Aqua-Hot Heating System
When it comes to having a large RV with amenities such as a dishwasher, washer and dryer, and heated floors, you will need a water heater that can handle the hot water demand required to run all of these.
Entegra Motorcoach found the solution to keep their motor-coaches hot water demands in check.
The Aqua-Hot 400-D installed in our Entegra can more than handle the demand for hot water. When running on diesel power, the ability to produce 1.5 gallons of hot water per minute allows you to wash clothes, run the dishwasher, and even have a nice long hot shower. No more "navy showers" just because you are in an RV.
Our Aqua-Hot is powered both on diesel and on electrical. When staying at RV parks, we connect to shore power, which allows us to do almost every daily chore by running only on the electrical side of the Aqua-Hot. We can take shorter showers, wash hands, and even run the dishwasher without the need for diesel. Using power from the RV park saves us money because we are not burning diesel fuel to power our system.
To wash clothes and take longer showers, we turn on the "burner" switch, which activates the system's diesel side and allows us to have as much hot water as we need at our disposal.
When we are not at an RV park, we can still get hot water without using diesel through the electrical side. How? We have solar on our motorhome and four huge AGM 2 batteries that supply us with free energy to power everything, including our Aqua-Hot. So when it comes to staying at a Harvest Host, boondocking, or a quick nightly stopover at a rest stop, we still have hot water.
What else does the Aqua-Hot do?
Not only does the Aqua-Hot supply hot water, but it also can keep our motorhome warm when the temperatures decide to drop. Although our motorhome has three heat pumps inside the air condition units, they can only produce hot air in temperatures above 40 degrees.
The Aqua-Hot uses a heated liquid called "transfer fluid" in a continuous heat loop throughout our motorhome. This heat loop supplies us with floor heat and has several heat vents it runs through that can be used to blow hot air and warm up the motorhome. With blowing heat vents located in 5 separate locations and the floor heat running, we can easily keep our motorhome warm even when the temperatures dip down into the 20s.
Will our tanks freeze in cold temperatures?
The heat loop that supplies us with floor heat also serves another purpose. The design of the heat loop prevents any water source from freezing. The loop doesn't just run under all the areas with water but does a full circle to ensure the radiant heat is abundant and doesn't allow the water in those areas to freeze.
The loop protects the water under the washer, dishwasher, the kitchen sink, the sinks in both bathrooms, the shower, and even our 150-gallon water tank has a heat loop to prevent anything from freezing.
Will our storage bays freeze?
Yes, you guessed it, the storage bays are also kept warm by the heat generated from the Aqua-Hot system. The storage does not use a heat loop, though, and instead, it is heated using the same type of forced air vents mounted inside the motorhome. There is a household-style thermostat in the under storage that can be set to on or off, and you can choose how warm you want it to be. Heating the storage bays allows you to store any liquids in the storage without the fear of them freezing and exploding.
What type of liquid is the transfer fluid that supplies heat?
The fluid is a propylene glycol solution that is non-flammable and is non-toxic. Unlike antifreeze in your car, this is not toxic to animals if some may spill on the ground.
You can purchase the transfer fluid in either red or green. There is no difference between the colors, but you should not mix the colors in your system. By combining the colors, you will get a brown-colored solution. While the brown color is nothing to be concerned about because of the color mixing, it is a cause of concern if you have not mixed them and have brown fluid. The brown color can indicate a problem with your burner, an air leak in the system, or several other issues. So keeping the color red or green is essential to visually know your system is ok by not having the brown fluid visible in your system.
Do we love our Aqua-Hot System?
The answer to whether we love our Aqua-Hot system is a big YES!
When looking to purchase a motorhome, we highly suggest finding one with an Aqua-Hot system. We honestly knew nothing about Aqua-Hot before buying our motorhome, but now we know we would not want to live without it. The ability to have unlimited hot water, heated floors, and no need to haul propane around with us is a huge plus.
To learn more about the Aqua-Hot systems, you can visit their website at www.aquahot.com
