Water Heater Gas only no electric......Help

[limechild]

Your heater will have both a thermostat and an emergency cut off (ECO) to control the electric. Older Atwoods have a separate thermostat for the electric heater but newer ones share one thermostat for both modes. There is a seprate ECO for each.  I'm confident that a 2004 is the shared thermostat type, which means there is a switching relay controlled by the heater's main circuit board. The relay switches 120vac power on/off when the board gets the "heat needed" signal from the shared thermostat. Note that you must have 12v power to the heater circuit board to enable the circuit board to activate 120vac heating. Make sure that you have 12v power and the circuit board is working before you decide the relay or ECO is bad.

As Alfa says, you need to identify the heater make and exact model to get the right parts. Many control parts are shared among several models, but not all of them.

I have never had a 12v battery hooked up to my camper.  I was told I didn't need it.  I have or had used the water heater with electric for over 2 years(summers) till it broke last summer.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

You don't need a battery if you are plugged to shore power and your onboard converter is working. It supplies 12v in lieu of a battery.  Your converter might be working but still no 12v power to the heater control board, e.g. a blown fuse. You want to rule out simple causes before buying expensive parts.

 

[limechild]

I think after I installed the new element I turned power back on before tank was full. Then the hi temp fuse thing that I took a picture of blew. 

Im going to check a RV dealership in Farmington ME tomorrow for the part that blew.

Thanks for all the help guys,
LimeChild

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Turning on power before there is water in the tank will burn out the element and/or maybe trip the supply circuit breaker. It should not cause the ECO (overheat limiter) to blow because the tank doesn't get hot when the element burns out.

 

[Rene T]

I would pull the element and check that first. They're available at most hardware store.