Hot Water

In the words of Roseanne Roseannadanna: It's always something.

Last night's forecast called for temps to dip below freezing, so we played it safe and dropped our water line. That's no big deal, of course. With plenty of fresh water in our tank, we simply flipped on the water pump. About 20 minutes later we heard the pump kick on for a couple of seconds.

"That's the ice maker," we thought. About 20 minutes later we heard the pump kick on once again. Either we had just set a world record for ice making, or we had a leak somewhere. Our bet was on the latter. With no visible signs of leakage anywhere inside, we flipped off the pump and went to sleep on our wonderfully enhanced Sleep Number bed.

This morning, Paul stepped out into the cold and checked around outside. He spotted a puddle under our water heater. That sent us racing to our back closet. We removed a panel in the closet to reveal the back of the heater and a growing pool of water that was being fed by a steady drip from a cracked elbow connector.

Curses!

The total sum of space available to work on this project is about three cubic feet. With tools in hand, Paul contorted himself to work inside the hatbox-sized space. It didn't take long to determine that this job required the services of a double-jointed professional.

Calls to the local Winnebago dealer, Forest City and a totally booked mobile RV tech left us with a service appointment 30 minutes from here on Tuesday morning...and a still steadily dripping water heater.

Paul drained the heater and flipped the bypass switch as a temporary solution. We wouldn't have hot water, of course. But, we'd have all the cold water we needed and the dripping would stop. At least, it should have! With water steadily spewing out of the connector, we turned off the city water and drained the lines. With no water left in the coach, the leaking stopped.

With a dry moose, we were in for a really long weekend!

After a bit of searching online, I spotted a mobile tech that might just work. Paul dialed them up and the friendly voice on the other end said they'd have a tech on our doorstep by 4 PM.

Outstanding!

Just before the appointed hour, the very professional, knowledgeable, friendly and flexible tech arrived. In minutes he confirmed our diagnosis, replaced the faulty connector and reassembled the heater, informing us of how to do it ourselves in the future every step of the way. After testing to ensure all systems were go, he started the process to see if our refrigerator is under a recently announced recall. He even answered a question or two we had about our heat pump. With everything taken care of, he went on his merry way.

This little incident has taught us the value of running off our fresh water tank every now and then. Hearing our water pump gave us a valuable hint that something was up. Had we remained connected to city water for much longer we would have had a real mess on our hands!

With order restored in our rolling home, we're looking forward to sorting out who pays for what as the moose has just a few days remaining on his one-year factory warranty. That said, we are sooooo grateful to have hot water flowing once again. We didn't even have to go anywhere to make it happen. To top everything off, we have found a wonderful new partner in our rolling home improvement arsenal.

If you're ever in the Kansas City area and need an RV repair, call A-Z Mobile RV Service. (They don't do engines, but they do everything else.) You'll be glad you did!