Whale water heater

[Accipiter Nisus]

I have a three year old Elddis Accordo which is fitted with a Whale hot water system. After standing for a couple of weeks during the hot weather I noticed the water from the hot tank had a musty mouldy taste and smell, but the cold tank was fine. I drained and treated the whole water system with Puriclean and all seemed well for a few days but then the problem returned.

 

I use both gas and electric for heating depending whether or not hookups are available, but I don't use the hot water heavily, just a tank morning and evening for washing for about 40 days spread over the season. Whale's techy suggested I descale the tank which I've done, but the taint to the water persists. I have also looked in the cold water tank which appears to be clean and I washed out the pump filter. I know the problem is in the hot tank itself rather than the pipes, as I collected some water via the drain cock which was tainted.

 

Has any one out there had this problem or have any idea what might be causing it?

[Derek Uzzell]

There doesn’t appear to be any on-line complaints relating to water taste problems with Whale heaters specifically .

 

There are suggestions that a reaction between the water and the plastic water pipework of a motorhome/caravan might result in an odd taste (and that the only effective cure may then be to replace the pipework) but as you’ve owned your Accordo from new and its now 3 years old, if the pipework were the culprit I’d expect the problem to have shown up long ago.

 

Other than remove the heater and ‘on the bench’ treat it, all I can suggest is that you try filling the heater with a strong citric acid (or wine vinegar) solution, operate the heater to heat up the solution to maximum temperature, wait for a couple of hours, pump the solution through the hot-water outlets and then refill the heater with fresh water. This type of exercise is recommended for descaling Truma water boilers and, if there is any biological contaminant in the Whale heater, this treatment should kill it. I note that it’s occasionally suggested that filling a heater with neat orange squash (or cheap Coca-Cola) might work, but an ‘acidic’ approach should be more effective.

 

(Presumably you managed to replace your motorhome’s damaged air-filter housing - how difficult a task did that prove to be?)

[Accipiter Nisus]

Thanks for your reply Derek and for the useful suggestions. I used "D Scale" made by Clean Tabs Ltd. of Saxmundham which I bought from my local caravan shop, and carried out the descaling as per their instructions. It reduced the tainted taste but didn't entirely get rid of it. Yesterday I had another blitz with "Puriclean" and so far this morning all seems well. I haven't tried heating the water yet. If this dosn't work I'll try Truma's method.

 

I did cross my mind that the problem might be caused by a chemical reaction with the water and the components in the tank. I don't know if that's at all likely.

 

With regard to the air filter housing, it wasn't too difficult in the end. The major problem was deciding how to get it out. I think it was your suggestion to remove N/S headlamp and that proved to be the answer (thank you). Nonetheless, it was like resolving a rubik's cube to extract it and it took some time to find the right position before it could be wriggled out. It's easier, when reinstalling the housing, to replace the existing "Clic" clips with the worm drive type. The originals are especially difficult to tighten when laying on your back under the van.

[Accipiter Nisus]

I meant to add that I have put a 4 mm stainless steel mesh where the air intake pipe bolts onto the metalwork at the top which should prevent mice form entering the filter housing