Hello I'm a newbie

[rose]

My name is Rose husband is Eric and bought 89 sunline satellite camper that we love. We are newbies and could use advice. How to keep hot water lit anyhelp

Thanks
Rosie

[Poppy & Nana]

Can you tell us the make/model of your HWH?

[rose]

Poppy and Momma,
We have a do 1989 Sunline Satellite. We just bought it a month ago and have done a few things to it inside, but after this past weekend, we found the pilot when after lit stays on then when we turn gas to on position, it stays lit good for about 5-8 minutes, we walk away, come back and both pilot and other is out again. I don't know why, but I am thinking something is not right.

I have a question, is there anything on the water heater we need to mess with? It did heat up some while the gas was on, so I am assuming with that nothing should need to be done with water heater.

Thanks,
Rose

[Gene]

I don't have a water heater with a pilot, mine uses a electric spark ignition, but I will try and share some of what I have read.

First when both the pilot and main flame light they should be a clean blue flame with no or little yellow. If it is yellow there is an adjustment for the air mixture to get a clean flame. The burner tube does need to be clean and free of "junk" like spider nests and webs. (Spiders love LP!)

Above the pilot and flame there is a "flame sensor" that detects that the flame is there. If it doesn't detect the heat of the flame the gas valve closes as a safety measure. Make sure that sensor is clean. It would seem that if it burns for 5 minutes the sensor should be good but sometimes a bad electrical connection doesn't show up until it gets warm.

Sometimes those older gas valves just get crankey and shut off for no good reason like the rest os us old fogeys....

[MACK C-85]

I have a question, is there anything on the water heater we need to mess with?

You might have a bypass kit. the bypass kit allows you to winterize without having to use 6 gallons of antifreeze in the HW heater. You can recognize a bypass looking for a pipe between the inlet and outlet on your HW heater, there were several valve configurations used over the years, but they all have a pipe bewteen the two water lines. If you have an electric heater, you do not want to turn it on without water in it. It will burn out the heater. A picture of the water lines would help us figure out your valves, if you have them.