How Come There Is No Water In Our RV's Hot Water Heater?

by kathy
(Robinson IL)

We have a 93 Pace Arrow. Atwood 6 gal water heater that is not giving us hot water. Tried to flush the tank and found that it has no h20 in it. It lights and starts fine so I have come to the conclusion that the problem is we are not getting water to the tank, we haven’t had hot water since we purchased it last year, we only went camping once so the Motorhome is new to us.

We have read all the manuals from front to back and done a lot of troubleshooting and maintenance and the hot water heater tank is the only thing left that we cannot figure out, We removed the drawers in the kitchen area and can see the tank and hoses going in but I did not see a plug or shut off valve.

My question is what are we doing wrong is there a shut off valve we are overlooking. Please help, it would be greatly appreciated granddaughter really wants to go camping.

ANSWER: Greetings Kathy thanks for submitting your question on our Ask An RV Question Page.

Well we sure can't disappoint your Grand Daughter. It sounds like your Motorhome was winterized when you bought it and the water heater was bypassed for winterization.

There are two ways of bypassing a water heater on an RV. The first way is using the RV's built in Water Heater Bypass Valve (if your RV is equipped with one). You need to go to your RV's exterior Service Compartment also known as your RV's Water Compartment.

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In that compartment you will see some valves or levers and they should be marked. Some might say Tank Fill/City Water. You are looking for a valve or lever marked Water Heater Bypass. If you find that valve take it off the water heater bypass position and that should solve your problem.


If you do not find a valve then there is a good chance that the previous owner may have retrofitted the RV with an RV Water Heater Bypass Kit which is usually located on the rear of the water heater water inlets and/or outlets. So you will need to take a closer look at the rear of the water heater to see if you can see a valve. The location of the valve varies by the type bypass system they used.

The only other things that could be causing this problem is a clogged or leaking hose leading to or from the water heater or the water heater itself is leaking.

I hope that this information was helpful to you.

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Happy RVing

RVing Al

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