My Father-in-law has a 2002 Minnie Winnie motor home with a Atwood electronic ignition water heater.
For a while it was working intermittently, now not at all. Yesterday we got it to fire after blowing the tube and ignition area out with compressed air, today it won't fire at all.
Any ideas? Could it be the board that's bad? How do we go about diagnosing this?
If you can provide some more specific symptoms, you might get more specific help.
THe sequence should go like this:
1. When the switch is thrown the DSI light comes on your panel. This is important because you want to make sure that 12 volts is getting to the control board and that is the first indicator.
2. Assuming that the sequence actually start, you should be able to hear the igniter clicking. If it is trying to light, there should be a whiff of at the WH with the outside door open. Knowing that the igniter is working or not and whether there is a small of propane help in diagnosing the problem. If there is no whiff of propane, a small spider web could be blocking the gas orifice, for example. The orifice can be removed from the gas valve but should never be cleaned with anything metal. If there is no clicking, it is pretty much down to the igniter or the control board (assuming that there is actually 12 volts present.) BTW, the 12 volts comes from the house batteries so an intermittent failure to light could be the result of weak house batteries.
You should also verify that the stove will fire at two burners on high with solid blue flames. That assures that there is a good flow of propane, but doesn't necessarily guarantee that it is getting to the WH.
My WH failed to light last year. The igniter was working, the flame actually started but would die a couple of seconds later. It was clear that the gas valve was being shut down because the control board wasn't getting "flame sense", another function of the igniter. I bought both the igniter and the control board, hoping that it was the much cheaper igniter. It wasn't.
The WH was working like I said intermittently for a while. It now won't do anything, we don't even here the click. I did notice a bit of a propane smell when we turned it on, but no clicking from the ignitor. The light on the panel is on so it is getting power. Also earlier today they did have both burners going on the stove. We also blew the tube and burner area out with compressed air so i doubt it's a spider web, that was our first thought.
Also yesterday after we got it to fire it would not re-fire when it should of.
We are suspecting a board or ignitor also, just wondering if we should order the parts or take it to the dealer for repairs.
The one and only time mine would not light, moisture had collected on the dust on the electronic potted circuit board, the black one with the Red high voltage wire coming out of the center and going to the spark rod. The damp dust was shorting that red wire to ground, and stopping it from igniting. All I had to do was take a dry paper towel and wipe off the circuit board, and no more problem.
Its worth a try.
2001 27' Four Winds Class-C E-450 V-10.
Buick Park Ave Ultra, Ford Ranger PU, JD 500 backhoe.
1941 Farm All "A"
I wouldn't rush off to do anything just yet. If you aren't getting any igniter, I'd try using a pencil eraser to clean all of the contacts on the control board. Remove the connector and rub the erase on the board itself. Next, check to make sure that you have good connections for the igniter and physically inspect it. My furnace igniter had too much of a gap. Clean the area around the igniter mount when you put it back. I agree with Cool Mike about making sure that the igniter wire isn't shorting out.
Neither the board nor the igniter are hard to install. The cost is the problem. Ordering the board on line, you probably want to go with a Dinosaur brand rather than the original Atwood brand and they are going to be around $120. I think my igniter local retail was $27. The dealer will have labor charges in addition to the parts. The risk you run by putting them in yourself is that the WH doesn't work when you are done because you had a different cause that the dealer "may" have found and saved you the parts costs. For me, that risk would be wash.
First off, the only board connection I see is one in the upper right of the panel when looking at the WH from the outside access door. Looks to have 5 or 6 contact areas on the one plug there. We tried cleaning that with a pencil eraser, but that didn't help.
Where is the board exactly? Is that one connection part of it? It looks like you can take out two small screws and maybe pull it out. Unfortunately they are going home to Eugene tomorrow and I will be headed back to Portland so I may have to talk him through this over the phone or he may just take it in. If it was mine I would order the parts and take my chance.
I think I will check the gap on the igniter in the morning if I have time. My wife has been a bit under the weather so I may not have time before we pull out in the morning.
My suggestion is to make sure the voltage is up around 12.5+ and make sure the ground for the heater is clean, I’d even start at the battery(s) and then the frame ground. I call this step # 1 as all other suggestions, though good can easily fail if either of these are below good condition. I recently had a very flaky thermostat, though fairly new, go bad. This can be checked if your up to it by carefully pulling the 2 thermostat wires off and carefully not allowing any contact with other metal, jump the wires with something like a small bent paper clip. If it works change the thermostat. It could also be the wire connectors on the thermostat have corrosion buildup which will lower the voltage enough so it will appear the contacts inside appear open and not fire off.
I would search the Tech Forum and repost your woes there. You'll get responses from a bigger group, not just the class C crowd. You'll also see my similar water heater story there.....all fixed now, BTW.
I would search the Tech Forum and repost your woes there. You'll get responses from a bigger group, not just the class C crowd. You'll also see my similar water heater story there.....all fixed now, BTW.
Find the spark rod, and follow the wire back to the circuit board. With you watching the spark rod have someone turn it on inside, and see if its sparking, if it is and no burner comes on you have a no gas problem. But if you dont get any sparking, you have a power problem or the control board is damp and dirty, or bad, (rather common) that's the $125. board.
Offline
