Atwood Hydroflame Control Board

mike71654 · 04-01-2014, 02:17 PM

The Atwood Hydroflame furnace in our 1996 Sunline Solaris T 2363 quit working last fall. I just had a service guy look at it and he says the control board is bad and is an obsolete part and says it will cost around $300.00 just for the board. Does anyone know where I can get one at a reasonable price? It is the old style with no fan relay.

mainah · 04-01-2014, 05:21 PM

Dinosaur boards, many RV places carry them.

**JohnB** · 04-01-2014, 06:41 PM

If you are sure it is the control board, and it may be,

Try here for parts if the Dinosaur boards does not offer one.

RV Water Heater Repair Parts Online Catalog - PPL Motor Homes

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That is a link off the PPL Motorhomes site for their in depth detail parts catalog.

Go to Search by category pull down, then drill down into furnaces and Hydroflame and your model.

The site was not working tonight but it may be my PC as well. RVdealership who supplies the parts will ship to you in care of PPL. I have bought from them with a positive outcome. If the parts site is still not working call PPL and they will look it up and give you a price. The $300 sounds high or has the traditional mark up on it

Here is the Dino site Dinosaur Electronics Home. High quality circuit boards for RV appliances.

I did not see Atwood fly up looking quickly, but it might be under the igniter board section.

Hope this helps and good luck

John

mainah · 04-02-2014, 05:51 AM

You should be able to match it up to the igniter board pictures if not by module number they are top notch boards and unlike the original boards they try 3 times to light that makes it far more likely to fire. The factory replacements are expensive and frankly nowhere near as well-made. I have use 4 of the Dinosaur boards 3 furnace ones and a generator board I would never consider anything else they have cured random miss fires and have never failed to light a furnace.

jim44646 · 04-02-2014, 06:28 AM

Ditto on Dinosaur boards I have one in my refrig. Works great.
Not sure of you model # but here are some boards allot cheaper than $300.

http://www.ebay.com/bhp/hydroflame-board

mike71654 · 04-02-2014, 08:12 AM

Thanks for all the great information. I went out to remove the control board and noticed it was already a Dinosaur board. This means it has already been replaced at some point...Right???

So my question is could it be something else other than the board?
I do not hear the clicking noise but is it possible the igniter is bad?

mainah · 04-02-2014, 10:27 AM

I would go to the Dinosaur site it should have LED's on the board that will provide you with a fault code if any thing is wrong. There are other things that can cause problems one of them being a weak battery try plugging the camper in.

**JohnB** · 04-02-2014, 10:59 AM

Also there are safeties in series with the igniter. If the over temp thermal disk switch or the fan sail switch is not working, it will not fire the igniter.

Tell us what the system does exactly or does not do.

Are you electrically friendly and have an ohm/volt meter?

If you want to get into troubleshooting, we need a model and serial number so we can look up your actual vintage.

mike71654 · 04-02-2014, 02:28 PM

John,
I will be going back out to the camper tomorrow and I will get the model and serial number off the furnace.
Right now the blower comes on but there is no clicking and the burner does not light.
I have a volt meter and can handle the simple stuff but anything other than that I am lost.

mainah · 04-02-2014, 04:33 PM

The blower will run it is a pre purge cycle it is timed before any thing else happens. Two other things have to happen before the gas valve will open. The over temp must proof and the sail switch must proof. If the battery is not strong enough the sail switch will not proof because there is not enough air flow to close the switch. I don't think I have ever seen an over temp switch fail. I'm pretty sure the Dinosaur board has an LED to check for proofing closure. The igniter won't make any noise it not like a gas range that clicks the gas valve will open with a "clunk" while the igniter is firing.

**JohnB** · 04-02-2014, 07:13 PM

Mike, take your camera with you can take some pics of what you can.

And take your voltmeter, with the furnace off, check the voltage at the furnace. Remember that number. Then go to the battery and check it there. Remember those 2 numbers and report back. The voltage should be very close to the same with no furnace running and the battery should be up in voltage. With no converter running for over 8 hours or charger and nothing running in the camper, 12.7 is 100% charge. 12.1 is 50% and pretty low for trouble shooting and either need to plug in the converter or charge the battery. As you can see, there are not a lot of volts difference between full charge and 50%

See here, scroll to about the middle for Table 1 a free state voltage verses state of charge

Battery Maintenance | Trojan Battery Company

If the battery voltage is high and at the furnace is low, that is a problem.

This gets to what Mainah is talking about, the fan runs slower on lower voltage. A bad ground can be a cuprite some times or the battery sitting over the winter and just low on charge.

mike71654 · 04-04-2014, 10:14 AM

John,
If I am plugged in would the voltage of the battery matter? We have it on a seasonal site and we are always plugged in so I cannot even attest to the strength of the battery. I will get out there and do some of the further checks as soon as possible. It has been raining like crazy here yesterday and last night so I did not make it back out to the campground.

**JohnB** · 04-04-2014, 10:52 AM

If you are running off the converter, and the converter is working right, then the furnace should run right from a voltage supply standpoint. Unless you have a really old converter that needs a battery to help the converter work right. Then the battery comes into the equation.

Start out with a voltage check at the furnace, no motor running. If the converter is working right, the voltage should be 13.2 volts or above as the converter boosts the voltage. If not, maybe bad ground or bad converter.

Also check the voltage at the furnace with the furnace blower running. You may have good voltage until the motor starts up and then loose too many volts if the converter is acting up or if it is of a vintage that needs a battery to work right.

After about 5 minutes of voltage tests, you can rule in or out if the incoming supply is a problem or not. This is the simple, go or no go on the voltage supply. Then start chasing the next problem but you can check one off the list or fix it first.

Good luck

John

mainah · 04-04-2014, 03:21 PM

The Dinosaur boards do have two LED's, green one is for power to the board it's lit when there is power (does not tell you how much) the red LED is power to the gas valve this will not light if there is a problem with the sail switch/over temp circuit. If both are lit it means the power and the sail switch are up to par that leaves you with a gas valve issue or the board it's self. Do not try to check spark output with a meter, you maybe able to see a spark through the small window in the furnace. The red LED will not light until the fan has finished the pre purge cycle so you'll have to wait a bit to see if it lights. Dumb question but do you have gas and is it on? Try running the stove for a minute or two.