Atwood G6A-4E D.S.I. Normal operation?

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Seisyll

Seisyll

Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2018
Posts
5
Location
Sandy, Oregon
So my Atwood had a bad thermostat. I changed it, with help from this site, thanks by the way. However the water heater heats every 10 - 15 minutes for about 30 seconds. I'm wondering if this is normal operation or if it is something to worry about.

Thanks in advance

Brian
 
Seems a bit frequent, but obviously if the water in the tank cools it will trigger the burner to come on via the thermostat. If nobody is using any hot water, and no leaks, I would not expect it to run more often than every hour or so.

A thermostat that is not firmly installed against the tank wall can react in odd ways, so maybe check that. Another possibility is that a heater bypass valve is slightly open, allowing cold & hot water to mix and recirculate. You can also lose heated water via a single level faucet valve or showerhead that lets cold and hot mix.  It doesn't take a lot of water circulation to drain off some heat from the tank and trigger the burner.

You might try closing the bypass valves (if you have them) to isolate the tank. See if that alters the burner cycle any.
 
Those are excellent ideas I hadn't thought of.

I've even tried to insulate the tank a bit more, thinking that it was just cooling off to fast. Thank you Gary, I'll try them out and let you know.
 
Unfortunately I have no bypass for the hot water tank installed, and all of my faucets, including the shower is of the two handled variety. The thermostat is in as much contact with the wall of the tank as is physically possible.

I've timed the intervals between burns of the hot water tank at 14 minutes on average. Insulting the tank has done little to nothing to affect the frequency or duration of the firings. I'm at a loss as to what else it could be. Is it possible that the thermostat was "bad" when I bought it?
 
You need a new card. (Circuit board)
Click to expand...
Doubtful, in my opinion.  The board in a water heater is very simple and merely reacts to the thermostat. If the circuit through  the thermostat is closed, the board reacts by triggering the gas burner ignition sequence. Most of the board logic is about lighting and monitoring the burner flame.
You say the average is 14 minutes, but how consistent is it?  Are all the intervals close to 14, or do some vary widely, e.g. 10 or 20 minutes?  If very consistent, then something is probably cooling it quickly and forcing the thermostat to react.
Do you have a infrared heat detector" gun"?  Or similar? Try to measure the temperature of the exposed PT relief valve and see if it is dropping quickly.  The thermostat triggers at 130 degrees (give or take a few).
 
Markandkim, I'm gonna need a bit more than "you need a new card" to want t fork over $200 for a card I might not need.

Gary, unfortunately I do not have a thermal gun, but I could go get one, as I has more than just this use. I'm also going to talk to the person I bought the coach from to see if he can ahead more light on the situation. That happens this weekend. Thank you for all of your help and suggestions so far.

Do you know if there is a product to insulate the tanks better than son foam and a blanket?
 
Insulation should not be an issue - the factory foam should be plenty sufficient.  I've seen from "blankets" made for the marine version of the Atwood, but that mostly just a difference in pre-cutting to fit.  You can buy water heater insulating material in most any home or plumbing store. Or Amazon or Ebay.
 
Let us know when you have changed out the card and it is working perfectly again.

Looking forward to seeing you resolve this sooner rather than later.
 
There was a turn in the dilemma of my hot water heater. This morning while sitting on the couch, I hear the tank fire up, usual now, but instead of just hearing the roar of the burner, I hear clicking. It sounded like the D.S.I. was not shutting down after the fire was going. I turn off the tank and redirect. Same thing. To make a long story short, I remove the card, clean the terminals and reinstall. Same issue. I pull the wire for the D.S.I. as it is still running, but the clicking continues, only softer. I immediately shut down the system, and remove the card once again. This time I do a thorough inspection of the card and find that the spark terminal has a busted weld. Upon resoldering, the tank works as what I believe is as intended. I've timed the startup S at over an hour apart, with burns lasting 4 minutes.
 
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