A Small Hiccup, Quickly Fixed

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Wishing everyone a healthy, happy and peaceful year ahead.

We are looking forward to continuing our travels in 2013 and to do that we must have a healthy RV! On New Years Eve we were relaxing after dinner and when I got up to do the dishes I saw smoke coming from under the sink and it smelled funny, kind of electrical...NOT GOOD!

It had to be the water heater so we shut it off and explored the area but could not see anything out of the ordinary. Next morning we allowed the electric water heater to heat up, it seemed fine, but about 45 minutes later it started smoking again.

We had to wait to call Keystone (the RV manufacturer) and Suburban (the water heater manufacturer) on the 2nd. We had narrowed the problem down to the water heaters electric system, the propane side was working fine (YAY!).

Yesterday we took her in to the local Keystone authorized repair center (RV Solutions) and they were able to find the melted wires and fix the problem in a few short hours. We think the problem was caused when the water heater was installed at the Keystone factory and the installers didn't properly tighten the wiring nuts, where the 120 volt power connects to the water heater. This is our second time having service at RV Solutions and they were quick and professional both times.

Now we are reluctant to leave the water heater on when we are not in the rig. I shudder to think what could have happened had we been out the night of the problem. Luckily these small water heaters heat quickly, so we will get in the habit of turning it on only when we need it, just to be safe.

After having this Montana for almost 4 months now, we feel we've had a fairly trouble free start to RVing. This last hiccup was certainly the worst problem we have experienced, and with a little luck and lot of good sense monitoring and maintenance we hope to keep the problems to a minimum and our travels safe and enjoyable!

Only two weeks left in San Diego, then we're off to wild Arizona! In the meantime we're meeting lots of great folks here at the park. We've got open invitations to visit Ware and Becky in Boulder City, NV and Chris and Anita in Victoria, BC and chances are good that we will visit those places in the future. Paul and Nina of Wheeling It had a happy hour at their rig where we discovered that Dave and Sue (who we met at Santee Lakes) will be at Catalina State Park at the same time we'll be there.

Despite this little hiccup, 2013 is shaping up to be a very good year!