Water heater problems....

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mattcoker17

Active member
Joined
Sep 19, 2017
Posts
29
Location
Northern Ca
Hello all,

I have a 2015 Jayco White Hawk Ultralite trailer and just had an issue with the water heater.  I pulled into our site and fired it up.  All was great.  About 15 minutes later, it shut off and would not restart.  I let it rest overnight and still nothing.  I even hooked up the genny and tried the electric option.  Nope did not work.

Anyone know how to fix this thing without having to let the RV guy charge me?
 
It would help to know the brand & model water heater you have.

If it's a Suburban there are two resettable thermostatic switches under the black foam.  Hold them both down to reset them.  You do not need to remove the foam.

If it's an Atwood there may be a thermo-fuse that is not resettable but it's easy enough to wire around.  It's the electronic part encased in a plastic tube.  Looks like a diode.
 
I'm pretty sure it's an Attwood.  But I am not at home to look at it right now.  Is it safe to "wire around" safety features?  I'm not opposed to it, but don't want a fire or something of the sort. 
 
If the photo works, the one pictured is almost exactly what mine looks like.
 

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Atwood. the thermo-fuse Matt referred to is almost dead center of the pic, in the clear tubing.  Whoever owns the one in the pic needs to remove the plastic plug from the pressure relief valve. I like their drain set-up though, as long as the hose has the temperature rating.
 
kdbgoat said:
Whoever owns the one in the pic needs to remove the plastic plug from the pressure relief valve. I like their drain set-up though, as long as the hose has the temperature rating.

I've always left mine in just so bugs don't decide to take up residency. It the valve should lift, the plug will blow out. It's not in tight at all.
The only thing wrong with the drain set up is that I would forget to flush out the heater. When I use to remove the plug to winterize, I would also flush out the tank with a wand.
 
If the plug is loose, that's not a problem. I've seen them so tight, they fit better than a threaded plug. I agree with the flushing, but sometimes I just want to drain the water out for a short time.
 
So....

Easy fix i guess.  I just ordered parts for new thermostat and thermocoupler from amazon to 29.00 delivered.  no tool required to replace.  We'll see if it does the trick!
 
The one in the photo is an Atwood all right You can tell in two ways. Though only one is clear in the photo.

The control board (the big black box with wires attached) in the uppper right is an Atwood Control board

The label on the far right (Which is not clear) will tell you for absolute. also give the nodel number.

Atwoods there are two T-Stats and a thermal fuse
one stat is behind the black foam where it says ECO. the other where it says T-Stat (Another way to tell it is an Atwood by the way).

IF the ECO (Emergency cut out) opens you get a FAULT light

My guess. is bad control board. but I stress it is a guess. No way to wire around that one.

Dinosaur board time.

Check for 12 volts on the incoming power lead though before you do anything else.
 
It also doesn't have a switch in the lower left for electric operation that a Suburban has.
 
Atwoods are prone to getting corrosion on the contacts.  Sometimes simply removing every connector you can get at and cleaning them off with a pencil eraser does the trick.  Sometime just moving the connector around works too.

The thermal fuse is easily tested with an ohmmeter.  Should be 0 ohms.  Another easy way to test it is to simply remove it (temporarily) and connect the wires together.

My Atwood will blow the thermal fuse whenever I use AC and gas at the same time.  I carry spares.
 
If the thermal fuse. or ECO open the FAULT light should (light that is).
In fact you can test teh fault light by pulling the red wire off the ECO.

Of course if the circuit board is bad. it might not light the fault light since it controls next to everything.
 
While the thermal cutoff, ECO and thermostat are possible causes, I'm betting that mattcoker17 is going to be back here looking for more help.  My money is on either an open wire on the thermostat loop, a loss of 12v power to the circuit board, or a failed board.

A simple continuity check (ohms function on a multimeter) would have proved or disproved the thermal cut-off, ECO and thermostat functional state. The cutoff is normally closed and the ECO & thermostat are closed when the heater is below 140 degrees.
 
Gary RV_Wizard said:
While the thermal cutoff, ECO and thermostat are possible causes, I'm betting that mattcoker17 is going to be back here looking for more help.  My money is on either an open wire on the thermostat loop, a loss of 12v power to the circuit board, or a failed board.

A simple continuity check (ohms function on a multimeter) would have proved or disproved the thermal cut-off, ECO and thermostat functional state. The cutoff is normally closed and the ECO & thermostat are closed when the heater is below 140 degrees.

I agree. Doesn't make much sense to just throw parts at the problem hoping to fix it. Do a little troubleshooting first with our experts guiding you the entire way.
 

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