Atwood hot water heater wont work

[Gottahaveit]

Water heater has been perfect until tonight. We were on propane for a few weeks and then on electric for the past few. Worked perfectly fine this AM and just tried to wash some stuff and no hot water. Checked the breakers etc. When I tried on gas nothing and the light does not even light up saying there is a problem. It's late tonight but just trying to get some thoughts when morning comes. Has not given any indication of any problems until just now. Does not work on gas or electric at this point. Ergggg

[Gottahaveit]

Almost hate to admit what the actual problem was but it may help someone in the future. We had enough experienced folks with us so we now know how to fix any problem with a water heater. All the men finally thought it was the thermostat so we replaced it. Humm hot water tank was hot but no hot water in the rig. OKKKK guess what..somehow the bypass valve got knocked when flushing and that was the problem. Lesson learned by all of us. Now we know pretty much how to fix it when we really need to. The good part is it kept the guys busy for a few hours :S

[BFL13]

Suburban WH have the little electric switch outside and also the inside switch for 120 to it. Maybe they thought you have a Suburban.

[Ride_S40T]

Perfect timing of this thread. Not to hijack the thread but our 2019 TT water heater stopped working on electric (only).

Took it to dealership and they say "you need to have both switches on" for it to work on electric. Of course it will give hot water, the gas will take over when there's no shore power or the electric element isn't working.

Manual says we just need the electric on to heat the tank and that it will take 1 to 1 1/2 hours to heat the water. 2 hours into our trip last week, no hot water being on just electric.

Dometic manual only mentions using the electric switch to generate hot water...and then wait a long time.

Is the tech at the dealership correct or am I missing something?

Thanks for any insight you can share.

[Gjac]

I would start by checking the voltage on the brown wire to see if it has 12 volts. If so remove the thermal fuse and connect the brown wire and connect it to the tstat directly. If it works you know it was the thermal fuse. If it still will not light remove the multi pin plug at the control board and clean connection. If you do those things and let us know what you found you will get it fixed.

[RJsfishin]

No ac or dc, sounds like a control board problem ??

In a desperate situation, you can hot wire the gas valve, light it w/ a striker,
and set a timer for 30-45 minutes, then disconnect. Caution,...this bypasses every safety feature, (except the pressure relief valve) so DO AT YOUR OWN RISK !!

[Dusty_R]

A guy came into our RV park a couple weeks ago, here in Florida, and his water in his 5th wheel would not stay lit. Found that it was on bypass, no water in the water heater.

[72cougarxr7]

Have you checked your 12v fuses?

[wa8yxm]

If the fuse link goes or hte ECO it will fire the FAULT light

Is there any light at all of any kind? THe unit needs 12 volts to work and that is what lights lights

[rk911]

JusBud wrote:
Any luck?
Isn't there a fusible link on the heater?
I forget the exact name. It has the spade terminals and goes from the "stat" to the control board

yes, it’s called a thermal cutoff. it connects between the brown wire and the TSTAT terminal. ours blew last year so i pulled it out until i could replace it and simply connected the brown wire directly to the TSTAT terminal.

[JusBud]

Any luck?
Isn't there a fusible link on the heater?
I forget the exact name. It has the spade terminals and goes from the "stat" to the control board