Hot water heater.

[Gene]

Originally Posted by JohnB

... Does yours have any remote switch or do you have to crawl to the back of the HW heater? ...

I have a remote switch for the LP near the kitchen sink. The electric half is independent and does have the switch on the back of the tank. In my 2363 there is a 4 inch hole in the bed platform under the matress ( ) to get to the switch so that stays on and I use the breaker switch on the front of the converter.

I just found a Leviton 5618 switch cheap on ebay, it is 15 amp decorator switch with a big pilot light that is on when the switch is on. I plan to mount it up where I can reach it so I don't have to get on my knees and open the converter door to switch the breaker on.

(photos to be posted when I do the mod)

[Bakediddy]

Well, that was short lived! It appears it was my fault as I didn't know that the electric portion was on all the time I must have burnt the element out while learning my way around things. The drain plug was out of it all winter and I didn't know there was a bypass valve on the one line going to the tank that was diverting the water away from the tank. Chances are good of finding one at Lowes or Home Depot you think?

[EMD_Driver]

Originally Posted by Bakediddy

Chances are good of finding one at Lowes or Home Depot you think?

Kitty got one at Lowes, for her 2499...

lowes.com:

Whirlpool 1500-Watt Element

Item #: 26371 | Model #: 6910470

Not Yet Rated
$9.67


One of these makes the replacement MUCH easier!


American Water Heater® Heavy Duty Element Socket Wrench

Item #: 26376 | Model #: 6900819

$7.27

[JohnB]

Originally Posted by Bakediddy

Chances are good of finding one at Lowes or Home Depot you think?

Yes, they also have a 1,400 watt one. I think they even sell Camco brand. While the 1,500 watt will give a little more heat, Atwood on the newer ones dropped to the 1,400 watt to allow more power available in the camper. But both will work.

Good luck. And now you know about making sure the breaker is "Off" at the end of every camp out until you know for sure water is in the heater.

It only takes once to learn... Don't feel bad, we all learn the hard way some times. It is that human thing about us..... I just wish I could stop breaking the little clips on the ends of the mini blinds. After about 25 times and 9 years I still have not yet learned... I must say, I never had that mini blind clip problem on the pop up.... or tent for that matter

John

[EMD_Driver]

I was checking out amazon.com and found that they have a 1,000 watt heater element. It would be even better, for people with 30AMP service to watch their power consumption...

You can find it HERE

[Bakediddy]

May have fixed it! Keeping fingers crossed, there is a little overheating safety switch between two of the wires it said to push with a pencil ereaser... It did pop in and after about 15 minutes I have very hot water for about 10 seconds... Going to let it sit for an hour or so and see how it goes... I assume that safety thing popped when I filled the tank with hot air as the power was on with no water in it... Will let you know!

[Bakediddy]

Originally Posted by Bakediddy

after about 15 minutes I have very hot water for about 10 seconds...

Ok, "I think" I figured out why I was only getting hot water for 10 seconds... Take a look at the picture below... The bottom valve was turned the other way, now I have plenty of hot water... I am guessing when you have both valves turned the other way you are bypassing the hot water tank? That was my problem why the tank was not getting water when I first turned the tank on and I thought I burnt out the element, because I turned the top valve and then heard it start to fill... Am I on the right track here? I am assuming the tube going between the 2 valves right now is not carrying any water now...

[JohnB]

Cold water needs to go "in" the bottom and hot water comes "out" the top.

The valve levers can be tricky and not intuitive. Once you figure out which way flows where, mark them so you know what way is which.

The valve handles look about right but again these have fooled maybe before. Cold in on the bottom and hot out on top.

The bypass tube should not be flowing under normal conditions.

Good luck

John

[UPbuilder]

Those are 3 way valves. The position as pictured allows water to flow through the water heater, in the other position you will bypass it. Bypass is used for winterizing so you can drain the water heater and not have to pump anti-freeze through it. Glad you got it working.

[EMD_Driver]

Not sure if this will help, but I installed one of these valves, to the suction line for the pump. I used it in the F-311SR, to winterize.. I tested each position of the valve and then marked it for which direction the water/antifreeze would come from... See if this helps...

[Janalee]

Hi Bakediddy..I have a 2002 2363 and have the same wall switch/panel that you do. In my convertor circuit panel there is a dedicated breaker to turn on/off the water heater...much easier than trotting outside to operate the electric portion of the water heater. In my older 2653 there was a switch on the back of the heater that was almost impossible to access easily. Now, clean the venturi tube out after your unit has been sitting awhile--little critters love to spin webs in it and won't allow the gas to ignite or the flame will not be a nice bright blue. I always keep plastic soda straws in my campers to slide into the tube and blow through(BUT NOT WHILE THE TUBE IS HOT!). Good luck! Janalee

[Hal3848]

Have new atwood hot water heater It will start to burn for 3-4 minutes and goes out My default light comes on Are the two probes where the main flame is to get orange from the flame?

[JohnB]

Hi Hal,

If you have a direct spark ignition Atwood heater, then yes the sparking electrode and the ground probe it sparks to will get orange/red when the flame is burning.

Now to the flame going out. Have to sort out if it is a gas problem or a saftey shutdown problem.

I know this sounds silly, but do you have water in it? Reason is it will go out on over temp if no water is in the heater. Plus it does not help the heater runing it that long with no water.

A gas restriction, does the furnace light up and run for more then the 3 to 4 minutes? If it does then it says the tank regulator and the supply system up to the point of the furnace at least is working.

When it does burn, is the flame blue or is it orange and or have lots of orange spots flying through the flame? Orange points to the air shutter being to the wrong setting.

Is this the 1st time you have fired it up since the install? Trying to figure out if this is a 1st time startup problem or it was working good then stopped. This points to different things to check.

Please try and post a model number/brand. Then I know what exact one you have to give better info where to go looking.

Hope this helps and good luck. The more details you can give the better we can maybe see something to help point you where to go looking next.

John

[Hal3848]

Atwood Heats a little hot water on gas or elec gas has a mind of it owe when lighting New unit

[Hal3848]

John Have Atwood 10 gal gas/electric water heater it heats some water water runs fine its heats on elec/gas same way and gas seems to light good some times then not at all need help Hal

[JohnB]

Hal,

Need some more info to better help.

Let sort out the gas part first as you can hear it working, electric you cannot hear at all working or not working.....

On normal gas operation:

Turn on unit.
1. Should hear a "clunk" soon after you turn it on. That is the gas valve opening.
2. Then you should hear, click, click, click of the igniter.
3. Soon you should hear "whoosh" of the burner burning.
4. It will stay burning until the water get up to temp. On a cold heater a 6 gallon unit. can take maybe 15 minutes depending on how cold the water was. You said you had a new 10 gallon unit, that will take longer.

If air is in the gas lines or gas is not getting to it, it try to light 3 times. It does step 1 and 2 and then goes into a wait mode to let any gas clear out and try's again. After 3rd time it goes out on saftey and the red fault light comes on. Turn heater off, it resets and you can go 3 more trys.

We need to know what is and what is not working when in gas mode.

Tell us what it does or does not do in the steps above? The HW heater is not too complex but we need to know what it does and does not do to help with the clunks and clicks to point your where to go looking.

Many times the plug on wires do not make good connection and the thing never even goes clunk in step 1. This happens on new and old units. Turn all power off, 12 volt DC and 120 VAC. Unplug the control board and plug back in. Look at contacts. On the ECO and Tstat switch, be carefull and pull them off and put back on. If you have some dielectric grease this is a perfect place to use it on these connections. At this point do not pull the igniter wire on and off. If the gas valve never opens, then odds are high the safeties are not making and you cannot even start the unit.

Hope this helps

John

[Hal3848]

[QUOTE=JohnB;104786]Hal,

Need some more info to better help.

Let sort out the gas part first as you can hear it working, electric you cannot hear at all working or not working.....

On normal gas operation:

Turn on unit.
1. Should hear a "clunk" soon after you turn it on. That is the gas valve opening.
2. Then you should hear, click, click, click of the igniter.
3. Soon you should hear "whoosh" of the burner burning.
4. It will stay burning until the water get up to temp. On a cold heater a 6 gallon unit. can take maybe 15 minutes depending on how cold the water was. You said you had a new 10 gallon unit, that will take longer.

If air is in the gas lines or gas is not getting to it, it try to light 3 times. It does step 1 and 2 and then goes into a wait mode to let any gas clear out and try's again. After 3rd time it goes out on saftey and the red fault light comes on. Turn heater off, it resets and you can go 3 more trys.

We need to know what is and what is not working when in gas mode.

Tell us what it does or does not do in the steps above? The HW heater is not too complex but we need to know what it does and does not do to help with the clunks and clicks to point your where to go looking.

John both will heat water but they shut off like its hot but not enough water is hot maybe 1 1/2 to 2 gals maybe then the cold water comes have check most of the things you have mention

[JohnB]

Hal,

OK, so you are saying the unit works as explained, it is just that the supply of hot water is not very much? How long in minutes does it last?

If so then there is 1 common device that shuts the heater down for water at temp on both the gas and the electric on the newer Atwoods.

Look in the center of the heater, there is a foam cover over the top of the ECO and T-Stat thermal disk switches.

There may be an issue with the T-Stat shutting you down early. Actaully the ECO can do this too, The switches aree in series, just 2 different temp set points. The T-Stat switch may be bad OR it is not seated deep in against the tank. Under that foam cover the switch sort of twist locks in place. It may be loose and not seated. See here where I mean. The T-stat is right under the big brass relief valve. Check both the T-stat and the ECO that they are seated tight. It may be getting a flase reading if loose.



OR Question: When you hooked up the water lines, does the cold water supply go in the “Bottom” of the heater and the “Hot” come out of the top?

See here on my prior T2499. The blue cold hose goes in the bottom and the red hot hose comes out the top. If these are mixed up then this may affect and trick the switch thinking the entire heater is hot when it is not.


We only have a 6 gallon HW heater and DW and I both can take a shower and never run out of hot water. We also use the energy saver water disk in the shower head. We boondock and want to save on water. Some folks want more water flow and take that disk out. You get a lot more water but can drain the HW tank really fast.

Even when doing dishes, we still have never run out of hot water since we started in 2003. Since you have a 10 gallon heater, unless you are using lots and lots of hot water you should not run out. Or something it tricking the heater to shut down early.

Hope this helps

John

[Karensue]

I have a 2004 sunline and my problem is the gas hot water heater. I turn the switch on it starts up heats some water and then shuts off. I had no problems when I used the electric to heat the water. Where I am now we dont have a lot of amps so I want to use the gas option.

[JohnB]

Originally Posted by Karensue

I have a 2004 sunline and my problem is the gas hot water heater. I turn the switch on it starts up heats some water and then shuts off. I had no problems when I used the electric to heat the water. Where I am now we dont have a lot of amps so I want to use the gas option.

Hi,

When the heater is on gas, do you get the little red fault light on the tank panel? That little red light says DSI fault near it. It means the flame when out when it was no supposed to.

Has anyone looked at the flame itself? Is the flame nice and blue or does it have a white in the flame?

About how long does it burn on gas when it shuts off?

What do you do to get it started again on gas?

Have you had the camper work OK on gas before and this just start? Do not know if you just bought the camper or had it a while and it worked last year but now no longer works as this might be the first time used this season. Need to know some history on it.

Since yours is a 2004 Sunline, it has the newer gas/electric controls on the water heater. That means it uses the same thermostat for both the electric and the gas part of the water heater. Since you say the heater works OK on electric, that says a lot. It means a good part of the PC board is working and at least it starts and runs some on gas. That also helps to know.

Now we need more info to help why the gas is going out.

Hope this helps

John