Webasto question

RJ · January 01, 2019, 02:21:13 PM

Quote from: richard5933 on January 01, 2019, 01:51:20 PM
If you get a call to Lloyd. . .

I'm a little upset with Lloyd right now. . .

I called him about our AquaHot providing lots of heat thru the house heating and engine block heating sides, but not enough hot water to wash the dishes, let alone take a shower.

$250 later I get a package with a Watts LF70A mixing valve, was told to take the guts out and swap it into the valve that's in the system. Opened up the new valve to see the guts, nothing more than a new spring, o-ring and thermostatic unit.

Go online with Google and find the Watts catalogue, look up the LF70A installation instructions. What's this? An LF70A-RK repair kit? Which consists of the "guts" Lloyd told me to pull out of the new $250 valve he just sent me?

Five minutes later I've found the LF70A-RK at Home Depot for all of $16.98. I found the LF70A complete valve assembly at Graingers for $88. Also found the complete valve assembly at one of WalMart dot com's vendors for all of $41.

And I paid $250?

On top of that, replacing the guts of the tempering valve with the repair kit parts still didn't solve the problem.

I've got an email into Lloyd requesting a meeting with him in Quartzsite in a couple weeks to return his unused valve and request my $250 back. So far, he hasn't responded. . .

Jim Blackwood · January 01, 2019, 03:16:50 PM

Sad to say, that's not an uncommon occurrence in business, but it isn't entirely unjustified. So many causes. For instance, not having the time to chase down the best deals for every component you sell, while trying to keep a fairly broad inventory. What happens is that you end up ordering most of your stock from 2 or 3 vendors that treat you right but overall the cost to your customers goes up, which it would also have to do if you charged for your time in looking for the bargains. So you are always going to find better prices when you cut out the middleman, sometimes a lot better. Let me ask, how much time did you spend getting the cheaper valve? Maybe a couple of hours? Well at today's business cost for an hour's labor (not your wages rate but the total included cost) for someone skilled enough to get the right part and not have a return to deal with, you can see that the margin between what you paid and what Lloyd charged decreased substantially. And since these service parts are usually charged to jobs where the owner/customer is pretty clueless about the system, just wants it working again and is willing to pay to make that happen, well I expect you can see how this happens. Add in all the other factors that affect businesses and it's a wonder anybody makes it.

Prof

richard5933 · January 01, 2019, 04:15:09 PM

I can't speak for what happened in this instance, but it's the first time I've heard anything negative about the service from Lloyd.

Gary Hatt - Publisher BCM · January 01, 2019, 04:53:05 PM

I have to agree. I and several other folks have had excellent service from Lloyd. He services a lot of rigs every year and I have talked to others that have used him. Nobody I have talked to have had a problem with him, but maybe there was a misunderstanding. I am sure Lloyd will make it right when you land in Quartzsite.

thomasinnv · January 01, 2019, 05:40:30 PM

The only experience I have had with Loyd was about 4 years ago when I called him in to look at a Hurricane system on a Patriot motorhome for one of my clients (uses a webasto 2010). Unit was rolling smoke. He spent about an hour and charged me $650 to do an annual maintenance and never fixed the problem. Ended up taking the unit apart and fixing it myself.

Geoff · January 02, 2019, 04:40:42 AM

Quote from: thomasinnv on January 01, 2019, 05:40:30 PM
The only experience I have had with Loyd was about 4 years ago when I called him in to look at a Hurricane system on a Patriot motorhome for one of my clients (uses a webasto 2010). Unit was rolling smoke. He spent about an hour and charged me $650 to do an annual maintenance and never fixed the problem. Ended up taking the unit apart and fixing it myself.

Annual maintenance... Clean the burner, replace the nozzle, replace the fuel filter? Maybe $50 worth of parts and a wire brush to clean the burner.

Jim Blackwood · January 02, 2019, 07:56:39 AM

I'm sure you guys will sort that out one way or another and I don't have a dog in the fight. Once my wiring is right I hope the Eberspaecher will work as intended and I'll plan on replacing the nozzle next time I have it open. Now that I know how easy it is to access through the floor panels I don't see it as much of a task, the worst part being the fuel lines. Maybe I can move those to a more convenient spot though for disconnecting them.

I will probably have to analyze the wiring when replacing the connectors to be sure nothing was missed. At that time I may consider a new controller, or I may not. But understanding the wiring will tell me how to best test the unit's operation so that would be a plus and If I go that far with it I'll probably write up a test procedure to be kept with other important papers in the bus. That way at the next inspection I won't have to guess. I'll try to make it a simple and effective procedure and make it available here at that time but since it's not a Webasto I'm not sure how many would want it.

Prof

Geoff · January 02, 2019, 05:59:28 PM

Quote from: sledhead on January 01, 2019, 10:03:41 AM
I gave my heating guy the wpx-886-41a-df # and he got me this delavan 40-60w for under $10 and it works every time and I installed a new fuel filter as well

again this is on my aqua hot unit

dave

Dave-- with that nozzle, do you notice more black smoke and greater fuel usage? The first AH number you listed is correct for a .035 nozzle with the correct spray pattern. The Delavan is for a .40 nozzle, I'm not sure of the spray pattern, but definitely uses more fuel.

sledhead · January 03, 2019, 05:49:16 AM

Geoff

my heating guy could not get the other nozzle so he said try this one and it works great ! every time . I had a problem with the old one
wpx-886-41a-df but I do not know how old it was . It did look brand new ? , but sometimes it would not start up ?

so I am really happy with the 40 over the 35 nozzle and the cost was cheep . you might be right about the little extra fuel it might use but my heating guy works with this stuff every day so I trust him

hoped that helped

dav

thomasinnv · January 03, 2019, 05:25:23 PM

A .40 in place of a .35 is not going to hurt anything. It will burn a fraction more fuel, but the btu output is also going to be slightly higher resulting in an ever so slightly shorter run cycle. In the end the overall fuel usage would probably be a wash. The older units actually used a .40 to begin with, but they also used a little bit lower fuel pressure. When an older unit needs a fuel pump replacement, webasto recommends replacing with the higher psi pump and changing to the .35 nozzle. The reason was for better atomization of the fuel resulting in a cleaner burn and less chance of fouling the nozzle. As for the spray pattern, if memory serves it should be 60.

luvrbus · January 03, 2019, 08:19:20 PM

I have always had good luck from Loyd,parts prices for the Aqua/Hot are pricey Loyd probably got the mixer valve from Aqua/Hot and paid the price those guys do that for a reason if the part is bad they know Aqua/Hot is going to step up and pay the labor.I think it should have been settle before hammering him here 1st though JMO. Prices people don't like Luke's prices sometimes either lol Luke and I are good friends and he knows I going to shop him