Atwood water heater problem

[Teleman]

I've had issues with the water heater not igniting. I cleaned the contacts on the motherboard multipin connector surface and that worked for a while and then I had to repeat this again. It worked for a while more but now it's not helping. My concern is that repeated treatment with Emory paper may have worn the material down and a connection is broken. Or it could be something else. Anyway my inclination is to replace the igniter board. We're leaving on a short trip in two days. I have the option of running the generator to heat the water with 110 VAC or use the hot water produced when driving from the hoses coming from the engine's cooling system. Ideally I'd like to get the igniter board. Where can I get it? Would an Airstream dealer have it in stock? I'm passing one near Morgan Hill, CA on Monday. Our coach is a 2000 Airstream Land Yacht. It is the Atwood 91367 circuit board. Appears to be fairly common.

[Teleman]

enblethen wrote:
I installed a ground wire from the control board ground connection to the ground wire connection on the gas valve mounting bolt.
I do not trust sheet metal screws for a good ground connection.

Good idea.

[enblethen]

I installed a ground wire from the control board ground connection to the ground wire connection on the gas valve mounting bolt.
I do not trust sheet metal screws for a good ground connection.

[Teleman]

Removed the ground screw, cleaned the surfaces, reinstalled it and she fired right up!

[Teleman]

larry cad wrote:
All of the above are good suggestions, but here are couple more:

1. The ground wire is critical for proper operation and must have a clean connection to ground. That connections frequently gets corroded under the head of the screw that holds the wire to the furnace. Just taking the screw out and reinstalling it works sometimes. A better fix is to clean the metal surface and the wire/screw with a wire brush and then reinstall. Be sure it is tight.

2. If you have cleaned the electrical connections on the board with emory cloth, you may have cleaned off the connection surface too. A simple repair is to use a solder gun and silver solder to restore those surfaces. Just heat up the gun or iron, and melt some silver solder onto the strips. I have done this in the past and it does work.

I would try the ground wire first.

I think that's what happened.

[Teleman]

Thank you for all the helpful suggestions. I will get busy following through with them.

[enblethen]

You can call Dinosaur and find who on your route stocks your board.
Dinosaur electronics

[JimK-NY]

I still have the manual that came with my 2004 Atwood water heater. The manual includes a warning to avoid changing the circuit board except as a last resort. Cleaning connectors and cleaning the ignitor and adjusting the gap might help temporarily when the ignitor starts to fail. When the heater fails to light or lights and shuts off, it is time for a new ignitor. It is cheap, quick and easy to replace and is very likely to solve the issue.

[larry_cad]

All of the above are good suggestions, but here are couple more:

1. The ground wire is critical for proper operation and must have a clean connection to ground. That connections frequently gets corroded under the head of the screw that holds the wire to the furnace. Just taking the screw out and reinstalling it works sometimes. A better fix is to clean the metal surface and the wire/screw with a wire brush and then reinstall. Be sure it is tight.

2. If you have cleaned the electrical connections on the board with emory cloth, you may have cleaned off the connection surface too. A simple repair is to use a solder gun and silver solder to restore those surfaces. Just heat up the gun or iron, and melt some silver solder onto the strips. I have done this in the past and it does work.

I would try the ground wire first.

[craig7h]

Last year I had a problem with the water heater. Cleaned all of the 12v connections, took the propane tube off cleaned it out, (you may want to do that critters like to hide in there) still did not work. I changed the circuit board and still did not work. Come to find out my problem was the igniter wire. Most of the wire strands were broken. New igniter wire great water heater operation.

Good Luck

[Teleman]

I see there's a Camping World on the way. I suppose I can check there.

[Teleman]

enblethen wrote:
You can get Dinosaur electronics circuit boards from Amazon.

[enblethen]

You can get Dinosaur electronics circuit boards from Amazon.