to giving up a four week trip I would do it.

[Mike & Rebecca]

We took delivery of our 2022 GD 28BH on 2/14/22 and just took it out for the "maiden voyage" on 3/24. My worst fears were confirmed when I connected water to it, the HWH looked like a waterfall. :( I checked the drain plug and everything that was accessible, but the leak is coming from inside the unit. We have a 4 week long trip all planned out starting in mid-April and now I don't know if we're going to be able to do it. I contacted the dealer and they said to send them pictures of the HWH, which I did, but I'm not optimistic about getting a repair or replacement before I have to scrub my upcoming trip plans.
Not a happy camper. :(

You may have already considered this, but if this happened to us I'd bypass the dealer and find either a local independent rv shop or a mobile tech to help get it fixed. I'd even be open to switching to a different heater if that got me on the road on time.

Take pictures and email to Grand Design Customer Sevice. Follow up with a phone call to let them know how you propose to effect the repairs, and get their authorization to get it repaired.


Good luck!

[TucsonJim]

ColoradoGreg I sent you a private message. Please respond right away if you'd like me to try and get you some quick assistance.

Thanks,

Jim (Moderator)

[Jlawles2]

ColoradoGreg Sorry for the issue. Is it one of the Furrion Tankless units?

One of the other members here has a similar issue, once replaced, he did open up the unit to find a split copper tube. Creative person may be able to repair the broken tube with either a solder in piece and couplings.

Of course you would need to get permission to do this first and most likely keep all broken parts.

[ColoradoGreg]

I heard back from the dealer on this. They said GD has approved the replacement, but it will take a couple of weeks to get the part, then I have to get in line for the repair, which I figure could be months from now. Obviously, that's not a viable option. Also, somebody mentioned that we could bypass the water heater for the rig and use the showers at the RV parks. The wife says "no way" to that. We just spent $60k on a 5h wheel and expect it to be fully functional. So much for that.
I'm thinking about pulling the unit out and seeing if it could be repaired. Has anyone done this? Also, we're thinking that in the long run, the tankless unit is going to be a problem for boondocking, which we do a few times a year. Has anyone replaced the Furrion tankless water heater with a tank type? The dimensions for 6 gallon units is the same. I'm looking at the Suburban 5240A model. I could order one and have it by Monday and install it
Any thoughts?

[howson]

II could order one and have it by Monday and install it. Any thoughts?

I haven't compared the two units (I've never seen a tankless in person)--are all the power and propane connections available, too?

[TucsonJim]

I heard back from the dealer on this. They said GD has approved the replacement, but it will take a couple of weeks to get the part, then I have to get in line for the repair, which I figure could be months from now. Obviously, that's not a viable option. Also, somebody mentioned that we could bypass the water heater for the rig and use the showers at the RV parks. The wife says "no way" to that. We just spent $60k on a 5h wheel and expect it to be fully functional. So much for that.
I'm thinking about pulling the unit out and seeing if it could be repaired. Has anyone done this? Also, we're thinking that in the long run, the tankless unit is going to be a problem for boondocking, which we do a few times a year. Has anyone replaced the Furrion tankless water heater with a tank type? The dimensions for 6 gallon units is the same. I'm looking at the Suburban 5240A model. I could order one and have it by Monday and install it
Any thoughts?

If possible, I'd wait two weeks before making your final decision to replace the unit with a tank version. GDRV is testing a method to rework the original water heaters to prevent freeze up. If this works, there may be a solution to future freezing issues. The forum moderators will be at GDRV the week of April 11th for technical discussions and this is certainly one of the topics we're planning on covering. I hope to have information to share with you all around that time frame.

Jim

[ncitro]

I heard back from the dealer on this. They said GD has approved the replacement, but it will take a couple of weeks to get the part, then I have to get in line for the repair, which I figure could be months from now. Obviously, that's not a viable option. Also, somebody mentioned that we could bypass the water heater for the rig and use the showers at the RV parks. The wife says "no way" to that. We just spent $60k on a 5h wheel and expect it to be fully functional. So much for that.
I'm thinking about pulling the unit out and seeing if it could be repaired. Has anyone done this? Also, we're thinking that in the long run, the tankless unit is going to be a problem for boondocking, which we do a few times a year. Has anyone replaced the Furrion tankless water heater with a tank type? The dimensions for 6 gallon units is the same. I'm looking at the Suburban 5240A model. I could order one and have it by Monday and install it
Any thoughts?

Is it possible to get the replacement tankless from the dealer and install it yourself? It should be a pretty simple swap, especially if you are already considering replacing it with a "tank" model.

That said assuming it fits, you would need a 115V outlet (dedicated) to plug in the electric side if you want to use it, and might need to rework the gas line some (if its not flexible). You would probably also need another low voltage switch to turn the electric side on and off (I assume your control panel just has one on/off switch on it now).

If they will let you swap it yourself, and the fix they are promising works out (you would not need that fix until the cold weather returns) then that would be the easiest (and cheapest) option.

[ColoradoGreg]

We've decided that we are going to take our planned 4 week trip despite the dealer not being able to help before our departure date. We've made all the reservations and many of them are not refundable.

I pulled out the Furrion WH, which was pretty easy. The hoses and connections are long enough for the unit to be pulled out and set on a support stand, and then disconnecting everything was simple.
I took pictures of the connections for future reference.
When I got the unit on my workbench with the cover off, it only took me a minute to see the problem. The hot water drain tube was split open just inside the box. I suspect the unit wasn't properly drained at the dealer prior to my taking delivery. The tube is a separate component, but it's not listed as a replaceable part, so the whole unit would need to be replaced...unless...

I have a few pictures of the damaged part, but I don't see how to upload them in this post.

Greg

[Country Campers]

ColoradoGreg

Below the box that you type your post in is a "Upload Attachments" button, use this and then browse to your picture that you want to upload. After the picture uploads there will be a choice of thumbnail, small, medium, and large. I usually choose the medium. I think you can only upload 3 or 4 pictures at a time.
I hope you can get them uploaded as we would surely like to see the failure point.

Brian

[ncitro]

ColoradoGreg I'm glad you're not going to let it ruin your trip, I suspected removal would be that easy. Any luck getting the dealer to just give you the replacement when it comes in? I know Grand Design was going to expedite getting your replacement out.

[Jlawles2]

ColoradoGreg Is it possible to cut the split line, then use a short piece of tubing and a couple of connectors to replace the damaged section?

[ColoradoGreg]

The dealer said the replacement parts would take two to three weeks to arrive, so that's not a good option for our trip schedule.
Thanks Country Campers for the upload instructions. Here are the pictures of the failure point. Also my repair job. I used a short piece of copper pipe that I split open and wrapped and soldered in place. It should hold up better than the original tubing. But there's still a lot of the original tubing to fail in the future.

Thanks for the support!

Greg
Tow Vehicle: 2009 RAM 2500 Cummings
Coach: 2022 GD 28BH

[Cate&Rob]

ColoradoGreg

Nice job Greg . . . where there’s a will there’s a way!

Rob

[Jlawles2]

ColoradoGreg Greg, good job. i wonder if that NPT adapter on the end is soldered in place? In the future if you have an issue, either drill out the tube and insert a new section or un sweat the connection and replace the offending section.