As mentioned previously, the quarantine allows me to tackle a few projects in the trailer. There was one small planned one and one unplanned. In a previous blog post (Is the power on?) I showed how I added a power indicator that was easy to see from the streetside of the trailer. That project was done almost 7 years ago and the lamp I installed (neon) had burnt out long ago. This time I got a 120v LED indicator lamp. It required the hole to be a bit larger but it connected the same as the previous one:

The small, unplanned project also had to do with lighting on the exterior of the trailer. With my 2019 F350, the Daytime Running Lights (DRLs) also illuminate the running lights on the trailer, so they are on during the entire driving time. I noticed one of the teardrop running lights on the streetside of the trailer would blink, flicker and sometimes even be completely off.

Here is an example:

I ordered a new lamp and started on it. There are two types of clips that hold the light to the base. Luckily ours had the easier clip, where you just needed a screwdriver to pry it off:

Now it is time to pull enough wire out to work on. Pull it very slowly and carefully.

A few minutes of twisting, tugging, cursing, cutting, crimping and attaching gives you this (taken at night):

This leads us to the hard one. In the evening, around the bathroom, we smelled an odd burning smell in passing. However two evenings later we smelled it again but very strong. We initially were unsure what it was. In thinking about it a bit, I realized it was electrical. The only electrical thing that was not 12v in the bathroom is the electric portion of the hot water heater. In our Airstream the hot water heater is under the left portion of the sink cabinet, right next to the toilet (great!), behind an access panel. I turned off the electric switch of the heater.

The next morning, I turned on the switch again. No smell but also no amperage was being drawn, meaning no power was going through the heating element. In researching further, I had heard of these being completely burnt out if there was no water in the tank and they were turned on. This was not true for us. However, we had spent some time in areas where a large buildup calcifies in the tank. I also read that people would hear a whine coming from their tanks prior to losing the element, this was happening with ours also. I ordered a heating element in anticipation.

I took off the access panel to assess things. There is a relay and wiring that covers the location of the heating element. I opened the panel and found a mess! Here is a picture:

In the photo above there should be another yellow wire nut in between the other two! These are the hot(black), neutral(white) and ground(green). The wire nut for neutral is gone! You can see the part of the wire between them. In the silver cylinder to the right is where the heading element is located. It has a nut to remove/install it, and two leads for the hot line. The thermostat signal comes in from the yellow line to actuate the relay which allows the hot line to send the 120v through the heating element. Another shot:

First thing is to clean this up. The access is really tight but Airstream built another access to the heater. In the bedroom, on my side of the bed there is a little kick out that covers the rest of the hot water heater:

It definitely made it easier. I removed all the components, rewired everything I could, and waited to reinstall it. I had the element and thought I might as well replace it while I had everything open. It takes a 1 1/2″ socket but I could not make it budge. I also didn’t want to try so hard that I would break anything. I was pretty certain that the element still worked and the wiring was the fault. I decided to go ahead and hook everything back up the way it was but with newer wire connectors. I turned on the circuit and the switch. I heard the relay click, I checked the amperage draw at it was 14 amps on one leg of the power. Success!

I left everything unbuttoned for a day to ensure no leaks, no wiring issues since everyone knows that if you close up a project assuming there will be no problems, you will HAVE problems.

Here is a pic, of the new wiring layout:

And with it all closed up:

Almost two years ago I had problems with this hot water heater and had to replace a part. I didn’t document it then so I will now. Here is picture for reference:

This model of Atwood is an EXT model. That essentially means that they heat the water up to a higher temperature than normal and mix the outgoing hot water with cold to drop the temperature down to safe. This means you get more mileage from your 6 gallon hot water tank. Above is the plumbing that does this.

The cold water enters the water heater at the bottom, to the left of the valve. To the right of the valve is a cold water offshoot. This goes up to a mixer valve which take the hot water directly from the tank and mixes it with cold water and supplies the hot water pipe at the upper left. It is an interesting design.

What bit us was calcium buildup. The mixer got clogged and the hot water had very low pressure. I purchased another mixer and changed it out. It was just tough breaking it free, and having enough towels to get all the water.

I have a few more projects to go so there will be another post upcoming!