{"id":21748,"date":"2010-01-16T01:34:05","date_gmt":"2010-01-16T08:34:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/travelswithmiranda.uskeba.ca\/?p=4222"},"modified":"2016-09-13T16:21:34","modified_gmt":"2016-09-13T13:21:34","slug":"water-heater-woes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/water-heater-woes\/","title":{"rendered":"Water Heater Woes"},"content":{"rendered":"

My water heater stopped working earlier this week. It’s an Atwood model with electronic ignition. When I hit the switch to start it up, the propane ignites and then the heater shuts off.<\/p>\n

I took my problem to the Escapees forum<\/a> where someone I trust to be an RVing and electricity expert gave me advice on how to troubleshoot. He warned me that while there were some simple things I could check first, my symptoms indicate that the heater needs a new circuit board.<\/p>\n

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Water heater access compartment. The circuit board is up in the top right corner.<\/p><\/div>\n

The issue is heat detection. There is a ceramic probe in the path of the flame which is linked by wire to the circuit board. If the board does not receive a signal that heat is present, it will shut off.<\/p>\n

Following the expert’s instructions, I cleaned the lead and connector for that wire. I had been instructed to clean and replace the probe if it seemed burnt, but it was still snowy white, so that wasn’t the problem. I turned on the heater and it worked for a short time before shutting off again. I then turned it back on to go see what was happening at the panel level, arriving just as the heater once again shut off. I just tapped that connecting wire and the heater kicked on for a nanosecond, effectively isolating the problem to a specific place, the circuit board, as well as confirming that the probe was well in the flame.<\/p>\n

I posted my findings to the forum and am still waiting for a reply from the expert. Someone else chimed in and told me to make sure connections are tight. I did so and that significantly improved the heater’s performance: it heated up a whole tank of water before shutting off and refusing to restart. I really don’t think I dodged the bullet as to replacing the circuit board, but at least my hour’s tinkering this morning will be rewarded with a hot shower in my own home tonight. That’s more progress than I usually make when working on a problem like this.<\/p>\n

Rather than purchasing a new Atwood circuit board, I will be going with one manufactured by Dinosaur Electronics<\/a>, as recommended by the expert, because they have a three year warranty vs. Atwood’s one year warranty. Dinosaur does not sell at the retail level, so I will need to find a Canadian supplier. The American supplier who was recommended to me sells the circuit board for 95USD, plus shipping by UPS (which I prefer to not deal with), plus customs and brokerage fees. I will do some research for a Canadian supplier; Dinosaur says they exist but there is very little information on the matter on their site.<\/p>\n

Miranda’s turned twelve in December so I had better get used to her systems failing one by one…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My water heater stopped working earlier this week. It’s an Atwood model with electronic ignition. When I hit the switch to start it up, the propane ignites and then the heater shuts off. I took my problem to the Escapees forum where someone I trust to be an RVing and electricity expert gave me advice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1442,1085,632,635,5,9,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-britishcolumbia","category-campbell-river-vancouver-island-bc-canada-travel-bc-canada-travel","category-canada","category-north-america","category-rving","category-tech","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21748\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}