Just learned my Itasca has the "Motoraid" for the hot water tank that heats the water down the road from the engine coolant.
Normally I've always drained my HW tank if I'm not using it. Does it hurt to drive the MH with the HW tank empty?
NO. After all it is only an extension of a heater hose. There is a coil on the outside of the water tank and the hose attaches to that. There is no coil that is on the inside of the tank as a lot of people think
__________________
Don
2002 Country Coach Intrigue
The 'motoraid' is just a 'U' shaped aluminum tube welded to backside of water heater tank
It runs engine coolant thru it to heat the water......coolant at 220*F will give you 130* water temp
NO Water.....problem with the motoraid (MHs are delivered from factory without water and driven 1000s of miles PLUS many owners drive with WH winterized)
No Water......electric element will burn out in just a few minutes
No water......propane will cause ECO (High temp t-stat) to OPEN/Lock Out
As stated it will not hurt anything.
I'm curious why not leave the water in the HW heater, of course I'm talking about after the normal winterizing has been reversed
Leaving water in the HW heater will save you time and trouble, especially if someone forgets to turn off the electric to it and you plug in at the camp ground or at home or better yet run the generator while going down the road.
Just my .01 worth, I leave mine full after initial fill up.
__________________
Retired Navy Submariner
2014 Itasca Sunstar 35F; 5 Star tuned; 2014 Jeep Cherokee TrailHawk
The cabinet area under the kitchen sink gets very, very hot when I'm driving. I believe it's because of the Motoraid system. Is there something wrong with my Motoraid system or is this normal?
does your coach have a motor aid heater? I have heard those do put out a lot of heat even when in the off position (fan off) because the hot water is still circulating through the heat exchanger. My coach has motor aid water heater but not a motor aid comfort type heater. I don't notice any heat coming off my water heater but it is in the very back of the coach behind the washer/dryer so I don't think I would I also don't go back there while driving. As mentioned already there is just a simple u shaped pipe welded to the water heater that exchanges heat from the engine coolant to the water in the water heater. Takes awhile for the water to heat this way but it's free energy!
As for why I drain it, habit I guess. I always worry about stale water after sitting for a while, but I think I won't worry about it anymore. I noticed the refrigerator also has a small water tank for the chilled water and it would be hard to drain.
I tested it last weekend. Drove to New Mexico and sure enough - piping hot water from the tank with no support from gas or electric, just Motoraid!
I also noticed from the week before that the propane fired up a lot for the HW tank, so I shut off the propane and just let the electric work over the weekend. Worked perfect. I think the propane thermostat must be set lower than the electric on this one for some reason.
Linear Mode
